Reference no: EM133343674

Assignment:

There is a dearth of empirical work on hospital level priority setting practices and more so in smaller, rural hospitals in developing country contexts.

The majority of empirical papers identified focused on hospital priority setting in larger, often referral hospitals in developed countries.

Factors at play in hospital priority setting practices include (1) contextual factors such as decision space, resource availability, financing arrangements, availability and use of information, organizational culture and leadership, (2) priority setting processes, (3) content factors such as such as priority setting criteria and (4) actors, their interests and power relations.

Research that aims to examine priority setting practices in hospitals would benefit from applying a health policy lens to their analysis.

Economic criteria included historical budgeting, revenue generating potential, budget impact and costs to patients. Cost effectiveness was a criterion considered in only two studies. Consideration was, however, given to whether the new interventions were affordable.

Informal criteria. Informally, personal relationships and mutual benefit, lobbying, level of ambition and bargaining ability of departmental heads and political interests among actors often dominated priority setting decisions especially in developing countries.