Health ethics plays a crucial role in the activities performed by health care systems. Both the s... more Health ethics plays a crucial role in the activities performed by health care systems. Both the scientific and the professional literatures have usually stuck to a reductionist interpretation of health ethics, which paved the way for a focus only on clinical ethics. On the other hand, organizational ethics has been widely neglected among both scholars and practitioners. However, the recent institutional changes aimed at applying the New Public Management principles to health care, which have characterized most of health care systems in Western Countries, incite to pay an increasing attention to the organizational determinants of health ethics. From this point of view, the manuscript is intended to systematize the scientific contributions of the international scholarship in the field of organizational ethics of health care organizations, discussing the main issues which concern this topic. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed, involving a total number of 206 articles collected through the citation databases “Scopus-Elsevier”, “Web of Science™” and “Pubmed”. Organizational ethics is understood as crucial to the enhancement of the social and institutional sustainability of health care organizations. Nonetheless, organizational ethics is still overlooked dealing with both the policy making and the decision making activities of health care organizations
Purpose
This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value... more Purpose This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value co-creation” to health care services, challenging the traditional bio-medical model which focuses on illness treatment and neglects the role played by patients in the provision of care.
Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, the Author conducted a systematic review, which paved the way for the identification of the concept of “health care co-production” and allowed to discuss its effects and implications. Starting from a database of 254 records, 65 papers have been included in systematic review and informed the development of this paper.
Findings Co-production of health care services implies the establishment of co-creating partnerships between health care professionals and patients, which are aimed at mobilizing the dormant resources of the latter. However, several barriers prevent the full implementation of health care co-production, nurturing the application of the traditional bio-medical model.
Practical implications Co-production of health care is difficult to realize, due to both health care professionals’ hostility and patients unwillingness to be involved in the provision of care. Nonetheless, the scientific literature is consistent in claiming that co-production of care paves the way for increased health outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, better service innovation, and cost savings. The establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, the improvement of patient-provider communication, and the enhancement of the use of ICTs for the purpose of value co-creation are crucial ingredients in the recipe for increased patient engagement.
Originality/value To the knowledge of the Author, this is the first paper aimed at systematizing the scientific literature in the field of health care co-production. The originality of this paper stems from its twofold relevance: on the one hand, it emphasizes the pros and the cons of health care co-production and, on the other hand, it provides with insightful directions to deal with the engagement of patients in value co-creation.
Scholars claim that the outcomes of health interventions are the products of three factors: the s... more Scholars claim that the outcomes of health interventions are the products of three factors: the size, the penetration, and the sustainability of their effects. Nonetheless, the prevailing bio-medical ethic of care engenders a mere “fix it” approach, which focuses on the clinical treatment of the disease and neglects the role of the patients in the process of care. This approach undermines both the size and the penetration of health interventions. From this standpoint, the Authors examine different health interventions aimed at improving the size and the penetration of their effects through the empowerment of the patients and their involvement in the provision of care. They are confronted in terms of two different criteria: the “intensity” of the health care co-production and the “breadth” of the health related needs contemplated. Besides their outcomes - in terms of health status improvement, patients’ satisfaction and cost savings - have been contrasted. More into details, a case study dealing with a pilot project launched in Italy, which involved fully-fledged empowerment of the patient, is presented. It is compared with similar initiatives carried out in other European and non-European countries, with the purpose of stressing the peculiarities of the former and explaining the reasons for its success. The findings of this study support the exploratory hypothesis that the higher the intensity of co-production and the wider the breadth of health related needs considered, the better the outcomes of health interventions
Leadership is a critical success factor for nonprofit organizations. However, both scholars and p... more Leadership is a critical success factor for nonprofit organizations. However, both scholars and practitioners are consistent in claiming that the nonprofit sector is confronting a situation of leadership deficit. This study is aimed at providing some exploratory insights about a style of leadership which seems to be especially fitting to the nonprofit sector, but which is still poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literature: servant leadership. The servant leader is inspired by the intention of serving other members of the organization, with the eventual purpose of making them wiser, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants. Drawing from the findings of a participant observation the Author performed within a charitable organization operating in Tanzania (East Africa), this study discusses counterintuitive findings about the impacts of servant leadership on the behaviors of the followers. In several circumstances, servant leadership is likely to constrain rather than to empower followers, discouraging their organizational commitment. In fact, followers could become reliant on the figure of the servant leader, thus being unwilling to adopt a proactive behavior to meet the organizational instances. According to these findings, an agenda for further researches is suggested. As well, conceptual and empirical insights are pointed out
