Networks for healthcare delivery: a systematic literature review

Network configurations have been proposed as an efficient form of organisation and a promising area of research; however, a lack of conceptual clarity can be noted. The purpose of this review is to allow for a broad appreciation of network configurations and provide guidance for future studies of the concept.

A systematic literature review was conducted based on the PRISMA method; Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and the Cochrane Library were searched for conference proceedings and journal articles describing organisational networks to integrate resources aimed at care delivery. Around 80 articles were included in the final review and analysed thematically and by use of bibliographic coupling.

The last decades have seen an increase in the frequency of articles describing networks for healthcare delivery. The most common contexts are care for multiple and/or long-term conditions. Three clusters of articles were found, corresponding to different conceptualisations of networks in healthcare: efficiency-enhancing cooperation, efficiency-enhancing integration and involvement for cocreation.

To increase conceptual clarity and allow the research on network configurations in healthcare to produce meta-learnings and guidance to practice, scholars are advised to provide ample descriptions of studied networks and relate them to established network classifications.

The current review has only included articles including networks as a key concept, which provides a focused overview of the use of network configurations but limits the insights into similar approaches not described explicitly as networks.