Abstract
BackgroundHospitals operate under constant pressure to contain costs and improve the quality of care. The literature suggests that there is an association between health care providers’ financial performance and the quality of care. On the one hand, providers that are financially more stable might have better capacity to maintain reliable systems and resources for quality improvement. On the other hand, providing better quality of care might lead to financial gains in the form of increased revenues or achieved savings and, in consequence, a higher profitability. The general objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the available evidence on the association between hospital financial performance and the quality of care. It aims to (1) provide a broad overview of the topic and (2) indicate a more precise research question for a future systematic review.MethodsThis scoping review will follow five stages: (1) defining the research question; (2) identifying relevant literature; (3) study selection; (4) data extraction; (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results; and (6) the consultation process and engagement of knowledge users. The following databases will be searched: MEDLINE via PubMed, (2) EMBASE, (3) Web of Science, (4) Scopus, (5) EconLit, (6) ABI/INFORM, and (7) Business Source Premier. The reference lists of relevant papers will be visually scanned with the aim of identifying further studies of interest. Also, a gray literature search will be conducted by screening the websites of diverse organizations dealing with hospital performance and/or quality of care. The review will not apply a publication date limit and will include both quantitative and qualitative empirical studies as well as theoretical papers, technical reports, books/chapters, and thesis. The reporting will utilize the PRISMA extension for a Scoping Review checklist.DiscussionThis scoping review will provide an overview of the existing literature on the association between hospital financial performance and the quality of care. The review process will apply a rigorous methodological approach while broad inclusion criteria should assure comprehensive coverage of the available literature. The main limitation of the review is related to the general limitation of scoping reviews, i.e., the lack of a systematic quality and risk of bias assessment of included studies. In addition, the review will include only publications in English.Systematic review registrationOpen Science Framework osf.io/z25ag
Highlights
Hospitals operate under constant pressure to contain costs and improve the quality of care
Health systems around the world operate under constant pressure to contain costs and improve the quality of care [1,2,3,4]
Hospitals constitute a cornerstone of health service provision with their share of total current health expenditures ranging from 28.3% in Germany to 53.2% in Turkey in 2017 and being above 35% in 21 OECD countries [5]
Summary
Hospitals operate under constant pressure to contain costs and improve the quality of care. The general objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the available evidence on the association between hospital financial performance and the quality of care. It aims to (1) provide a broad overview of the topic and (2) indicate a more precise research question for a future systematic review. Health systems around the world operate under constant pressure to contain costs and improve the quality of care [1,2,3,4]. Several literature reviews on quality improvement strategies in hospital care can be identified [12,13,14,15], illustrating a variety of approaches in terms of the mechanisms used to improve quality as well as mixed results in terms of the effectiveness of particular approaches
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