HOSPITAL RESPONSIBILITIES IN HEALTHCARE NETWORKS: A SCOPE REVIEW

Abstract

The objective of this review was to map evidence and gaps in the literature regarding the roles that hospitals have played in healthcare networks in Brazil and worldwide. This is a scoping review that followed the recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). Our study used the BVS, Medline via PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases, applying the following keywords: Hospital Care, Community health networks, and Integrality in Health. A total of 86 publications were selected, presenting the following main roles of hospitals within the health networks: promoting coordination with services for continuity of care, permanent and/or continuing education, coordination with families and communities, health education, dissemination of innovations and health information, promoting responsible discharge, monitoring procedures in the territory when necessary, and the role of liaison professionals. Our results found that 49.41% of the selected publications were Brazilian. Brazil stood out in the number of publications and for advancing discussions in which hospitals act as co-responsible agents for therapeutic projects, working in a horizontal relationship with the health service network. The interconnection between hospitals and primary health care (PHC) continues to be a major challenge. The hospital, as an important component of the health network, was presented in this review as a dynamic facility that can assume a wide range of roles depending on the network in which it is inserted and the challenges to which it is exposed.