An Assessment of the Positive Effects of Health Reform Plan Implementation from the ‎Perspective ‎of Hospital Directors

The health system reform plan is currently being implemented in Iran due to the emphasis of health ýpolicy makers and planners on the financial protection of patients, equity in access to health services, ýand improvement of the quality of hospital services. This study aimed to investigate the positive ýeffects of health reform plan from the perspective of hospital directorsþ.
This qualitative cross-sectional study was conducted in December, January, and February of 2015. ýSemi-structured interviews were used for data collection. The participants were selected through ýpurposive sampling from among hospital directors and managers in Tehran, Iran. The content of 18 ýinterviews were audio-typed, transcribed, coded, and then, analyzed using NVivo software.
The positive effects of health reform plan implementation were categorized into 8 themes and 21 ýsub-themes. The main themes were insurance coverage of patients in need of healthcare, ýperformance indicators improvement, hospital management system modification, interhospital ýreferral system improvement, improvement of patient payments control and management, ýimprovement of selected quality indicators, increased health system accountability, and increased ýhospital income.
Implementation of the health reform plan in Iran may result in the increasing of patient satisfaction ýand improving of health services quality if sustainable financial resources can be provided for the ýplan.