Participation of delivering private hospital services in universal health coverage: A systematic scoping review of the developing countries’ evidence

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.