Exposure of Public Sector with the Quasi-Market Through Outsourcing: A Case Study in Iran

Abstract

Objective: Outsourcing as an effective strategy in public management has brought the attention of policy makers for long time ago. This strategy as a public -private partnership arrangement (PPP) was coined to increase efficiency and quality in public organizations .in this study we aimed to investigate the frequency of using common outsourcing models in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences (BUMS).Methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted in year 2020 in BUMS. Research population was all the deputies, hospitals and health networks affiliated to BUMS. This study was carried out in four stages including: literature review, construction of a checklist, quality assurance of gathered data and finally categorization of the outsourced services. Result: Results showed that there was a total of 7 various outsourcing models on which 189 cases of services have been outsourced. 108 cases out of 189 were clinical and the rest non-clinical. Among the outsourcing models, Service purchasing model was the commonest used model and two more models including leases and divesture were lack of use. Conclusion: Results signify that although various outsourcing models are available however, the frequency of outsourced services is still limited, showing that in order to spread the penetration of this strategy it needs to be tackled the obstacles ahead of its successful implementation. Increasing the knowledge of mangers would be definitely an effective solution. Furthermore, capacity –building towards raising the number of private health care providers could facilitate the implementation of outsourcing policy.