A literature review of cross-border patient mobility in the European Union

Abstract

With the present literature review we set out to examine patient flows across Europe; to identify the types of patients, actors and factors which contribute to patient mobility; and to highlight the similarities and differences between cross-border initiatives as well as the broader implications they might have, bearing in mind that any literature review is limited by the availability of material. The scope of the study was defined as covering “concrete examples (…) where at least one patient moves across a border to be treated by a health care provider” (ch.1); with this focus in mind we carried out a literature search and the subsequent analysis. Yet it should be mentioned that it was not always an easy task to find and get hold of existing material, that documents do not all live up to the same quality standards and that by definition we could only include practical experiences which we found written material on. We are aware that there might be a certain bias in the review in terms of representativeness as some larger and better funded projects tend to be more documented and as we might not know about material in languages we do not cover (mainly from the ‘new’ Member States). As a consequence, some regions and countries have been described and analysed more extensively than others – without necessarily meaning that nothing happens in other parts of the EU, just that we have not found documentation in it.