This paper is aimed at discussing the concept of public service co-production, adopting a critica... more This paper is aimed at discussing the concept of public service co-production, adopting a critical perspective. Even though the involvement of the users in planning, designing, and delivering public services dates back to more than 30 years ago, the literature dealing with public service co-production is still not consistent. From this point of view, a literature review was performed, with the eventual purpose of contextualizing the findings suggested by the scholarship about the attributes and the effects of public service co-production. To collect the relevant scientific literature, two citation databases were queried. The joint use of symmetric criteria of research paved the way for the collection of 165 records. All of them were screened in their titles and abstracts to remove redundancies and non-relevant items. 61 records were included in systematic review and informed the findings of this study. Public service co-production is understood as a critical approach to achieve enhanced sustainability in the public sector; however, co-production could produce several side effects, including equity issues and discrimination in the access to public services.
Inadequate health literacy is generally described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the ... more Inadequate health literacy is generally described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the functioning of health care systems all over the world. Health literacy is understood as the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information in order to effectively navigate the health system. Low health literate patients perceive poor self-efficacy, are not willing to be involved in the provision of care, show larger risks of hospitalization and mortality, and are not aware about the determinants of well-being. Moreover, limited health literacy has been associated with inadequate management of long-term conditions. This study is aimed at examining the association between health literacy and the appropriate management of hypertension. For this purpose, a narrative literature review has been performed, concerning 38 articles retrieved from the databases “PubMed”, “Scopus-Elsevier”, “EBSCOhost” and “Web of Science”. Even though the literature is not consistent dealing with this issue, inadequate health literacy is mainly conceived as a significant determinant of poor health outcomes among hypertensive patients.
Health literacy is a " magic word " among both scholars and practitioners. In general terms, it i... more Health literacy is a " magic word " among both scholars and practitioners. In general terms, it indicates the ability to collect, process, and understand basic health information to properly navigate the health system and enhance well-being. Food literacy is conceived as a set of skills which is strongly related to health literacy, concerning the convenient use of food. Notwithstanding, to the knowledge of the Author, until now food literacy has been poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literatures as a key determinant of sustainability of well-being. This paper is aimed at providing several insights about the role played by food literacy in the protection and promotion of well-being, paving the way for both conceptual and empirical developments. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been conducted, which, on the one hand, confirmed that food literacy is a blooming field in the scientific literature and, on the other hand, supported the limited understanding about its effects on well-being.
Leadership is a critical success factor for any kind of organization, here included non-profit on... more Leadership is a critical success factor for any kind of organization, here included non-profit ones. Nevertheless, both scholars and practitioners have pointed out that the non-profit sector is confronting a situation of leadership deficit, arguing that the ideas about the role and the attributes of the typical non-profit leader are still not clear (Ronquillo, et al., 2012; Suarez, 2010; Tierney, 2006). This study is aimed at providing several exploratory insights about a particular style of leadership that seems to be especially fitting to the non-profit sector, but which is still poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literature: servant leadership (Ronquillo, 2010). In fact, the servant leader is inspired by the intention of serving the other members of the organization, with the eventual purpose of making them wiser, more autonomous, as well as more likely themselves to become servants (Greenleaf, 1977). Drawing from the evidences collected by the Author during a participant observation performed within a work team of a charitable organization operating in Tanzania (East Africa), this study discusses several counterintuitive findings about the impacts of the servant style of leadership on the behaviours of the followers. Actually, servant leadership seems to constrain rather than to empower followers and to encourage their commitment to the achievement of the organizational purposes. Followers could become reliant on the figure of the servant leader, thus being unwilling to take initiatives. According to these findings, an agenda for further researches is suggested; as well, interesting empirical insights are discussed.
