Collaborazione e competizione nel Servizio sanitario nazionale: evidenze empiriche nella Regione Abruzzo

In recent years, important reforms have been introduced within the Italian National health system to improve efficiency and quality by increasing competition among providers. The aim of this study is to provide evidence of the existence of simultaneous cooperation and competition amongst community hospitals in one large Italian Region. Patient discharge notes over a five-year period were used to derive patient flows, which were combined to calculate the extent of competition and collaboration among hospitals surveyed. We found that cooperation and competition coexist, rather than being conceptualized as mutually exclusive phenomena.