Abstract:

This paper reports on a literature review, which aims at investigating current research progress and theoretical development of knowledge sharing (KS) in the Chinese patient referral healthcare services. The literature review was framed in four dimensions, namely, current KS performance, knowledge flow in the referral services, KS channel and tools, as well as barriers to KS. It was found that the implementation of KS in the patient referral services is rather problematic. Moreover, the existing communication tools and channels were evaluated as incapable of facilitating KS. Also, this literature review identified six KS barriers, based on which three solutions were developed. Also, it is identified that KS in Chinese patient referral services is rather under-investigated. This paper is one of a few theoretical contributions to the healthcare KS problem and, is valuable and important.

Key words: Patients referral, 　Knowledge sharing, 　Knowledge sharing channels, 　Knowledge sharing barriers, 　Information flow