Background: Scholars describe poor health literacy as a “silent epidemic,” which is challenging t... more Background: Scholars describe poor health literacy as a “silent epidemic,” which is challenging the functioning of healthcare systems all over the world. Health literacy is mainly meant as an individual trait which concerns the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information in order to effectively navigate the health system. Low health literate patients perceive poor self-efficacy dealing with their health conditions, are not willing to be involved in the provision of care, show larger risks of hospitalization and mortality, and are not aware about the determinants of well-being. Hence, limited health literacy has been associated with inadequate management of long-term conditions; nonetheless, several authors argue that health literacy has been an overlooked factor dealing with HIV.
Methods: This study is aimed at discussing the effects of poor health literacy on people living with HIV, drawing from the findings of a narrative literature review which involved 41 papers retrieved from the databases “Scopus-Elsevier” and “PubMed.”
Results: The scientific literature is not consistent dealing with the relationship between health literacy and HIV treatment. For example, health literate patients seem to better understand their health conditions; on the other hand, people living with poor health literacy are likely to report higher compliance with providers’ prescriptions, blindly trusting healthcare professionals.
Conclusions: Poor health literacy is a social barrier to access healthcare services and to appropriate health treatment among patients living with HIV. Tailored interventions should be aimed at enhancing the health skills of patients affected by HIV infection to improve their ability to navigate the health system
According to Parker and colleagues (2003), a silent epidemic affects the health status of most of... more According to Parker and colleagues (2003), a silent epidemic affects the health status of most of the American population, that is to say inadequate health literacy. The same is true in European Countries, where -on average -a third of the population is not able to fully understand, appraise and apply health information as well as to appropriately navigate the health care system (HLS-EU Consortium, 2012). Until today, the attention has been mainly focused on the individual determinants of low health literacy, while studies concerning the health literacy environment and the organizational health literacy are uncommon. This paper aims at contributing to fill this gap through an explorative research about the tools health care organizations adopt to improve their hosts' health literacy. Drawing from the international literature DeWalt et al., 2010; Matthew & Sewell, 2002) the main approaches to improve organizational health literacy are outlined. Then, a distinction between formal and informal tools to address organizational health literacy needs is suggested and the effectiveness of both of them is compared. The findings of the research suggest that the latter are more common than the former, although they have lower perceived effectiveness compared with formal methods. Health care organizations seem to be still far from effectively activating comprehensive health literacy pathways. Systemic efforts to acquire awareness of the issue and to put in place effective processes of change towards health literacy are strongly needed.
The current economic and financial crisis weakens western economies, laying bare their frailties ... more The current economic and financial crisis weakens western economies, laying bare their frailties and exerting a strong pressure on the sustainability of their welfare system. In particular, the publicly funded national health service, a basic part of the “welfare state model” in some European countries, goes through a hard period, tightened in the stranglehold between scarce resources and increasing needs. Borrowing from economics, care services are conceived as “nonexcludable”, but “rival” goods; from this point of view, the publicly funded national health system is conceptualized as a “common pool resource”. The matter is analyzed from a theoretical standpoint, adopting a qualitative approach: the author proposes general reasoning and basic remarks, deferring to further researches any empirical application. This article contributes to the scientific research by offering a new perspective from which to explore the trends of publicly funded national health systems. The “Common Pool Resources” theory and the “Institutional Analysis and Development” framework are the key tools employed for the analysis: they allow to examine in-depth the sustainability issues of these systems, paving the way to the introduction of innovative strategic and managerial approach applied to health care organizations.
