How platform-based internet hospital innovation affects doctors’ active stress coping efforts: The conservation of resource theory perspective

Abstract

Doctor's effort of active stress coping is a key factor for keeping stability of healthcare system in the COVID pandemic. The Internet hospital breaks through the boundaries and expands external resources of the physical hospital, but brings doctors stress and challenges. However, it is not clear how Internet hospital innovation affects doctors' active stress coping effort. To address this question, based on conservation of resource theory (COR), we explore the issue and examine the model through a face-to-face situational investigation of 174 doctors from 66 Internet hospitals with complete online service functions in China. The results show that the personal characteristics and energy resources provided by platform-based hospital will promote doctors to actively respond to stress. The increase in object and condition resources will lead to doctors' avoidance of coping with stress in the short term, but help doctors to actively cope with stress in the long term. We extend the COR theory by considering platform-based feature of Internet hospital and suggest that hospital should continue to promote technological innovation for its long-term benefits. This study contributes to the growing literature on platform-based healthcare innovation and its non-economic benefits for healthcare professionals.