Hospital Management in Portugal: Results Compared between Hospitals with Public Management and in Public-private Partnership

Abstract

In a globalized and increasingly competitive world, hospitals must find ways to continuously improve in all sectors: public, private and social. In Portugal, the provision of health care in public hospitals is generally carried out under the legal regime of Corporate Public Entity (EPE hospital) and under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP hospital). The role and importance of innovation in all processes are to be recognized internationally as one of the main factors for development and sustainability in various areas of activity. This article is a case study which describes the innovation processes applied to the management of hospitals in the Portuguese public sector and establishes a comparison between the main indicators of access and quality among public hospitals and public hospitals managed in partnership with a private partner between 2013 and 2016. As a result of the analysis, innovation has already positively influenced organizations both in the EPE and in the PPP models, making them more competitive. However, both models have strengths and weaknesses and for this reason, it is still necessary to rethink the models to improve their access and quality results.