Abstract
The internal patient transportation is a topic that has received little attention by healthcare managers. But although this represents a no-core activity, if efficiently managed, it could contribute to the improvement of the quality of healthcare service, increasing the satisfaction of patients and the perceived quality. As a direct consequence of this, the use of performance indicators related to the internal transport of patients, nowadays, is a scarcely used and widespread practice within Italian healthcare structures. This gap reflects the limited scientific literature available on this topic, but a substantial interest of healthcare structures in receiving information in this particular area has emerged, aiming at a possible future introduction of standardized and shareable indicators at the national level. Moving from these premises, the aim of the present contribution is to create a tool (i.e. a complete and shared set of KPIs) in order to promote the monitoring of the internal patient transportation and to support the decision-making processes of healthcare structures. Between April and May 2021, to achieve this goal, a survey was drafted and sent to 398 Italian healthcare structures. The results revealed a growing interest by hospitals in the creation of consolidated and standardized specific tools of performance measurement, in order to support the healthcare decision-makers in the design of improved processes, without risks and reaching patient satisfaction.