In recent years, growing scholarly attention has been devoted to the concept of Public Value (PV), which has emerged as a new paradigm for public administration. Creating PV requires defining a strategy that aligns public sector organisations’ priorities with the achievement of a citizen-centric value. However, while a large body of literature has focused on defining and operationalising PV, empirical research on the extent to which PV is prioritised within formal strategic planning processes remains limited. This study aims to fill this research gap by examining the (mis)alignment between strategic planning processes and the imperative of creating PV. In particular, the study focuses on Italian public healthcare organisations (HCOs), which have undergone several changes aimed at orienting their strategies towards the creation of PV. Drawing on PV theory, this study conducts a manual content
analysis of core strategic documents from Italian public HCOs. The analysis pursues a two-fold objective: to assess the extent to which strategy is formulated in terms of PV creation and to delineate the overarching thematic dimensions of PV being prioritised. Preliminary findings indicate a notably high level of PV disclosure, suggesting that PV is gaining significant traction as a strategic objective for HCOs. The analysis also reveals a broad and nuanced articulation of PV. Notably, themes such as digitalisation and transparency towards stakeholders emerge as highly recurrent strategic priorities for value creation, while traditional notions of internal efficiency appear to be de-emphasised in these strategic narratives. The study contributes to expanding the literature on PV by investigating an under-researched area, such as the healthcare sector. Moreover, by providing empirical evidence on PV disclosure within strategic planning processes, it sheds light on the thematic dimensions deemed most relevant in healthcare for creating PV.