Abstract The scope of this study was to analyze the inclusion of general hospitals in Healthcare Networks and the factors that determine their participation in these networks. A "scoping review" was conducted with the selection of 14 articles published between January 2011 and June 2018.

From the mapping of the results the categories of analysis were constituted:

Hospital, regionalization and economy of scale; Fragility of network organization and hospital as first choice; and Hospital and evidence of (dis) integration of the Healthcare Networks. The data revealed factors that determine the performance of the hospitals in the networks, highlighting the inadequate distribution of these services and their levels of scale in the territories; a considerable number of small-scale hospitals; the weaknesses of the organization of networked services, with little integration between the healthcare outlets; and the hegemony of the biomedical model. The conclusion drawn is that the optimal inclusion of general hospitals in Healthcare Networks will depend on the resolution of challenges related to the planning and implementation of actions in the various components of Healthcare Networks, regional availability of health services, improvement of regulatory mechanisms and of communication between the services.