Economic Consequences of Outsourcing in Public Hospitals in Iran: A Systematic Review

There are many ambiguities and contradictions in the economic consequences of outsourcing services in public hospitals. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to systematically review the economic consequences of outsourcing in public hospitals in Iran.

The information required in this systematic review study was collected using relevant keyword searches in the databases of PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar, SID, and MagIran without time limit. Textual data were analyzed manually by the content analysis method.

Finally, 20 articles were included in the study. Three types of rental outsourcing, managerial, and public-private partnership were reported in the studies. In five studies, the whole hospital was outsourced. None of the studies had a control group. A total of 51 indicators were used, most of which were total revenues, total costs, and personnel costs. The mean study time of the outsourcing effects was 24.2 months. The results of most studies showed the positive effects of outsourcing in economic terms. The most important achievements of outsourcing included reducing costs and increasing profitability, and the most important obstacles included the existence of hidden costs, imposing additional costs on patients, lack of economic stability, and lack of economic evaluation.

The results showed that outsourcing has been economically successful in many wards and services of public hospitals; however, in some cases, outsourcing has led to increased costs. Therefore, more attention should be paid by hospital managers and health policy makers to identify the influencing factors and negative consequences of outsourcing.