Current Trends in Research on Public-Private Partnership Financing Models in Healthcare

Objectives. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have received increased attention over the last decade as a potential modality for successfully tackling healthcare challenges. Different models have been proposed for organising cooperation, building infrastructure and resolving ownership. However, one of the key issues
remains the question of PPPs financing models, which is mainly a matter of public institutions and business structures. At the same time, the question arises as to what extent the scientific community is involved in studying these issues. Therefore, the aim of this research was to analyse trends in scientific publications on PPPs financing models in healthcare.
Materials and Methods. To achieve the aim of this research, a scoping review of scientific articles was carried out to identify research trends and perform mapping on regions and issues covered. Scientific articles were searched for keywords (“public-private partnership” AND “healthcare” AND “financing” AND
“model”) in the PubMed database, the Web of Science platform, and the Scopus database.
Results. The databases showed a gradual increase in the number of articles from 2010, peaking in 2019, and then a relatively sharp decline. Publications in the last five years were predominantly focused on the Asian region and PPPs in primary healthcare. European countries were next in terms of publications, with
the main focus on PPPs efficiency. Moreover, efficiency has not been rated convincingly high and it has been pointed out that the main factors that may encourage PPPs are: stable economic and legal conditions, appropriate allocation of risk, reputable and competent partners, sufficient initial capital, and diversification of the funding sources.
Conclusions. In recent years, researchers’ interest in PPPs financing models has waned. On the other hand, the available research on PPPs efficiency is not conclusive. It is therefore worth taking into account the experience of other countries and carrying out additional scientific research whe n choosing models.