Back and Forth on Sustainable Development: A Focus on Healthcare Organisations

Abstract

The sustainability of healthcare systems represents a relevant target of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. Nevertheless, academic research has neglected to study healthcare systems when focusing on the transition toward sustainable healthcare. This study addresses this gap by investigating the implementation of the sustainable development (SD) principle in the Italian healthcare system, in light of international and national institutional discourses on SD. A questionnaire-based survey has been directed to the General Directors (GDs) of government-funded healthcare orgsanisations to investigate their perceptions about the SD principle applied to healthcare, their strategic planning for SD, their implemented projects for sustainability and the intellectual capital factors that influence the latter’s implementation. The study was conducted in two waves: a first survey was administered in 2016, with a second one in 2021. We used content analysis to identify the potential differences emerging over time in GDs’ perceptions in light of the changes in the institutional discourse; we then assessed the differences over time in the perceived contribution of intellectual capital factors to the implementation of sustainability actions. Results show a substantial decrease in strategic planning for sustainability, as well as in the volume of sustainability projects implemented, as organisations were found to be less involved in implementing SD strategies and projects in 2021 than in 2016. Policies at the country level have mainly focused on balancing cost containment with quality targets, leaving the environmental dimension of sustainability and its connection with healthcare with limited guidelines. Regarding intellectual capital factors, organisational culture and technologies are increasingly perceived as enablers of SD; nevertheless, further studies are needed to deepen their effective contribution to sustainable healthcare.

Practices Pursuing the Sustainability of A Healthcare Organization: A Systematic Review

“…The research was conducted with the implementation of the systematic review methodology to achieve the aim of the paper [7], as the study is devoted to filling in the gap in the existing literature by determining, analyzing, and summarizing the previously obtained results regarding the efficient mechanisms of shifting towards a sustainable way of organizing and managing healthcare organizations' activities, which in turn leads to reaching the SDGs. Additionally, recent papers have suggested studying organizations' social, economic, and environmental practices that lead to an increase in the overall level of sustainability [8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Thus, it has been proven that management spending has a positive and direct relationship with the level of performance of medical organizations; more specifically, increased spending reduces the waiting time for patients. Moreover, studies have found evidence that medical performance also improves with an increase in management expenditures [8,[45][46][47]. Therefore, improvements in management practices are positively associated with the mortality level and overall financial performance, measured as income per bed.…”

Health Environment and Sustainable Development

“…Most of the innovations focused on integrating such technologies in the process to achieve the ideal of sustainability. The institutionalization inside the structure of diverse systems implies the integration of diverse technologies in making decisions, protocols, and policies that ultimately modify health care quality, from the diagnosis to the organization of care [11][12][13].…”

Financial Management Practices in Public Health: Enhancing Sustainability and Accountability

“…Budgeting is an important part of managing money in public health. Giving money to different activities and programs based on their goals and desired results is part of this process [3]. Planning, analyzing, and setting priorities carefully is needed for budgets to work well so that resources are used wisely and people's wants are met.…”