Health ethics plays a crucial role in the activities performed by health care systems. Both the s... more Health ethics plays a crucial role in the activities performed by health care systems. Both the scientific and the professional literatures have usually stuck to a reductionist interpretation of health ethics, which paved the way for a focus only on clinical ethics. On the other hand, organizational ethics has been widely neglected among both scholars and practitioners. However, the recent institutional changes aimed at applying the New Public Management principles to health care, which have characterized most of health care systems in Western Countries, incite to pay an increasing attention to the organizational determinants of health ethics. From this point of view, the manuscript is intended to systematize the scientific contributions of the international scholarship in the field of organizational ethics of health care organizations, discussing the main issues which concern this topic. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed, involving a total number of 206 articles collected through the citation databases “Scopus-Elsevier”, “Web of Science™” and “Pubmed”. Organizational ethics is understood as crucial to the enhancement of the social and institutional sustainability of health care organizations. Nonetheless, organizational ethics is still overlooked dealing with both the policy making and the decision making activities of health care organizations
Purpose
This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value... more Purpose This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value co-creation” to health care services, challenging the traditional bio-medical model which focuses on illness treatment and neglects the role played by patients in the provision of care.
Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, the Author conducted a systematic review, which paved the way for the identification of the concept of “health care co-production” and allowed to discuss its effects and implications. Starting from a database of 254 records, 65 papers have been included in systematic review and informed the development of this paper.
Findings Co-production of health care services implies the establishment of co-creating partnerships between health care professionals and patients, which are aimed at mobilizing the dormant resources of the latter. However, several barriers prevent the full implementation of health care co-production, nurturing the application of the traditional bio-medical model.
Practical implications Co-production of health care is difficult to realize, due to both health care professionals’ hostility and patients unwillingness to be involved in the provision of care. Nonetheless, the scientific literature is consistent in claiming that co-production of care paves the way for increased health outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, better service innovation, and cost savings. The establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, the improvement of patient-provider communication, and the enhancement of the use of ICTs for the purpose of value co-creation are crucial ingredients in the recipe for increased patient engagement.
Originality/value To the knowledge of the Author, this is the first paper aimed at systematizing the scientific literature in the field of health care co-production. The originality of this paper stems from its twofold relevance: on the one hand, it emphasizes the pros and the cons of health care co-production and, on the other hand, it provides with insightful directions to deal with the engagement of patients in value co-creation.
Scholars claim that the outcomes of health interventions are the products of three factors: the s... more Scholars claim that the outcomes of health interventions are the products of three factors: the size, the penetration, and the sustainability of their effects. Nonetheless, the prevailing bio-medical ethic of care engenders a mere “fix it” approach, which focuses on the clinical treatment of the disease and neglects the role of the patients in the process of care. This approach undermines both the size and the penetration of health interventions. From this standpoint, the Authors examine different health interventions aimed at improving the size and the penetration of their effects through the empowerment of the patients and their involvement in the provision of care. They are confronted in terms of two different criteria: the “intensity” of the health care co-production and the “breadth” of the health related needs contemplated. Besides their outcomes - in terms of health status improvement, patients’ satisfaction and cost savings - have been contrasted. More into details, a case study dealing with a pilot project launched in Italy, which involved fully-fledged empowerment of the patient, is presented. It is compared with similar initiatives carried out in other European and non-European countries, with the purpose of stressing the peculiarities of the former and explaining the reasons for its success. The findings of this study support the exploratory hypothesis that the higher the intensity of co-production and the wider the breadth of health related needs considered, the better the outcomes of health interventions
Leadership is a critical success factor for nonprofit organizations. However, both scholars and p... more Leadership is a critical success factor for nonprofit organizations. However, both scholars and practitioners are consistent in claiming that the nonprofit sector is confronting a situation of leadership deficit. This study is aimed at providing some exploratory insights about a style of leadership which seems to be especially fitting to the nonprofit sector, but which is still poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literature: servant leadership. The servant leader is inspired by the intention of serving other members of the organization, with the eventual purpose of making them wiser, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants. Drawing from the findings of a participant observation the Author performed within a charitable organization operating in Tanzania (East Africa), this study discusses counterintuitive findings about the impacts of servant leadership on the behaviors of the followers. In several circumstances, servant leadership is likely to constrain rather than to empower followers, discouraging their organizational commitment. In fact, followers could become reliant on the figure of the servant leader, thus being unwilling to adopt a proactive behavior to meet the organizational instances. According to these findings, an agenda for further researches is suggested. As well, conceptual and empirical insights are pointed out
This paper is aimed at discussing the concept of public service co-production, adopting a critica... more This paper is aimed at discussing the concept of public service co-production, adopting a critical perspective. Even though the involvement of the users in planning, designing, and delivering public services dates back to more than 30 years ago, the literature dealing with public service co-production is still not consistent. From this point of view, a literature review was performed, with the eventual purpose of contextualizing the findings suggested by the scholarship about the attributes and the effects of public service co-production. To collect the relevant scientific literature, two citation databases were queried. The joint use of symmetric criteria of research paved the way for the collection of 165 records. All of them were screened in their titles and abstracts to remove redundancies and non-relevant items. 61 records were included in systematic review and informed the findings of this study. Public service co-production is understood as a critical approach to achieve enhanced sustainability in the public sector; however, co-production could produce several side effects, including equity issues and discrimination in the access to public services.
