Asymmetry in inter-municipal cooperation in health services - How does it affect service quality and autonomy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4592945
AutoresBjørnulf Arntsen (University of Agder, autor correspondente), Dag Olaf Torjesen (0000-0002-0910-934X, University of Agder), Tor-Ivar Karlsen (0000-0001-6050-7901, University of Agder)
Ano2021
Volume273
Páginas113744
Data de publicação2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
EditoraElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113744
PMID33610973
OpenAlexW3128976997
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas36

Throughout Europe, local health services are increasingly being provided through various forms of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC). One of the most common forms of IMC is when small municipalities delegate the operational responsibility for providing health services to a larger host municipality. However, despite the size asymmetry usually inherent in this type of IMC, this aspect has largely been neglected in the existing literature, which mainly focuses on the size of individual municipalities. Based on data from 97 partner municipalities and 25 host municipalities in Norway, this study examines how varying degrees of size asymmetry between them affect the perceived service quality and loss of autonomy resulting from IMC in health services. From the perspective of the relatively smaller partner municipalities, the results suggest that these are likely to benefit greatly from size asymmetry in terms of improved service quality, although this would appear to be at the expense of losing decision-making autonomy to their host. However, from the perspective of the relatively larger hosts municipalities, this type of asymmetry is likely to affect service quality negatively while having no effect on decision-making autonomy

Affect (linguistics · Autonomy · Business · Delegate · Economics · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Public economics · Quality (philosophy · Service (business · Business Strategy and Innovation · Customer Service Quality and Loyalty · Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare · Psychology · Marketing