Title: Resilience of healthcare systems and pandemics: a systematic literature review

Authors: Ankur Gupta; Alok Pandey; Anureet Kaur; Puja Bansal

Addresses: School of Management, GD Goenka University, Gurugram, Haryana, India ' School of Management, GD Goenka University, Gurugram, Haryana, India ' School of Management, GD Goenka University, Gurugram, Haryana, India ' Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, Haryana, India

Abstract: This paper presents a review of literature on resilience of healthcare systems during pandemics. Previous studies explain the resilience of healthcare systems as the capacity of a system to bounce back from an adverse event such as a pandemic. We have reviewed 35 articles published on the issue during the last five years (2018-2022) from different countries, both developed and developing. Most researchers have undertaken studies in this area and have conceptualised resilience of health systems with respect to infrastructure development, safety, awareness, connectivity, self-regulation, adaptability, integrity, disaster management, inventory and stock management of essential supplies, quality of services, community involvement, reactive capabilities and risk management. The aim of this paper is to describe how healthcare system resilience is defined and prepare an introductory conceptual review as a preliminary step for further studies. This paper helps us in identifying the key research themes that characterise the inquiry around resilience in the context of a healthcare system during and post COVID-19 and also the structural improvements and characteristics to improve the competence of a healthcare system to deem it resilient during pandemics.

Keywords: resilience; pandemic; healthcare sector; review; adaptability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2023.133542

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2023 Vol.9 No.1, pp.29 - 43

Received: 28 Feb 2023
Accepted: 17 Apr 2023
Published online: 19 Sep 2023 *

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