The impetus of experience from the bottom up as a mechanism for contributing to the design of public services

Abstract

This article contributes to the New Public Service by offering a perspective that promotes a more participatory public governance by involving citizens and street-level bureaucrats in the overall design of public services. Focused on primary healthcare in Spain, this article seeks to understand how healthcare professionals detect the social needs of their patients so that they can fulfill them. In order to do this, the article analyzes 19 innovative experiences put forward by healthcare professionals and that are related to the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) in healthcare. The results of this research contribute to the construction of a model for the design of public services focused on the social needs of the population.

Keywords:
public management; healthcare management; public services; primary healthcare; innovation.