International Hospital Federation (IHF) Rolls Out Response Efforts to COVID-19

The International Hospital Federation {(IHF) Bernex, Switzerland} has rolled out response efforts to COVID-19 using knowledge-based resources that are accessible and relevant to its stakeholders such as member organizations, industry partners and the general public.

The IHF is an international not for profit, non-governmental membership organization with its
members including worldwide hospitals and healthcare organizations having a distinct relationship with the provision of healthcare. The IHF provides them with a platform for the exchange of knowledge and strategic experience as well as opportunities for international collaborations with different actors in the health sector. The IHF recognizes the essential role of hospitals and health care organizations in providing health care, supporting health services and offering education. Its role is to help international hospitals work towards improving the level of the services they deliver to the population with the primary goal of improving the health of society.

As the number of reported COVID-19 cases escalates around the world, the statistics of recovery and death rate illustrate a factsheet among nations providing a glimpse of response efforts made.

Healthcare organizations in each country have quickly responded to controlling the outbreak by utilizing expertise, resources and cooperation. At national level, approaches and strategies vary among countries that have been applied in human resources, hospital operations, policy development, supply chain, and other aspects.


The IHF is offering the general public four knowledge-sharing channels: online resources, social media campaign, podcast series, and webinar series. IHF online resources allows users to explore facts and figures of COVID-19, and acts as a one-stop exchange for information-sharing of response efforts of healthcare organizations, international government organizations, national government, and academic institutions. Specific topics like staffing, supply chain, equipment, and best practices can be browsed.

IHF’s social media campaign, #TOGETHERAGAINSTCOVID, is in recognition of the response efforts in the global healthcare community where stories, voices and thoughts can be shared aiming to chronicle the learnings in the journey of the main actors like leaders, decision-makers, managers, owners, and medical professionals. IHF’s podcast series, Leading Through COVID-19, includes episodes on leadership-themed topics to be discussed by experts in the global healthcare community. The conversations are focused on approaches and strategies in leading a healthcare organization amid pandemic crisis.

Working towards healthcare excellence, the IHF and its members are using knowledge-based resources like webinars to educate the public audience on country experiences. Such learnings from the healthcare leaders are expected to disseminate invaluable lessons from which decision-makers, senior managers, and hospital owners can be benefitted. To better understand the response efforts of healthcare organizations, the IHF has collaborated with chief executive officers to discuss action plans and its results in their respective country of operations. IHF’s webinar series on COVID-19 mitigation features healthcare leaders from Austria, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Viewers can join the live discussion on the broadcast date of each presentation allowing them to meet the speakers and ask questions. Its recorded webinars can be viewed on the YouTube channel of IHF providing accessibility to future reference.

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The International Hospital Federation (IHF)