Introducing E-Procurement in a Local Healthcare Agency

Abstract

This chapter deals with the introduction of electronic procurement in the public healthcare domain. After a brief discussion on the healthcare spending characteristics and on the suitability of e-procurement tools in the public sector; the long-lasting experience of e-procurement implementation promoted by an Italian Local Healthcare Public Agency is described. This initiative included some pilot projects and applied many different solutions; always involving both a new ICT tool and a thorough process redesign. The development of the innovation introductions is discussed; together with their organizational and managerial background; the description of the new processes; and the analysis of the most relevant results. The chapter provides a fairly comprehensive illustration of available solutions; opportunities; and challenges in this still neglected topic.