Administrative Preparedness for Robotic Surgical Automation: A Conceptual Framework for Healthcare Management

Robotic surgical systems have advanced from assisted devices to semi-autonomous platforms capable of independent procedural actions. Yet healthcare organizations continue to manage these systems as conventional capital equipment, creating a widening gap between technological capability and administrative readiness. This paper argues that the dominant bottleneck in realizing value from surgical robotics is not clinical capability but managerial unpreparedness. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory, high-reliability organization principles, and dynamic capabilities frameworks, we propose that surgical robotics should be conceptualized as a complex adaptive system requiring coordinated governance across six interdependent domains: strategic oversight, financial management, workforce configuration, operational integration, risk and liability structures, and data governance. We introduce the Robotic Surgical Administrative Readiness (RSAR) framework to guide organizational assessment and strategic planning. Synthesizing recent literature on surgical robotics integration, the paper concludes that failures in robotic surgery will increasingly be managerial failures, and that healthcare technology management must evolve from a support function to a strategic governance role. We outline a research agenda for empirical validation and discuss policy implications for accreditation and capital oversight.