Benchmarking of health technologies distribution models: an investigation of Lombardy's local health authorities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a benchmarking framework for assessing the performance of the distribution models adopted by the local branches of National Health Services (NHSs) for delivering health technologies to patients at a local level, and to derive prescriptions for enhancing design and optimal management of the distribution models. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focussed the study on the distribution of absorbent devices for incontinence, adopting the analytic hierarchy process as a tool for developing the benchmarking framework. The authors applied the framework to the context of the Italian NHS with respect to the Lombard Local Health Authorities, assessing their performance in terms of operational efficiency and service quality. Findings – The developed framework constitutes a novel contribution, and it allows for generating prescriptions. Through its application to the context studied the authors found that a “one-size-fits-all” distribution model cannot be propo...

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