Intercultural Health: Healthcare Strategies in Hospitals—A Qualitative Meta‐Synthesis

Background Health inequalities can undermine health indicators, so interventions are needed to address this problem comprehensively through intercultural healthcare strategies. Objective This review aimed to describe care experience, strategies, and interventions for culturally relevant healthcare for people from indigenous groups receiving in‐hospital treatment. Design A systematic review using qualitative meta‐synthesis in keeping with Sandelowski and Barroso. Methods Four databases were reviewed: WOS, Scopus, PubMed, and CINAHL, using the following search terms: Indigenous People AND Delivery of Healthcare OR Health Action AND Culturally Competent Care from March 10 to December 18, 2022, and then updated from January 8 to September 30, 2023. Eligibility criteria were applied, and only original qualitative articles that address the healthcare experiences of indigenous populations at hospital centers from the perspective of end users and service providers were selected. The search spanned the last five years (2018–2023) in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The search was conducted using Equator Network guidelines, COREQ criteria were applied to qualitative research. NVivo 14 software was used for coding and thematic inductive analysis. Results Seventeen original and primarily descriptive qualitative studies ( n = 853 participants) were included, 88.2% of which correspond to high‐income countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Four main strategies emerged: (1) organizational culture, (2) cultural collaboration between healthcare systems, (3) intercultural competence, and (4) hospital environment. Conclusions Changes in care are required through establishing organizational culture and executive leadership to develop cultural competencies in work teams. This would attain cultural safety in care provision via collaboration between healthcare systems in hospital settings and ensure equity in care services.