Inadequate health literacy is generally described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the ... more Inadequate health literacy is generally described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the functioning of health care systems all over the world. Health literacy is understood as the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information in order to effectively navigate the health system. Low health literate patients perceive poor self-efficacy, are not willing to be involved in the provision of care, show larger risks of hospitalization and mortality, and are not aware about the determinants of well-being. Moreover, limited health literacy has been associated with inadequate management of long-term conditions. This study is aimed at examining the association between health literacy and the appropriate management of hypertension. For this purpose, a narrative literature review has been performed, concerning 38 articles retrieved from the databases “PubMed”, “Scopus-Elsevier”, “EBSCOhost” and “Web of Science”. Even though the literature is not consistent dealing with this issue, inadequate health literacy is mainly conceived as a significant determinant of poor health outcomes among hypertensive patients.
Health literacy is a " magic word " among both scholars and practitioners. In general terms, it i... more Health literacy is a " magic word " among both scholars and practitioners. In general terms, it indicates the ability to collect, process, and understand basic health information to properly navigate the health system and enhance well-being. Food literacy is conceived as a set of skills which is strongly related to health literacy, concerning the convenient use of food. Notwithstanding, to the knowledge of the Author, until now food literacy has been poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literatures as a key determinant of sustainability of well-being. This paper is aimed at providing several insights about the role played by food literacy in the protection and promotion of well-being, paving the way for both conceptual and empirical developments. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been conducted, which, on the one hand, confirmed that food literacy is a blooming field in the scientific literature and, on the other hand, supported the limited understanding about its effects on well-being.
Leadership is a critical success factor for any kind of organization, here included non-profit on... more Leadership is a critical success factor for any kind of organization, here included non-profit ones. Nevertheless, both scholars and practitioners have pointed out that the non-profit sector is confronting a situation of leadership deficit, arguing that the ideas about the role and the attributes of the typical non-profit leader are still not clear (Ronquillo, et al., 2012; Suarez, 2010; Tierney, 2006). This study is aimed at providing several exploratory insights about a particular style of leadership that seems to be especially fitting to the non-profit sector, but which is still poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literature: servant leadership (Ronquillo, 2010). In fact, the servant leader is inspired by the intention of serving the other members of the organization, with the eventual purpose of making them wiser, more autonomous, as well as more likely themselves to become servants (Greenleaf, 1977). Drawing from the evidences collected by the Author during a participant observation performed within a work team of a charitable organization operating in Tanzania (East Africa), this study discusses several counterintuitive findings about the impacts of the servant style of leadership on the behaviours of the followers. Actually, servant leadership seems to constrain rather than to empower followers and to encourage their commitment to the achievement of the organizational purposes. Followers could become reliant on the figure of the servant leader, thus being unwilling to take initiatives. According to these findings, an agenda for further researches is suggested; as well, interesting empirical insights are discussed.
Background: Scholars describe poor health literacy as a “silent epidemic,” which is challenging t... more Background: Scholars describe poor health literacy as a “silent epidemic,” which is challenging the functioning of healthcare systems all over the world. Health literacy is mainly meant as an individual trait which concerns the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information in order to effectively navigate the health system. Low health literate patients perceive poor self-efficacy dealing with their health conditions, are not willing to be involved in the provision of care, show larger risks of hospitalization and mortality, and are not aware about the determinants of well-being. Hence, limited health literacy has been associated with inadequate management of long-term conditions; nonetheless, several authors argue that health literacy has been an overlooked factor dealing with HIV.
