From Outcome Measurement to Impact Measurement: Sentiment Analysis to Support Performance Evaluation of Public Healthcare Organizations
Performance Management (PM) systems of public healthcare organizations are increasingly focusing on measuring the creation of public value, i.e., the ability to economically meet the social needs of users. To do this, the most recent literature suggests integrating outcome measures – the results achieved in meeting the needs of public service users – into PM systems. However, to fully appreciate the public value created by organizations and recognized by the community, it is also important to measure and evaluate the results in terms of impact they achieve, including for “non-beneficiaries,” a dimension that is still little explored in the literature. The study proposes the use of Sentiment Analysis (SA) to measure this impact by analyzing opinions and sentiments expressed on web platforms. The case study of the G. Martino University Hospital in Messina is used to explore the potential and limitations of SA in measuring, managing, and evaluating organizational performance in the public sector.
Keywords: Performance Management, Sentiment Analysis, Public Value, Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence
