RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Use of environmental scans in health services delivery research: a scoping review
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e050284
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050284
VO 11
IS 11
A1 Patricia Charlton
A1 Terri Kean
A1 Rebecca H Liu
A1 Daniel A Nagel
A1 Rima Azar
A1 Shelley Doucet
A1 Alison Luke
A1 William Montelpare
A1 Kim Mears
A1 Leah Boulos
YR 2021
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/11/e050284.abstract
AB Objective To examine the extent and nature of evidence on the use of the environmental scan (ES) in the health services delivery literature.Design Scoping review.Methods This scoping review followed the five-stage scoping review methodology outlined by Khalil et al. A Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies was completed. Seven electronic databases and the grey literature were searched. Pairs of researchers independently performed two levels of screening and data extraction. Data were analysed using qualitative content and thematic analysis.Results Ninety-six studies were included in the scoping review. Researchers conducted ESs for many purposes, the most common being to examine the current state of programmes, services or policies. Recommendations were informed by ESs in 20% of studies. Most common data collection methods were literature review (71%), key informant or semistructured interviews (46%) and surveys (35%). Over half (53%) of the studies used a combination of passive (looking at information eg, literature, policies, guidelines) and active (looking for information eg, surveys, interviews) approaches to data collection. Person sources of data (eg, healthcare stakeholders, community representatives) and non-person sources of data (eg, documents, electronic databases, the web) were drawn on to a similar extent. The thematic analysis of the definitions/descriptions yielded several themes including instrument of discovery, knowledge synthesis, forward-looking and decision making. Research gaps identified included absence of a standard definition, inconsistencies in terminology and lack of guiding frameworks in the health services delivery context.Conclusion ESs were conducted to gather evidence and to help inform decision making on a range of policy and health services delivery issues across the continuum of care. Consistency in terminology, a consensus definition and more guidance on ES design may help provide structure for researchers and other stakeholders, and ultimately advance ES as a methodological approach. A working definition of ES in a health services delivery context is presented.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as online supplemental information. Most data relevant to this study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. The study protocol and the data dictionary for the data elements in the scoping review are available upon request from the corresponding author.