Identifying and Prioritizing Hospital Management Issues to Be Documented in Knowledge Management Systems

The Subject of Knowledge, as one of the most valuable sources of every organization, has recently gained more importance in businesses and industries, especially in governmental organizations. Therefore, this study aimed to explore and prioritize the most important subjects in the field of hospital management to be documented in knowledge management system of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. In 2010 and in an applied study, university professors in the field of health management who had passed mini master of business administration (MBA) courses in the Ministry of Science were included. The number of the subjects was estimated as 45 people. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data. For assuring the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, content validity, face validity, and test-retest reliability methods were applied. Data from 30 questionnaires was analyzed using binomial and Friedman tests in SPSS. Having in depth studies on the literature and the conducted interviews, 70 preliminary hospital management subjects were identified. A total of 29 subjects were finalized and embedded in the questionnaire. The results of binomial test indicated high importance of 26 subjects which implied their importance in documentation in the hospital knowledge management system. This study not only identified important subjects in hospital management, but also prioritized the importance of each factor in a ranked order. Strategic management in hospitals, total quality management, and participative management and leadership were identified as the 3 most important hospital management issues. Identifying and prioritizing hospital management subjects will help managers to allocate their limited financial, human, and time resources to the most important subjects that should be documented in knowledge management systems. Such a method would prevent losing knowledge after the highly experienced hospital managers leave the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.