Dynamic analysis of interhospital collaboration and competition: Empirical evidence from an Italian regional health system

Don’t stand so close to me: competitive pressures, proximity and inter-organizational collaboration

“…the obligations of hospitals to reach a financial equilibrium and of their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to meet relative assessment criteria, the freedom for patients to choose their healthcare providers and the introduction of diagnosis-related groupings as the reimbursement system for services), this framework has required hospitals to attract greater numbers of patients from their local markets. The hybrid nature of this arrangement makes collaborative and competitive processes equally important for understanding the forces that shape the field in which hospitals operate (LOMI and PALLOTTI, 2012;MASCIA and DI VINCENZO, 2011;MASCIA et al, 2012). Hospitals do compete for patients as their basic resource; however, they are also required to coordinate their actions, operations and plans to serve the public interest and promote the patient's health.…”

“…Second, a wave of reforms implemented in many Western healthcare systems (COSTA-FONT and RICO, 2006;ROSS and TOMANEY, 2001) stressed competitive forces, potentially altering the collaborationcompetition interorganizational scenario (BARRETTA, 2008;LOMI and PALLOTTI, 2012;MASCIA and DI VINCENZO, 2011;MASCIA et al, 2012).…”

Effect of hospital referral networks on patient readmissions

“…The healthcare system in Abruzzo is characterized by a "quasimarket" institutional framework, designed to sustain the equity benefits of traditional public healthcare management and financing systems while reaping potential efficiency gains allowed by market competition (Lo Scalzo et al, 2009;Mascia et al, 2012). This framework is the result of institutional reforms enacted in the 1990s to improve the performance of single hospitals and the whole system.…”

“…In some industries, horizontal collaboration has also been associated with detrimental price fixing and anti-competitive behaviors (e.g., Teece, 1994). However, pricefixing behaviors of networking hospitals have received little support in the US context (Burgess et al, 2005) and are even less likely to arise in European healthcare markets, which are mostly noneprice competitive (e.g., Cooper et al, 2011;Mascia et al, 2012).…”

Performance impacts of interorganizational cooperation: a transaction cost perspective

“…Healthcare organizations worldwide are increasing the level of cooperation within their institutional environments (Mascia, Di Vincenzo, & Cicchetti, 2012). In the present study, we explored the possible association of interorganizational cooperation with hospital performance.…”