Integration intrapreneurship: implementing innovation in a public healthcare organization

AIM: As global events impact the way organizations operate and innovate in response to regional, workforce and consumer needs, the concept of intrapreneurism is attracting growing interest from policymakers and executives, particularly within the healthcare sector. The aim of this study was to capture the key learnings from the implementation of a telementoring pilot, to understand how intrapreneurship can embed innovation within an established organization to effect more integrated healthcare. PURPOSE: A qualitative approach was used with a phenomenological lens to explore the key learnings of the Project ECHO(®) (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) pilot implementation to provide an understanding of what the project team’s strategies and tactics were during the process of embedding a new business innovation. The implementation and piloting of Project ECHO(®), a telementoring model, in a large-scale public healthcare organization in Queensland, Australia, was investigated as an exemplar of integration intrapreneurship. FINDINGS: Through an inductive approach, this qualitative study found the implementation of the Project ECHO(®) pilot had specific dimensions and strategies/tactics which were exemplars of intrapreneurism. The organizational context and workforce characteristics described in this study presented new knowledge of how intrapreneurs implemented an innovation to address fragmentation of healthcare service delivery, professional isolation and instances of low-value care. This research contributes to a better understanding of the strategic and tactical approaches to implementing intrapreneurial innovations within a public healthcare organization, with learnings that can be adapted by intrapreneurs in other contexts.