A Systematic Review of Network Studies Based on Administrative Health Data

Abstract

Effective and efficient delivery of healthcare services requires comprehensive collaboration and coordination between healthcare entities and their complex inter-reliant activities. This inter-relation and coordination lead to different networks among diverse healthcare stakeholders. It is important to understand the varied dynamics of these networks to measure the efficiency of healthcare delivery services. To date, however, a work that systematically reviews these networks outlined in different studies is missing. This article provides a comprehensive summary of studies that have focused on networks and administrative health data. By summarizing different aspects including research objectives, key research questions, adopted methods, strengths and weaknesses, this research provides insights into the inherently complex and interlinked networks present in healthcare services. The outcome of this research is important to healthcare management and may guide further research in this area.

The impact of public leadership on collaborative administration and public health delivery

“…It worth noting that collaborative administrative patterns could lead to speci c outcomes at the network level [101]. For governmental entities, building strong and weak ties can serve for different health administration purposes related to administrators' characteristics and organizational environment [102,103]. A particular collaborations pattern (collaborative administration) could push performance upward or downward due to the type of resources transmitted via collaborations which may or may not be suitable to mitigate uncertainty in the external environment [104].…”

The Effect of Interdependences of Referral Behaviors on the Quality of Ambulatory Care: Evidence from Taiwan

“…The methodology of network analyses is growing in importance in the field of healthcare service research due to its capacity to analyze relational phenomena such as collaboration and coordination between healthcare entities and their inter-reliant activities. 22,23 The applications of network analysis for healthcare service research include the analyses of the patient referral pathway, 24,25 the spread of infectious diseases, 26,27 the dissemination of health technology, new drugs and health intervention programs, [28][29][30] the formation of collaborative networks of health professionals, 31,32 the impact of care coordination and patient-sharing networks on cost and quality of care, [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] and others.…”

Understanding health system operation using networks: A literature review

“…Building on the work of Brunson and Laubenbacher (2018), Karim, Uddin, Imam, and Moni (2020) published a systematic review of network studies based on administrative health data. This study included a small sample of only 29 articles due to the strict inclusion criteria of the dataset being specifically for administrative use.…”

“…This study included a small sample of only 29 articles due to the strict inclusion criteria of the dataset being specifically for administrative use. Karim et al (2020) sought to create a taxonomy of network study types in a similar way to Brunson and Laubenbacher by categorising the network types. In this way they identified four main network types and four sub-types of professional collaboration network.…”