Caring more by doing less: an enquiry about the impacts of outsourcing on patient care

This study seeks to understand the potential impact of outsourcing on healthcare processes. By referring to a wider scope of industries and sectors, as they have been the experimental fields of most of the studies on outsourcing, we highlight the pros and cons of the externalization of activities related to patient care. Our purpose is to show and contextualize the (yet) ambiguous effects of relying on external partners in delivering services related to the health of patients. We argue that the seek for efficiency might sometimes hinder the global outcome of care; further we state that given the peculiar nature of the healthcare, outsourcing needs to be used within a wider strategic analysis of the activities.