Abstract
Worldwide most health systems are facing a series of common challenges characterized by the increasing
burden of chronic diseases and multimorbidity, and the accelerated pace of biomedical and technological
innovations, on the other side. There is a growing recognition that many changes are needed at the macro,
meso and micro management levels to tackle these challenges. Therefore, knowing if healthcare organizations
are ready for change is a key issue, as high organizational readiness for change (ORC) has been positively
related with higher organizational effort and staff motivation for overcoming barriers and setbacks in change
endeavours. In practice, readiness for change is not commonly measured and there is a need of adequate metrics
for it. In this commentary, a new tool for measuring readiness change is reviewed, the OR4KT. It has been
developed based on a solid theoretical background and with the involvement of experts and potential users
in the design and it has been tested and validated in three languages and in different organizational settings.
Although its generalizability needs to be further tested, it seems to be a promising and useful tool to diagnose
if organizations are ready to implement evidence-informed changes. A broader recognition of the key role that
the science of implementation can play in the success of much needed transformations in healthcare provides a
good opportunity for the dissemination of the OR4KT.