Healthcare Digitalization and Pay-For-Performance Incentives in Smart Hospital Project Financing

This study aims to explore the impact of healthcare digitalization on smart hospital
project financing (PF) fostered by pay-for-performance (P4P) incentives. Digital platforms are a
technology-enabled business model that facilitates exchanges between interacting agents. They
represent a bridging link among disconnected nodes, improving the scalable value of networks.
Application to healthcare public–private partnerships (PPPs) is significant due to the consistency
of digital platforms with health issues and the complexity of the stakeholder’s interaction. In
infrastructural PPPs, public and private players cooperate, usually following PF patterns. This
relationship is complemented by digitized supply chains and is increasingly patient-centric. This
paper reviews the literature, analyzes some supply chain bottlenecks, addresses solutions concerning
the networking eects of platforms to improve PPP interactions, and investigates the cost–benefit
analysis of digital health with an empirical case. Whereas diagnostic or infrastructural technology is
an expensive investment with long-term payback, leapfrogging digital applications reduce contingent
costs. “Digital” savings can be shared by key stakeholders with P4P schemes, incentivizing value
co-creation patterns. Ecient sharing may apply network theory to a comprehensive PPP ecosystem
where stakeholding nodes are digitally connected. This innovative approach improves stakeholder
relationships, which are re-engineered around digital platforms that enhance patient-centered
satisfaction and sustainability. Digital technologies are useful even for infectious disease surveillance,
like that of the coronavirus pandemic, for supporting massive healthcare intervention, decongesting
hospitals, and providing timely big data.