The start of the COVID-19 pandemic early 2020 has confronted healthcare sectors with risks and uncertainties on an unprecedented scale in recent history. Healthcare organisations faced acute problems, the answers to which had to be provided, and recalibrated, at short notice and informally. University hospitals played a pivotal role in providing these answers and in (re)calibrating institutional arrangements. Based on ethnographic research in an elite university hospital in the Netherlands, in this article we explore the concrete practices of governing risks and uncertainties that COVID-19 posed for the organisation of healthcare. Our fieldwork consisted of the observation of meetings at the level of the hospital boards, the staff, and the regional level. We collected relevant documents and interviewed key-actors. This approach offers us a large dataset on acute risk governance ‘from within’ and allows us to offer a layered ethnographic account of managerial practices. In our analysis we focus on conceptualising the work-as-done in the university hospital as risk work. We show how the risk work of our participants is generally characterised by high speed and delineated by scarcities. We differentiate between three modes of risk work: working on numbers, working on expertise and working on logistics. This risk work appears innovative, but our analysis stresses how participants’ work happened in interaction with traditional institutional logics and routines.

2020 年初 COVID-19 大流行的开始使医疗保健行业面临着近期历史上前所未有的风险和不确定性。医疗保健组织面临着严峻的问题，必须在短时间内以非正式的方式提供和重新校准答案。大学医院在提供这些答案和（重新）校准制度安排方面发挥了关键作用。基于在荷兰一所精英大学医院进行的人种学研究，在本文中，我们探讨了治理 COVID-19 对医疗保健组织构成的风险和不确定性的具体做法。我们的实地考察包括观察医院董事会、员工和地区层面的会议。我们收集了相关文件并采访了主要演员。这种方法为我们提供了一个关于“从内部”的急性风险治理的大型数据集，并使我们能够提供管理实践的分层人种学帐户。在我们的分析中，我们专注于将大学医院中完成的工作概念化为风险工作。我们展示了参与者的风险工作通常以高速为特征并以稀缺性为特征。我们区分三种风险工作模式：数字工作、专业知识工作和物流工作。这项风险工作似乎具有创新性，但我们的分析强调参与者的工作如何与传统的制度逻辑和惯例相互作用。在我们的分析中，我们专注于将大学医院中完成的工作概念化为风险工作。我们展示了参与者的风险工作通常以高速为特征并以稀缺性为特征。我们区分三种风险工作模式：数字工作、专业知识工作和物流工作。这项风险工作似乎具有创新性，但我们的分析强调参与者的工作如何与传统的制度逻辑和惯例相互作用。在我们的分析中，我们专注于将大学医院中完成的工作概念化为风险工作。我们展示了参与者的风险工作通常以高速为特征并以稀缺性为特征。我们区分三种风险工作模式：数字工作、专业知识工作和物流工作。这项风险工作似乎具有创新性，但我们的分析强调参与者的工作如何与传统的制度逻辑和惯例相互作用。