'Outsourced oxygen to the bedside' in five countries: a qualitative implementation assessment

Access to medical oxygen remains a challenge, with 60% of the world's population lacking access to quality oxygen services. We explored whether 'outsourced oxygen to the bedside' (O2B), where private providers offer bundles of oxygen services to health facilities, could be adopted and scaled across diverse health systems, to improve patient access to oxygen.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with healthcare workers (HCWs), facility management staff and district medical officers in India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, who had taken part in an O2B pilot. Interviews were conducted between 19 November 2024 and 25 January 2025 and explored the feasibility, fidelity, acceptability, perceived benefits and weaknesses of five O2B models. Analysis used a pragmatic codebook approach, with inductive and deductive coding, informed by implementation science frameworks.

We conducted 59 interviews across 20 health facilities. We identified five themes relating to the potential for O2B pilots to be adopted within the health system: a positive effect on oxygen culture, feasibility of whole of facility solutions, promotion of local ownership, lack of feasible payment schemes and the desire for hybrid tailored service models. HCWs and facility staff raised several positive factors within these themes but highlighted that understanding local facility needs and tailoring the services to embed within existing structures were important for sustainability.

Overall, the O2B service approach was feasible and perceived positively by health facility managers and HCWs. However, the effective scale of O2B services will require intentional tailoring to individual facility needs and improved strategies for financial affordability and sustainability.