Critical success factors for public private partnership (PPP) in hospital services

BackgroundGiven the importance of health services delivery, especially under a public-private partnership agreement, attention to the related success factors is overly essential. This study thus intends to explore critical success factors and analyze the agreement of public and private partners on these factors in hospital services.MethodA mixed-method study was conducted; first in a qualitative phase the critical success factors, via 25 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with the purposely recruited hospital managers, heads of diagnostic services, and managers of private companies were identified. Interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using conventional content analysis, assisted by "MAXQDA-12". In the quantitative phase, the consensus upon these factors were sought using a questionnaire survey and analyzed according to the RAF analysis.ResultsA number of 52 factors categorized under nine main categories represented the key, agreed-upon success factors for implementing PPP. The highest agreement was on the 'Legal aspects of partnership' and the lowest upon the 'Partnership execution'.ConclusionsWeak agreement among the partners could evidently jeopardize the success of any PPP initiative and there is a need for more interaction and negotiation to have a win-win partnership.