Iran passed a Law in 2010 to merge all existing health insurance funds physically together. This stakeholder analysis aimed at revealing that what benefits the stakeholders might lose or gain as a result of merging health insurance schemes in Iran, which make them to oppose or support it. This was a qualitative study conducted in 2014. Sixty semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. Purposive and snowball samplings with maximum heterogeneity samples were used for selecting interviewees. Government is not willing to undertake more financial commitment. Existing health insurance schemes like Social Security Organization and minor well-resourced health insurance funds and also worker unions are unwilling to lose their financial and organizational autonomy, to share their benefits with other less privileged groups, or face likely financial challenges in running their health facilities like hospitals. Top managers and workforces are worried to lose their job, salary, or organizational positions. Ministry of Cooperation, Labour, and Social Welfare does not want to lose its control on health insurance schemes. Ministry of Health and Medical Education and Iran Health Insurance Organization are among actors that support the insurance funds merging policy. Successful implementing of consolidation requires taking into account the interests of different stakeholders.

Abstract:Background: In recent years accreditation programs have been developed to assess the quality of care and patient safety in hospitals. Quality is a multidimensional concept with patient satisfaction as one of the important facets. This study aimed to test any relationship between patient satisfaction and hospital accreditation. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study of seven hospitals in Hamadan, Iran, was conducted in 2013. Patient satisfaction was analyzed through a self-made questionnaire and data on hospitals' accreditation scores were obtained from the Curative Deputy of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20. Results: Our research found out a strong relation between satisfaction scores and length of stay, hospital type, human resources condition, information, communication and education, medical equipment and physical structure, accessibility to clinical services, emotional support, management and coordination of care. Findings also revealed a significant negative association between hospital accreditation and patient satisfaction except for the domain of emotional support. Conclusion: Findings support healthcare managers with helpful information about the variables that are related to patient satisfaction. This understanding will make them capable to meet needs and preferences of patients more effectively. Study also confirmed the importance of developing an accreditation system based on outcome parameters and providing responsive services to patients which can positively impact their satisfaction.

The aim of the research was to examine the effects of satisfaction and commitment of employees on the employees’ loyalty and to investigate the effect of employees’ loyalty on quality of services provided for customers. This research is applied in terms of objective and correlational type of descriptive-survey in terms of data collection. Population of the research includes two groups. The first group included employees providing service to customers of Ports and Maritime Organization of Bushehr (Iran) and the second group included customers receiving the services of the organization. From both groups, 250 people were selected using available sampling method to respond to questions of the research. To test the research conceptual model and research hypotheses, structural equation modeling was used. The results showed that job satisfaction of employees have significant positive effect on organizational commitment of employees. Also, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees have significant positive effect on their loyalty to organization. In addition, organizational loyalty of employees has positive and significant impact on improving the quality of customer service. Therefore, organizations should make their effort to recruit employees who are suitable for their activities.

No abstract

Background Health systems need constant changes and reforms in their structure to adapt to changing conditions and meet the needs of society. One of the fundamental changes in the health system of Iran is the health transformation plan (HTP), the effects of which must be examined from different aspects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of HTP on the performance indicators of public hospitals in Yazd city, Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out in all public hospitals in city of Yazd. Six performance indicators were examined monthly and in two time periods of 12 months before and 12 months after the implementation of Health Transformation Plan (HTP). The data was analyzed by SPSS software program version 22, using the paired T-test, and the Interrupted Time Series (ITS) model. Findings Findings showed that the performance indicators of the studied hospitals have improved after the implementation of the HTP. According to the ITS model, the implementation of HTP did not have a significant effect on the level and trend of the bed rotation distance, average length of stay and the ratio of surgical operations to bed indicators. However, it had a statistically significant effect on the level and trend of mortality and hospitalization rates. Moreover, the implementation of HTP had a significant effect on the level of the bed occupancy rate, but did not have a significant effect on the trend of this indicator. Conclusion Based on the research findings, all the selected indicators changed to some extent after the implementation of HTP, which showed the effect of this plan on the performance of hospitals. However, not all indicators were statistically significant as the findings sub-section revealed.