Patient-centered knowledge sharing in healthcare organizations: Identifying the external barriers.

OBJECTIVE: This paper reports on a research study, which aims to identify, qualify, and theorize the external barriers that prevent and hinder the exercises and activities of patient-centered knowledge sharing (KS) in healthcare organizations.

METHODS: The project adopted a qualitative secondary analysis approach as the overarching methodology to guide the analysis of data collected in a previously completed research study. Specifically, 46 semi-structured interview data were included and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

RESULTS: The secondary analysis showed that healthcare KS is strongly influenced and hindered by five external barriers: social belief and preference, cultural values, healthcare education structure, political decisions, and economic environment and constraints. Moreover, the research findings suggest that these external barriers cannot be overlooked in KS implementation and operation in healthcare organizations and should be carefully assessed beginning in the early stages of KS design and strategic planning.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Based on the secondary analysis, this paper proposes a conceptual model, which will contribute to the development of hypotheses in the future for building a generalized knowledge. The case study used is Chinese healthcare, but the KS problems studied can be shared across international borders.