IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v117y2014i1p54-63.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Waiting time prioritisation for specialist services in Italy: The homogeneous waiting time groups approach

Author

Listed:
  • Mariotti, Giuliano
  • Siciliani, Luigi
  • Rebba, Vincenzo
  • Fellini, Rita
  • Gentilini, Maria
  • Benea, Giorgio
  • Bertoli, Pierpaolo
  • Bistolfi, Lorenzo
  • Brugaletta, Salvatore
  • Camboa, Pierluigi
  • Casucci, Paola
  • Dessi, Dino
  • Faronato, Pierpaolo
  • Galante, Mariangela
  • Gioffredi, Alessio
  • Guarino, Teresa Maria
  • Pofi, Enrico
  • Liva, Carlo

Abstract

The demand for referrals and diagnostic procedures in Italy has been rising constantly in recent years, making access to diagnostic services increasingly difficult with significant waiting times. A number of Health Authorities (known as Local Health Units) have responded by implementing formalised waiting-time prioritisation tools, giving rise to what are known as Homogeneous Waiting Groups (HWGs). The study describes the implementation of the HWG approach in Italy. This represents a promising tool for improving the prioritisation of patients waiting to see a specialist or to receive a diagnostic test. The study of the Italian HWG experience provides useful insights to improve the outpatient referral process for those countries where the demand prioritisation policies have focused more on inpatient care than outpatient specialist care and diagnostic services.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariotti, Giuliano & Siciliani, Luigi & Rebba, Vincenzo & Fellini, Rita & Gentilini, Maria & Benea, Giorgio & Bertoli, Pierpaolo & Bistolfi, Lorenzo & Brugaletta, Salvatore & Camboa, Pierluigi & Casuc, 2014. "Waiting time prioritisation for specialist services in Italy: The homogeneous waiting time groups approach," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 54-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:117:y:2014:i:1:p:54-63
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.01.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851014000311
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.01.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luigi Siciliani & Jeremy Hurst, 2003. "Explaining Waiting Times Variations for Elective Surgery Across OECD Countries," OECD Health Working Papers 7, OECD Publishing.
    2. Goddard, John & Tavakoli, Manouche, 2008. "Efficiency and welfare implications of managed public sector hospital waiting lists," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 184(2), pages 778-792, January.
    3. Mullen, Penelope M., 2003. "Prioritising waiting lists: how and why?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 32-45, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mariotti, Giuliano & Siciliani, Luigi & Rebba, Vincenzo & Coretti, Silvia & Gentilini, Maria, 2022. "Consensus among clinicians on referrals’ priority and use of digital decision-making support systems," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 906-914.
    2. Cobelli, Nicola & Cassia, Fabio & Burro, Roberto, 2021. "Factors affecting the choices of adoption/non-adoption of future technologies during coronavirus pandemic," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Andrea Riganti & Luigi Siciliani & Carlo V. Fiorio, 2017. "The effect of waiting times on demand and supply for elective surgery: Evidence from Italy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S2), pages 92-105, September.
    4. Breton, Mylaine & Smithman, Mélanie Ann & Kreindler, Sara A. & Jbilou, Jalila & Wong, Sabrina T. & Gard Marshall, Emily & Sasseville, Martin & Sutherland, Jason M. & Crooks, Valorie A. & Shaw, Jay & C, 2021. "Designing centralized waiting lists for attachment to a primary care provider: Considerations from a logic analysis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Luca Armanaschi & Elisabetta Barzan & Magda Cavallucci & Carlo Federici & Marco Sartirana & Florian Zerzer, 2022. "I dati amministrativi per la governance dei tempi di attesa delle prestazioni ambulatoriali: l?esperienza dell?Azienda Sanitaria dell?Alto Adige," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(123), pages 53-75.
    6. Breton, Mylaine & Smithman, Mélanie Ann & Sasseville, Martin & Kreindler, Sara A. & Sutherland, Jason M. & Beauséjour, Marie & Green, Michael & Marshall, Emily Gard & Jbilou, Jalila & Shaw, Jay & Brou, 2020. "How the design and implementation of centralized waiting lists influence their use and effect on access to healthcare - A realist review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(8), pages 787-795.
    7. Domenica Matranga & Laura Maniscalco, 2022. "Inequality in Healthcare Utilization in Italy: How Important Are Barriers to Access?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mariotti, Giuliano & Siciliani, Luigi & Rebba, Vincenzo & Coretti, Silvia & Gentilini, Maria, 2022. "Consensus among clinicians on referrals’ priority and use of digital decision-making support systems," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 906-914.
    2. J Bowers, 2010. "Waiting list behaviour and the consequences for NHS targets," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(2), pages 246-254, February.
    3. Luigi Siciliani, 2008. "A note on the dynamic interaction between waiting times and waiting lists," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 639-647, May.
    4. Sofia Dimakou & David Parkin & Nancy Devlin & John Appleby, 2009. "Identifying the impact of government targets on waiting times in the NHS," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, March.
    5. Swami, Megha & Scott, Anthony, 2021. "Impact of rural workforce incentives on access to GP services in underserved areas: Evidence from a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    6. Siciliani, L., 2016. "Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector," Seminar Briefing 001724, Office of Health Economics.
    7. Jacqueline O'Reilly & Miriam M. Wiley, 2007. "The Public/Private Mix in Irish Acute Public Hospitals: Trends and Implications," Papers WP218, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Megha Swami & Hugh Gravelle & Anthony Scott & Jenny Williams, 2018. "Hours worked by general practitioners and waiting times for primary care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1513-1532, October.
    9. Stéphanie Boulenger & François Vaillancourt, 2013. "Temps D’Attente Dans Le Secteur Public De La Santé Au Québec : Mesure, Conséquences Et Moyens Pour Les Réduire," CIRANO Papers 2013n-10f, CIRANO.
    10. Jessica Y. Ho, 2019. "The Contemporary American Drug Overdose Epidemic in International Perspective," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(1), pages 7-40, March.
    11. Gökalp, E. & Gülpınar, N. & Doan, X.V., 2023. "Dynamic surgery management under uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(2), pages 832-844.
    12. Mark Stabile & Sarah Thomson, 2014. "The Changing Role of Government in Financing Health Care: An International Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(2), pages 480-518, June.
    13. Angela Testi & Elena Tànfani, 2009. "Tactical and operational decisions for operating room planning: Efficiency and welfare implications," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 363-373, December.
    14. O'Neill June E & O'Neill Dave M, 2008. "Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, April.
    15. Belinda Spratt & Erhan Kozan, 2021. "An integrated rolling horizon approach to increase operating theatre efficiency," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 3-25, February.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3ihldo33ik9ee94procjtfki5f is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Huw Dixon & Luigi Siciliani, 2009. "Waiting Time Targets in Healthcare Markets: How Long Are We Waiting?," Discussion Papers 09/05, Department of Economics, University of York.
    18. Kathrin Roll & Tom Stargardt & Jonas Schreyögg, 2012. "Effect of Type of Insurance and Income on Waiting Time for Outpatient Care," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 37(4), pages 609-632, October.
    19. Tom Stargardt, 2008. "Health service costs in Europe: cost and reimbursement of primary hip replacement in nine countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(S1), pages 9-20, January.
    20. Dixon, Huw & Siciliani, Luigi, 2009. "Waiting-time targets in the healthcare sector: How long are we waiting?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1081-1098, December.
    21. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2008. "Competition and waiting times in hospital markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1607-1628, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:117:y:2014:i:1:p:54-63. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.