Despite their central role in healthcare delivery and their consumption of the lion’s share of national health budgets, hospitals in many emerging markets remain poorly governed, underfunded, and unevaluated. Hospitals have long been neglected by external stakeholders such as donors and multilateral institutions, and considered “black holes” by government ministries that fund facilities but provide limited governance or accountability. Historically, patients have borne the brunt of this negligence, shouldering high costs for poor quality of care.
This report proposes a Global Hospital Collaborative to transform the emerging market hospital landscape by promoting knowledge sharing, research, and cooperation between global experts and stakeholders in hospital governance, management, financing, and related fields. It was produced by the Hospitals for Health Working Group housed at the Center for Global Development, in collaboration with Aceso Global CEO Maureen Lewis and CTO Gerard La Forgia.
The proposed Collaborative would synthesize and centralize the vast but fragmented knowledge, research, and best practices related to hospital management and financing, as well as integration with the broader health system, and add to this knowledge base through additional research. The Collaborative is imagined as a forum for exchange that can lead to concrete improvements in health on the ground. Potential projects and products could include a web-based knowledge clearinghouse, conferences and webinars, data measurement and analysis, peer-to-peer learning exchanges, and in-country technical assistance.