The impact of health policy and organisational models on Italian hospital productivity growth

Abstract The rapid increase in healthcare costs has drawn the attention of managers and policymakers towards regulating health expenditures: many countries have implemented deep reforms to improve efficiency and productivity in the provision of health services. In Italy, the central government has introduced austerity measures, called recovery plans, to force the administrative regions to reduce healthcare deficits. In this study, we first evaluate the impact of these recovery plans on hospitals’ productivity by calculating the Malmquist productivity index using data envelopment analysis. Next, we regress the obtained productivity index and its components on a set of explanatory variables to capture the impact of the austerity measures, the moderating role of the regional organisational models, the variation in hospitals’ size and management autonomy and the capital intensity. The data used to estimate productivity were for an extensive period – from 2006 to 2018. The results could contribute to assessing the increase in the productivity of hospitals and the influence of government policies on the same.