Fenomeni di specializzazione in sanità. I risultati di una ricerca empirica

Health-care specialization in Italy is driven by New Public Management reforms. Hospitals responded to reforms changes by specializing in services. This research aims to study the tendency toward specialization in Italian health-care organizations. Hospital specialization was measured using the internal Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The study sample consists of 739 Italian public and private health-care providers for the years 2001 and 2005. Descriptive statistics showed that specialization increased during the examined period but differences in the specialization index trends were found for hospital location and ownership type. Healthcare organizations located in Central and North regions of Italy are more specialized than the ones located in the South. Over the time the specialization index increased more in private than in public health-care organizations.