Methods: This study is aimed at discussing the effects of poor health literacy on people living with HIV, drawing from the findings of a narrative literature review which involved 41 papers retrieved from the databases “Scopus-Elsevier” and “PubMed.”
Results: The scientific literature is not consistent dealing with the relationship between health literacy and HIV treatment. For example, health literate patients seem to better understand their health conditions; on the other hand, people living with poor health literacy are likely to report higher compliance with providers’ prescriptions, blindly trusting healthcare professionals.
Conclusions: Poor health literacy is a social barrier to access healthcare services and to appropriate health treatment among patients living with HIV. Tailored interventions should be aimed at enhancing the health skills of patients affected by HIV infection to improve their ability to navigate the health system
According to Parker and colleagues (2003), a silent epidemic affects the health status of most of... more According to Parker and colleagues (2003), a silent epidemic affects the health status of most of the American population, that is to say inadequate health literacy. The same is true in European Countries, where -on average -a third of the population is not able to fully understand, appraise and apply health information as well as to appropriately navigate the health care system (HLS-EU Consortium, 2012). Until today, the attention has been mainly focused on the individual determinants of low health literacy, while studies concerning the health literacy environment and the organizational health literacy are uncommon. This paper aims at contributing to fill this gap through an explorative research about the tools health care organizations adopt to improve their hosts' health literacy. Drawing from the international literature DeWalt et al., 2010; Matthew & Sewell, 2002) the main approaches to improve organizational health literacy are outlined. Then, a distinction between formal and informal tools to address organizational health literacy needs is suggested and the effectiveness of both of them is compared. The findings of the research suggest that the latter are more common than the former, although they have lower perceived effectiveness compared with formal methods. Health care organizations seem to be still far from effectively activating comprehensive health literacy pathways. Systemic efforts to acquire awareness of the issue and to put in place effective processes of change towards health literacy are strongly needed.
The current economic and financial crisis weakens western economies, laying bare their frailties ... more The current economic and financial crisis weakens western economies, laying bare their frailties and exerting a strong pressure on the sustainability of their welfare system. In particular, the publicly funded national health service, a basic part of the “welfare state model” in some European countries, goes through a hard period, tightened in the stranglehold between scarce resources and increasing needs. Borrowing from economics, care services are conceived as “nonexcludable”, but “rival” goods; from this point of view, the publicly funded national health system is conceptualized as a “common pool resource”. The matter is analyzed from a theoretical standpoint, adopting a qualitative approach: the author proposes general reasoning and basic remarks, deferring to further researches any empirical application. This article contributes to the scientific research by offering a new perspective from which to explore the trends of publicly funded national health systems. The “Common Pool Resources” theory and the “Institutional Analysis and Development” framework are the key tools employed for the analysis: they allow to examine in-depth the sustainability issues of these systems, paving the way to the introduction of innovative strategic and managerial approach applied to health care organizations.
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Papers by Rocco Palumbo
From this point of view, the manuscript is intended to systematize the scientific contributions of the international scholarship in the field of organizational ethics of health care organizations, discussing the main issues which concern this topic. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed, involving a total number of 206 articles collected through the citation databases “Scopus-Elsevier”, “Web of Science™” and “Pubmed”. Organizational ethics is understood as crucial to the enhancement of the social and institutional sustainability of health care organizations. Nonetheless, organizational ethics is still overlooked dealing with both the policy making and the decision making activities of health care organizations
This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value co-creation” to health care services, challenging the traditional bio-medical model which focuses on illness treatment and neglects the role played by patients in the provision of care.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, the Author conducted a systematic review, which paved the way for the identification of the concept of “health care co-production” and allowed to discuss its effects and implications. Starting from a database of 254 records, 65 papers have been included in systematic review and informed the development of this paper.
Findings
Co-production of health care services implies the establishment of co-creating partnerships between health care professionals and patients, which are aimed at mobilizing the dormant resources of the latter. However, several barriers prevent the full implementation of health care co-production, nurturing the application of the traditional bio-medical model.
