Why Do We Need an Evidence-Based Book/Encyclopedia to Improve Hospitals’ Performance After COVID-19?

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Global efforts and initiatives have been taken by health policymakers to mitigate pandemic harm to health systems in the last three years. To improve health system performance evaluation (PE), all aspects should be considered together. A deficiency in the PE of one aspect can have a devastating effect on the health system or the organization’s overall performance, even if the other aspects are improved. We aim to analyse which books/encyclopedias to improve the performance of hospitals after COVID-19 were published. Additionally, we aim to develop a holistic tool that gathers the PE dimensions of hospitals together. Methodology We searched for books and encyclopedias published between January 2020 and February 2023 in the databases of Springer Nature, ScienceDirect, Oxford Academic, and Wiley book publishers. We also searched the Book Depository store. We screened the titles and then the descriptions if required to search for a book that aimed at gathering evidence-based approaches to improve hospital PE dimensions from all perspectives. Improvements were made to the BSC-Health v1 to engage patients, doctors, and nurses. Results We found 2180 books and encyclopedias. However, few have been developed to improve the PE of hospitals after COVID-19. BSC-Health v2 has 62 dimensions and can be used to perform holistic PE for hospitals. Conclusion Existing books/encyclopedias concentrated on reviewing only one dimension or perspective. The use of BSC-Health v2 will offer a guide to researchers to gather evidence-based narrative reviews on all hospital PE dimensions. Additionally, it will allow hospital managers to engage important stakeholders in PE. We solicit the collaboration of researchers from around the world in compiling an encyclopaedia that gathers interventions that have been proven to improve the performance of hospitals after the pandemic based on the BSC-Health v2 dimensions. The encyclopaedia will provide insights for hospital managers regarding the initiatives made globally by other hospital managers and will allow them to view all the causal relationships between dimensions as one system. Finally, the encyclopaedia will offer valuable teaching material for undergraduate and postgraduate health policy students.