The Impact of Standard Deployment of “International Patients Department” on the Quality of Health Care Provided in Afshar Hospital, Yazd

Medical tourism is one of the main branches of the tourism industry and because of its high incomes and low costs, many countries are seeking to maximize their competitive resources to develop it. Since improving the quality of health care is a key factor in satisfying medical tourists, meeting the standards of the hospitals can guarantee quality services. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of standard deployment of International Patients Department (IPD) on the quality of health care provided in Afshar Hospital in Yazd, Iran. This was a retrospective, descriptive and cross-sectional study. The results of this study were compared with the results of the findings before the introduction of standard of international patients. In this regard, the year 2005 was considered as before the introduction of this standard, and the year 2006 was considered as a follow-up to the implementation of the standard of international patients. All health departments of Afshar Hospital had obtained IPD license from the Ministry of Health. Quality data was collected using a second-level checklist of field validation, interviews with staff and reviewing existing documentation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the scores before and after the establishment of the IPD standard. Data were analyzed with paired-samples t-test by SPSS Software. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant, and 95% confidence interval was calculated Standard deployment of IPD had influence on the quality of health care services in all parts of hospital except radiology, physiotherapy, laboratory, environmental health and drug management wards. The most impact was related to sectors such as angiography (p= 0.001), cardiac surgery (p=0.01), and infection control ward (p=0.02). It can be seen that all of the areas including human recruitment conditions, continuous patient assessment and care, policies and procedures, patient safety, facilities and equipment were used to measure the quality of health services. The field of recruitment of experienced manpower, as well as utilization of facilities and equipment to improve the quality of different parts of the hospital, have the most impact