Increasing the Governance Standards of Public-Private Partnerships in Healthcare. Evidence from Italy

Healthcare systems have changed rapidly in the past few decades due to increasing healthcare costs and decreasing governmental budgets. The structural complexity, huge numbers of actors and long-term relationships inherent to PPPs bring out several governance issues. Based on the principles of good governance for PPPs published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 2008, we try to answer the following research question: How can the governance standards of PPPs be increased? This paper aims to explore issues of governance, management and policy design as they apply to PPPs in healthcare services. The evidence from a single case-study (the New Mestre Hospital) is presented and discussed. The main findings are that, despite its great success, the analysed PPP does have some governance problems that need to be addressed. Concluding remarks and insights for future research directions are then presented.