Purpose: This study explores the dynamics of patient transfers within the Polish healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the roles of negotiation, boundary work and systemic flexibility. Despite extensive literature on patient transfers, gaps remain in understanding the general mechanisms that complicate these processes, especially under crisis conditions. Design/methodology/approach: By interviewing 18 specialists across various medical fields, our research provides empirical evidence from Poland, highlighting the experiences of medical practitioners who navigated the complex landscape of patient transfers during the pandemic. Findings: By integrating negotiation and boundary work theories, we reveal how healthcare professionals manage patient flows and the challenges they face. Our findings show that during the unique situation caused by the uncertainties and lack of preparedness for the pandemic, while standardization and rationalization tools have limited effectiveness, proactive involvement and strategic negotiation are crucial for successful patient management. Research limitations/implications: The study's primary limitation is its focus solely on the Polish healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may not fully represent other contexts or healthcare systems. Originality/value: The study underscores the importance of communication and interpersonal skills in facilitating patient transfers. We also argue that the previous experiences with negotiating orders, dealing with limited resources and making constant compromises had, in a way, built resilience in Polish medical experts and prepared them for the uncertainties encountered while treating COVID-19 patients. These insights contribute to academic theories and offer practical recommendations for enhancing healthcare system resilience and adaptability in future crises. Ultimately, the study emphasizes that flexibility and strategic negotiation are key to managing patient transfers in a fragmented and complex healthcare environment. © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.

In studies on professions, it has long been understood that relations between professions are charged with competition over jurisdictions. The literature describes several techniques, such as rhetorical boundary-work, that professionals use to expand jurisdictions, gain a monopoly, or protect autonomy. But there still needs to be discovered how professionals cooperate when they are not motivated or threatened by jurisdictional struggle. In this article, we offer an analysis of COVID-19 wards in Poland, where physicians from diverse specialisations were made to work together and treat patients with coronavirus disease. That allows us to expand theoretical debate about professions by showing that in a context free of competition, boundaries between professions become permeable. © 2023 The European Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences.

The article investigates organisational drivers and restrainers of innovation in hospitals on the background of different institutional logics. It presents evidence from a multiple case study in Polish hospitals, which reveals different dynamics on the micro-, meso- and macro-level of organisations in enabling and implementing new procedures and technologies. In particular, the study documents an ambiguous influence of medical professionalism as a specific logic in the healthcare sector, which can affect innovation positively as well as negatively. The article therefore proposes a managerial framework based in innovation action commitment to control the effects of professionalism in healthcare. © The Author(s) 2022.

This chapter researches the reconfiguration of business models and ecosystems in relation to decoupling and resilience in the context of data-driven technologies via conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). New data-driven technologies have been largely introduced to different sectors. Digitalisation may lead to disruptive changes in any industry, including creating or entering new business models, lowering or changing entry barriers into markets and enabling the breakup of sectorial silos. Although the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated significantly the digitalisation of the healthcare sector, innovation adoption in the sector proceeds slower than in most other industries. This chapter reviews systematically the existing literature on this area and develops a research agenda aiming at answering the pre-set research question: To address the research question, an SLR methodology has been applied to provide insights, critical reflections, managerial implications and research road maps for future research. The chapter identifies the potential benefits of the use of data-driven technology in healthcare at organisational, institutional, ethical and macro-level dimensions. It discusses the adoption of digitalisation and healthcare management practices to enhance data-driven outcomes. Based on the conducted literature review and the bibliometric analysis of articles included in the chapter, an integrative conceptual framework for digital healthcare is suggested. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Svetla T. Marinova and Marin A. Marinov; individual chapters, the contributors