Evaluation barriers, facilitating factors and outcomes of implementing and organizing clinical governance

Clinical governance is a framework through which health organizations are accountable to improve the quality of their services continuously and safeguard high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will be flourished. Since clinical governance approach has been introduced to Iranian hospitals for more than half a decade, and clinical staff have a very important role in implementing and organizing clinical governance, this study aimed to evaluate the clinical staff's attitude toward clinical governance, barriers, facilitating factors, and outcomes of implementing and organizing this approach. The present study was a descriptive analysis conducted in a cross-sectional method at a hospital affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Data were collected using a five-part researcher-made questionnaire (demographic characteristics, attitude, barriers, facilitating factors, and outcomes of clinical governance). Sampling was conducted by the census method, and 147 people of clinical staff participated in the study. Descriptive statistic (percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and analytic statistic (t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient) have been used. SPSS version 20 software was used for data analysis. The results showed that 73.5% of staff had a background of participation in educational programs of clinical governance. Clinical staff's attitude toward clinical governance was moderate (3.18±1.21), and also barriers, facilitating factors, and outcomes were in moderate level. The staff claimed that the biggest barriers were the increasing bureaucracy, regulations, and paperwork (4.01 ±1.91). The most important facilitating factor was educational programs, such as seminars and workshops (3.77±1.20), and the most important outcome of clinical governance was to prevent errors and mistakes in the way of service and learning from them (3.48 ± 1.95). Since the implementation of clinical governance is complex and dynamic, successful implementation and organization of clinical governance require a strategic plan proportional to the structure, location, and facilities of Iranian hospitals based on its barriers, facilitating factors and its constructive outcomes.