Restructuring the hospital sector in Greece in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Abstract

This paper discusses the study focused on the
reform of Greek Hospital Sector, also known as
“hospital mergers”. The aim of the study was to
propose a new pattern of organizing hospitals
in groups based on the reform of emergency
care and the management of five main chronic
diseases (AMI, Stroke, Cancer, Diabetes Mellitus
and COPD). The proposals in general concern the
creation of a national network of health services
provided mainly by primary healthcare units and
the largest hospitals of the groups in each health
region. In the context of improving the hospital
sector efficiency, ways of collaborations between
private and public sector and expenditure
containment measures are presented. The
restructuring of the public hospital sector relied
on six specific criteria including the population
criterion, catchment area, hospital size,
infrastructure age, utilization of hospital facilities
and cost. Due to its nature, the study was exposed
to various factors such as the diversity of actors
being involved, collection and compilation of the
relevant data in a short term of three months, last
minute adjustments and the variety of audience.