Social Reporting in Healthcare Sector: The Case of Italian Public Hospitals

Abstract

Social reporting has become a critical area of interest in healthcare systems, and it has also become increasingly important for the academic community and practitioners in recent decades. Recent studies have found the existence of a slow spread of social reporting initiatives in public hospitals and a lack of guidelines and homogeneity in social reporting documents. This study aims to contribute to the literature, offering updated evidence from Italy. Through a document analysis, we (a) assessed the trends of social reporting initiatives in the Italian public hospital sector; (b) analyzed the current forms, contents, and quality, of social reporting documents, in order to isolate common elements, differentiation and emerging trends; (c) analyzed the informational power of social reporting documents for public hospitals stakeholder. Data were extracted from the public hospital website. The results confirm the scarce dissemination and homogeneity of social reporting documents and highlight the need for non-financial reporting standardization in public hospitals.