Public-Private Partnership in Providing and Promoting Health Services; A critical review

Public-private partnerships can provide the health systems with the required resources to prevent disease, render effective care services, and promote individual and community health. The purpose of this study was to review application of the public-private partnership model in the delivery and promotion of health services to investigate the scope of this model and its success in health systems.

This critical review was conducted by conducting a search in the databases of ISI, Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, SID, and Magiran using acombination of the following keywords public-private partnership, health promotion, health delivery, health improvement, health service, health care services, and providing health services. No time limit was considered in the research process.  A total of 238 articles were extracted and reviewed.

Finally, 12 eligible articles were studied, which resulted in 4 main themes: public-private partnerships and prevention, public-private partnerships and infectious-communicable diseases, public-private partnerships and chronic diseases, and public- private partnerships and clinical health services design and information.

The public-private partnerships were successful if supported and organized by the government. In most studied articles, the extent of private sector participation and its benefits were not clear. So, clarification of the interactions between these two sectors will increase the confidence of policymakers in public-private partnerships.