Observance Of The Patient-Oriented Standards Of Joint Commission International And Its Relation To Attracting Of Health Tourists In Selected Hospitals In Tehran, Iran

Health tourism is considered a national strategy to increase the income of the country and also is considered one of the pillars of national security. This aim of this study was to determine the impact of observing the standards of Joint Commission International (JCI) related to Patient-oriented on attracting health tourists. This research is an applied descriptive- analytical study that is conducted cross-sectional in selected hospitals in Tehran during year 2012. Five hospitals with using purposive sampling were selected as the sample size in this study. The instrument of data gathering is Commission standard checklist JCI which has seven patient-oriented areas. Reliability and validity of this checklist have demonstrated in previous studies. Data was collected by observation, interview and document review. After collecting the data, data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean and Pearson correlation coefficient were used in the statistical software SPSS 16. The rate of observance of the Patient-oriented standards in hospitals was different in this study. The overall average of standard observance was 3.16. Anesthesia and surgical care areas and also standards of Patient and family rights have highest (3/60) and lowest (2/93) mean scores respectively. Results of this study showed a positive correlation (r=0/341) between the observance of JCI standards with attraction of health tourist. Establishments of mechanisms for accreditation of care centers such as JCI standards enhance the quality of health services and will attract more Health tourists.