Practical implications
Co-production of health care is difficult to realize, due to both health care professionals’ hostility and patients unwillingness to be involved in the provision of care. Nonetheless, the scientific literature is consistent in claiming that co-production of care paves the way for increased health outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, better service innovation, and cost savings. The establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, the improvement of patient-provider communication, and the enhancement of the use of ICTs for the purpose of value co-creation are crucial ingredients in the recipe for increased patient engagement.
Originality/value
To the knowledge of the Author, this is the first paper aimed at systematizing the scientific literature in the field of health care co-production. The originality of this paper stems from its twofold relevance: on the one hand, it emphasizes the pros and the cons of health care co-production and, on the other hand, it provides with insightful directions to deal with the engagement of patients in value co-creation.
Methods: This study is aimed at discussing the effects of poor health literacy on people living with HIV, drawing from the findings of a narrative literature review which involved 41 papers retrieved from the databases “Scopus-Elsevier” and “PubMed.”
Results: The scientific literature is not consistent dealing with the relationship between health literacy and HIV treatment. For example, health literate patients seem to better understand their health conditions; on the other hand, people living with poor health literacy are likely to report higher compliance with providers’ prescriptions, blindly trusting healthcare professionals.
Conclusions: Poor health literacy is a social barrier to access healthcare services and to appropriate health treatment among patients living with HIV. Tailored interventions should be aimed at enhancing the health skills of patients affected by HIV infection to improve their ability to navigate the health system
From this point of view, the manuscript is intended to systematize the scientific contributions of the international scholarship in the field of organizational ethics of health care organizations, discussing the main issues which concern this topic. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed, involving a total number of 206 articles collected through the citation databases “Scopus-Elsevier”, “Web of Science™” and “Pubmed”. Organizational ethics is understood as crucial to the enhancement of the social and institutional sustainability of health care organizations. Nonetheless, organizational ethics is still overlooked dealing with both the policy making and the decision making activities of health care organizations
This paper is aimed at contextualizing the concepts of “service co-production” and “value co-creation” to health care services, challenging the traditional bio-medical model which focuses on illness treatment and neglects the role played by patients in the provision of care.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, the Author conducted a systematic review, which paved the way for the identification of the concept of “health care co-production” and allowed to discuss its effects and implications. Starting from a database of 254 records, 65 papers have been included in systematic review and informed the development of this paper.
Findings
Co-production of health care services implies the establishment of co-creating partnerships between health care professionals and patients, which are aimed at mobilizing the dormant resources of the latter. However, several barriers prevent the full implementation of health care co-production, nurturing the application of the traditional bio-medical model.
Practical implications
Co-production of health care is difficult to realize, due to both health care professionals’ hostility and patients unwillingness to be involved in the provision of care. Nonetheless, the scientific literature is consistent in claiming that co-production of care paves the way for increased health outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, better service innovation, and cost savings. The establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, the improvement of patient-provider communication, and the enhancement of the use of ICTs for the purpose of value co-creation are crucial ingredients in the recipe for increased patient engagement.
Originality/value
To the knowledge of the Author, this is the first paper aimed at systematizing the scientific literature in the field of health care co-production. The originality of this paper stems from its twofold relevance: on the one hand, it emphasizes the pros and the cons of health care co-production and, on the other hand, it provides with insightful directions to deal with the engagement of patients in value co-creation.
Methods: This study is aimed at discussing the effects of poor health literacy on people living with HIV, drawing from the findings of a narrative literature review which involved 41 papers retrieved from the databases “Scopus-Elsevier” and “PubMed.”
Results: The scientific literature is not consistent dealing with the relationship between health literacy and HIV treatment. For example, health literate patients seem to better understand their health conditions; on the other hand, people living with poor health literacy are likely to report higher compliance with providers’ prescriptions, blindly trusting healthcare professionals.
Conclusions: Poor health literacy is a social barrier to access healthcare services and to appropriate health treatment among patients living with HIV. Tailored interventions should be aimed at enhancing the health skills of patients affected by HIV infection to improve their ability to navigate the health system