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Background: In recent years, the flow of patients to the Emergency Departments (ED) of Western countries has steadily increased, thus generating overcrowding and extended waiting times. Scholars have identified four main causes for this phenomenon, related to: continuity of primary care services; availability of specific clinical pathways for chronic patients; ED's personnel endowment; organization of the ED. This study aims at providing a logical diagnostic framework to support managers in investigating specific solutions to be applied to their EDs to cope with high ED waiting times. The framework is based on the ED waiting times and ED admission rate matrix. It was applied to the Tuscan EDs as illustrative example. Methods: To provide the factors to be analyzed once the EDs are positioned into the matrix, a list of issues has been identified. The matrix was applied to Tuscan EDs. Data were collected from the Tuscan performance evaluation system, integrated with specific data on Tuscan EDs' personnel. The Tuscan EDs matrix, the descriptive statistics for each quadrant and the Spearman's rank correlation analysis among waiting times, admission rates and a set of performance indicators were conducted to help managers to read the phenomena that they need to investigate. Results: The combined reading of the correlations and waiting times-admission rates matrix shows that there are no optimal rules for all the EDs in managing admission rates and waiting times, but solutions have to be found considering mixed and personalized strategies. Conclusions: The waiting times-admission rates matrix provides a tool able to support managers in detecting the problems related to the management of ED services. In particular, using this matrix, healthcare managers could be facilitated in the identification of possible solutions for their specific situation.

Purpose This study aims to systematically review the literature on the use of customer value for the evaluation of inter-organizational performance, with a wide perspective embracing different contexts and settings. Design/methodology/approach Searching within the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases, a systematic literature review has been conducted analyzing 41 papers published between 1991 and 2020. Findings Categorization of customer value and inter-organizational performance measures were developed and the main differences among different settings were discussed. Practical implications The results presented in this study may be helpful for practitioners and managers who, in the completion of their activities, have to maintain strong and frequent relationships with other organizations. In fact, practitioners and managers interested in enhancing customer value and measuring inter-organizational performance may find an innovative perspective linking the two dimensions. They could find the categorizations presented in this study as a starting point for developing a performance evaluation framework suitable for evaluating their present business relationships. In fact, the categorizations provide a panorama of how scholars have measured until now inter-organizational performance through customer value, and therefore, they could choose the measures more appropriate for their situation. Originality/value No systematic literature review of the use of customer value for assessing inter-organizational performance has previously been undertaken, especially considering different settings.

I servizi sanitari di prevenzione sono caratterizzati da un'elevata complessita principalmente legata al contesto inter-organizzativo e ambientale in cui operano. Da cio consegue una notevole difficolta nel misurarne e valutarne i risultati. Per tali motivi, il controllo e la gestione della performance delle attivita di prevenzione si avvalgono di diversi meccanismi, formali e informali, che hanno l'obiettivo di orientare i comportamenti e le decisioni degli individui e delle organizzazioni coinvolte verso fini comuni. Lo scopo del presente lavoro e quello di approfondire i sistemi di controllo e gestione della performance impiegati nei servizi di prevenzione che operano in contesti inter-organizzativi - e in particolare nell'ambito dei controlli frontalieri sugli alimenti - al fine di supportare il disegno e l'implementazione degli stessi. Per fare cio, la ricerca si concentra sui casi di studio delle infrastrutture portuali di Genova e Livorno. Parole chiave: prevenzione, controlli condottools. To explore performance management in such contexts, this research suggests the adoption of management control as a "package" approach. Thus, the research's objective is to understand how management control operates in the delivery of preventative services operating in inter-organizational environment. To do so, this study focuses on the cases of Genoa's and Leghorn's ports.