Developing a performance evaluation system for the Italian public healthcare sector

The objective of the work described in this paper was to design and test a new performance evaluation system to be used to plan, monitor and evaluate the Italian public healthcare authorities’ results and support policy-making. After examining the weak points in existing models and researching the published academic literature, the new system was developed by researchers from different backgrounds and with the involvement of practitioners. The paper illustrates the importance of a continuous interactive process in designing effective performance evaluation and monitoring systems.