The effects of resilience-oriented workspace interventions: combining social network analysis and organizational quality indicators

Although it is known that workspace influences the performance of healthcare teams, there is scarce evidence regarding how to evaluate its implications for resilient performance. This study demonstrates an integrated approach for evaluating the effects of relocating three acute response teams responsible for the same patients - the rapid response team (RRT), medical on-call team (MOC), and nursing supervision (NS) - from separate rooms to a shared workspace. The intervention was evaluated using two complementary sources of evidence. First, social network analysis surveys were conducted before and after the intervention with the same 30 participants. The surveys mapped advice-seeking relationships from which 22 social network metrics were derived. Second, seven organizational quality indicators were analyzed before and after the intervention. Five quality and 12 network indicators showed statistically significant improvements; except for two social network metrics, all 27 indicators changed in the expected direction for improvement. Notably, reciprocity between teams, which is crucial for resilience, increased substantially - e.g., RRT↔MOC increased from 57.5% to 80.0%. Changes in collaboration patterns and quality indicators provided complementary evidence that the conditions supporting resilient performance were enhanced. The evaluation approach can be adapted to other resilience-oriented interventions in which relational dynamics and patient safety are crucial.