Research Symposium

BIO

Economics student from Orlando, Florida. Interested in sustainable development, environmental studies, and how firms operate.

Inter-hospital Collaboration: Why Hospitals May Share

Abstract

Is inter-hospital collaboration effective to ensure patient outcomes are favorable? What apprehensions are there that reduce the amount of inter hospital collaboration? Examining 18 existing papers on this topic, literature reviews were conducted to analyze the global usage, apprehension and success rates of inter hospital collaboration and cooperation and what some of the apprehension may be about. The data collected and analyzed within the papers pertained to patient transfer numbers, patient success rates, readmission rates, discharge data, and referrals data.
Through conducting this literature review, results across these 18 papers show a positive correlation between patient outcomes and collaboration between hospital networks, and that the geographical proximity between hospitals shows a correlation to the willingness of the hospitals to work together. The implication of this research points to the conversation of implementing increased utilization of hospital collaboration across the globe, and increased study on this topic to convince hospitals that collaboration is the correct ethical decision when the patient outcome looks favorable.

Keywords: Interhospital, Collaboration, Cooperation