Insights into health sector governance in a turbulent environment – towards best-practice approach

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred at a high spreading rate with sudden pattern changes, high variability, and unpredictability. This generated uncertainty making it hard for authorities to predict, plan, and conventionally prepare preventive and suppressive actions. As a result, governments worldwide had to find new, more comprehensive, and complex solutions to manage the health sector in a turbulent environment. The paper’s main objective is to analyze different organizational practices that respond to the COVID-19 crisis regarding healthcare sector resilience and describe best practices. Health sector authorities should consider applying the “new mode of governance,” which refers to a policy not limited to a single approach with less hierarchy and formalism and with a flatter governance structure. Countries that have had more success in COVID-19 crisis suppression applied “dynamic resilience” with decentralization in decision-making, a more important role of front-line healthcare providers, high transparency, and flexibility enabling continuous adaptation to rapidly changing conditions.

Keywords: turbulent governance; crisis management; dynamic resilience; transformational leadership