Title: Readiness assessment for change in primary healthcare due to COVID-19 pandemic

Authors: Albi Thomas; M. Suresh

Addresses: Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore-641112, India ' Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore-641112, India

Abstract: The primary objective of this paper is to develop an assessment framework for readiness for change in Primary Healthcare due to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to improve daily routine operations. The conceptual framework is developed with three enablers, ten criteria and 58 attributes. Multi-grade fuzzy is used for readiness assessment and an importance performance analysis (IPA) approach is used for classification of attributes. The readiness index of the case primary health centre is nine and also 13 weaker attributes were identified to improve the index further. This assessment framework will help the healthcare managers to increase the readiness level for change in their operations to face the COVID-19 challenges.

Keywords: primary healthcare; readiness for change; COVID-19 era; hospital operations; multi-grade fuzzy; importance performance analysis; IPA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2023.132859

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2023 Vol.45 No.4, pp.552 - 568

Received: 21 Feb 2021
Accepted: 22 May 2021
Published online: 13 Aug 2023 *

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