Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

There is a lack of conceptual clarity about the role of delivering private hospital services
(DPHS) accompanied by major gaps in evidence. The purpose of this systematic scoping
review was to identify and map the available evidence regarding the developing countries
to scrutinize the participation of DPHS exclusively in the universal health coverage (UHC)
through providing graphical/tabular classifications of the bibliometric information, sources
of the records, frequent location, contribution of the private hospital services in the health
system, and roles of DPHS in UHC. This study was performed following the published
methodological guidance of the Joanna Briggs Institute for the conduct of scoping review,
applying some major databases and search engines. In addition, a narrative-thematic
synthesis integrated with the systematic analysis using the policy framework of the World
Health Organization was employed. The 28 included records in English which met the
inclusion criteria were found between 2014 and January 2020. The chronological trend of
records was progressive until 2019. India was the most frequent location (12%). China and
Sri Lanka on the one end of the spectrum and Somalia along with South Korea from the
other end were, respectively, the least and the most contributed countries in terms of DPHS.
Overall, 90% of the roles were concerned with UHC goals. Although evidence has revealed
inconsistency in the identified roles, a continuous chain of positive or negative effects in the
UHC objectives and goals was observed. Some knowledge gaps about the roles, causes of
the increasing and decreasing DPHS contribution, and its behaviors around the privatization
types and circumstances of the delivery were recommended as prioritized research agendas
for evidence-based policymaking in future.

Keywords

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