Reviewing the Status and Experience of Outsourcing Policy in Healthcare: A review study

Abstract

Background: Outsourcing is a method and tool for delivering services to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Regarding the outsourcing policies, identifying experiences and outsourcing records is essential. In this regard, the present study aimed at examining the status and experience of outsourcing policy in the health sector as a review study.

Methods: The present systematic review was carried out by searching Persian language articles from sources such as Magiran, SID, Hospital and Medical Education Magazines, Handouts, and Announcements and English language articles from sources indexed in Google scholar, PubMed, Scopus databases. The authors search for English and Persian language articles from 2000 until 2018. The following keywords were used in the search outsourcing, private sector, purchasing, contracting, public-private participation. A total of 25 articles were entered in the final analysis according to the inclusion criteria.

Results: Based on the results, outsourcing improves the quality, satisfaction of patients, and efficacy in most cases. The findings also suggested that outsourcing policies needed to be prescriptive and should be taken into consideration.

Conclusion: Hospitals should note that in the case of assigning a unit and transferring it to other parts not related to their expertise, it is not really possible to accept the transfer's general and absolute success in improving efficiency and effectiveness and reducing costs. The outsourcing policies need to relevant assumptions and requirements to succeed.