Quarant’anni di SSN, l’aziendalizzazione e la pandemia: quale futuro per il management professionale negli ospedali pubblici?

30 years ago, in 1992, a new reform introduced new logics in Italy in the context of public health, laying down precepts arising from the New Public Management current. Among these innovations it is possible to appreciate the introduction of new assessment and evaluation policies, new planning and auditing systems, new !nancing criteria as well as the introduction of new management positions within the organization. In particular, the !gure of clinician-manager (Direttore di Struttura Complessa) was implemented. Many events happened since then (constitutional reform of 2001, global economic crisis in 2008 and 2011, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis of 2020, etc.) and nowadays, in the wake of new perspectives and possibilities arising from the cumulated experience as well as the new funding of the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR), the opportunity to re-design public health cannot be missed. In light of all these, this paper aims to investigate how management roles within public health organizations are perceived by clinician-managers, in order to de!ne what may be the most in"uencing factors to enable them to perceive effectiveness and ef!ciency in their actions.