Chapter 10: Social Innovation in Healthcare Service Provision: An Ongoing Analysis of the Italian Experience

In recent years, several scholars have debated around new organizational models of healthcare service provision emerging through social innovation (Leadbeater, 2007; Mintzberg & Azevedo, 2012). In fact, the economic crisis and the related cuts in public expenditure have questioned the traditional models in healthcare service provision (e.g. Blundel-Wignal, Atkinson, & Roulet, 2012). Scholars argue that the model of the public healthcare, based on state control, has not been able to ensure sustainable levels of efficiency. Also the privatization model is struggling to provide efficient, high quality and accessible healthcare service. Therefore, new models based on social innovation should be considered in an effort to provide alternative arrangements (Mintzberg, 2012; Porter & Teisberg, 2006).