A Survey on Legal Elements of Outsourcing Contracts for Health Information Management Services in Educational Hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Over the past several years, outsourcing services has received attention from managers in health sector in order to improve the quality of services and reduce costs; managers of the health information systems have also used outsourcing in information management departments. In this study, the frequency of observing legal dimensions in outsourcing for health information management departments of educational hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, was investigated.
In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, the frequency of observing legal elements in the outsourcing contracts for health information management services in five educational hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in four areas including provisions of contract, assignment contracts, confidentiality of patient information, and the status of the essentials and tools was investigated by using a check list. These areas were examined by coordinating with university's legal affairs based in order to study the contracts related to health information management department. The data were analyzed using central indexes at the frequency.
The highest frequency of legal elements observance in outsourcing contracts of various hospitals was related to the confidentiality of patient information with a frequency of 47.1% and the least frequency related to the elements of tools and necessities, which showed that, unfortunately, none of the dimensions of this element were observed. In addition, among five hospitals surveyed, the hospital with the most frequent observation of legal dimensions (B) only had a score of 35.5%, indicating that hospitals and contractors were not paying attention to the legal dimensions of outsourcing.
The findings showed that the overall observance of legal elements in outsourcing contracts for health information management services in hospitals is significantly lower than the ideal. The results can be used by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences to protect the confidentiality and privacy of patients by observing legal dimensions during outsourcing health information services.