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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1507729

Models of Community Hospitals and State of Research in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

Provisionally accepted
Min Hui Tan Min Hui Tan 1*Sharna Seah Sharna Seah 1Xin Yi Seah Xin Yi Seah 1Simone Teo Simone Teo 1Jeremy Leow Jeremy Leow 1Lian Leng Low Lian Leng Low 1,2
  • 1 SingHealth, Singapore, Singapore
  • 2 Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Existing literature have not reviewed the growing spectrum of care models in Community Hospitals (CH) along with the scope of research. We fill this gap by reviewing CHs models in high-income countries.: We conducted a scoping review according to Arksey & O'Malley's framework [1]. We searched for articles published between January 2016 to April 2024 in EMBASE, PubMed, and Scopus. Additional studies were identified through snowballing. Results: 470 studies were included in the review. CHs models in 22 countries were categorized based on healthcare services provided and target patient populations. CHs in 18 countries were found to provide COVID-19 services. CHs in eight countries primarily provide post-acute and rehabilitative services. 40 articles were extracted to synthesize research themes in CHs providing post-acute care. Majority focused on assessing the healthcare needs of patient populations. Other domains include program efficacy, research and educational needs of staff, clinical guidelines reviews, and the community's role in supporting CHs. Conclusion: CHs evolve to meet changing healthcare needs and understanding the state of CHs research would inform potential research directions. Future studies could explore the relationship between post-acute settings and the community, and strategies to enhance staff capability and address barriers to conducting research in post-acute settings.

    Keywords: Post-acute care, Models of care, Community hospitals, Research, Scoping review

    Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tan, Seah, Seah, Teo, Leow and Low. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Min Hui Tan, SingHealth, Singapore, Singapore

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.