Achieving Digital-Driven Patient Agility in the Era of Big Data

There is still a limited understanding of the necessary skill, talent, and expertise to manage digital technologies as a crucial enabler of the hospital’s ability to adequately ‘sense’ and ‘respond’ to patient needs and wishes, i.e., patient agility. Therefore, this investigates how hospital departments can leverage a ‘digital dynamic capability’ to enable the department’s patient agility. This study embraces the dynamic capabilities theory, develops a research model, and tests it accordingly using data from 90 clinical hospital departments from the Netherlands through an online survey. The model’s hypothesized relationships are tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The outcomes demonstrate the significance of digital dynamic capability in developing patient sensing and responding capabilities that, in turn, positively influence patient service performance. Outcomes are very relevant for the hospital practice now, as hospitals worldwide need to transform healthcare delivery processes using digital technologies and increase clinical productivity.