Intellectual capital for recovering patient centrality and ensuring patient satisfaction in Healthcare sector

Purpose With the aim to enrich the ongoing debate about healthcare management, the paper has a twofold intent: [1] to emphasise the interpretative contribution that intellectual capital can provide to a better understanding of the relevant role of patients in the healthcare sector and [2] to investigate the relationships between the three main dimensions of intellectual capital – human capital, relational capital and structural capital – and patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector. Design/methodology/approach The intellectual capital framework is contextualised in the healthcare sector, and the relationships among patient evaluations of human capital, relational capital and structural capital and patient satisfaction are tested via structural equation modelling (SEM) using primary data collected with reference to a sample of 561 Italian patients involved in post survey treatments in three Italian hospitals. Findings The role of intellectual capital in supporting a better understanding of processes and dynamics of patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector is underlined. The empirical research provides possible guidelines for recovery patients centrality in healthcare management. Originality/value The paper shows how an intellectual capital framework can support a better understanding and management of dynamics and processes through which patient centrality and satisfaction in healthcare management can be enforced.