An investigation of the status of access to health and treatment centers and its relation to disability services in the city of Shiraz

All citizens have the right of easy access to health and treatment services without any discrimination and irrespective of their physical health status, whereabouts, and their type of illness or time of access to the services. Hospitals and treatment centers are the main and pivotal service centers that must be easily accessible to all people, the fact that is among the most principal objectives of social development and justice. The research in areas of disability services, human respect and esteem among citizens especially those suffering from disabilities are considered of utmost importance which can lead to valuable information in this regard. The present research aims to study the status of access to health and treatment centers and its relation to disability services in the city of Shiraz. The population under study included all public and private health centers in the city of Shiraz in 1392. The number of statistical sample was determined through Cochran formula and from 120 centers. Also, 120 individuals with disabilities including hard of hearings, blinds and those with physical problems residing in Shiraz who referred to these centers were selected in non-probability sampling method. To observe the status of samples' access, a check list whose validity was previously confirmed was used. Also, in order to determine the disabled individuals' views about improvement of conditions as well as providing service in health centers a questionnaire with 10 items was used. The validity of this questionnaire was previously determined. For statistical analysis SPSS 19 and Spearman's Correlational Test was used to compare the relationship among the acquired data. The amount of improvement in 120 centers was calculated 50.55 according to the checklist and opinions of the disabled. In this study and in all aspects, no significant correlation was found between the improvement of health centers and giving services. The correlation between services and parking space, stairs, elevator and other administrative sections was significant (p=0.05). According to the results of this study, the most suitable sections of health centers were elevators, pathways and passages, patients' waiting salon, public furniture, administrative sections, steep levels, rest rooms, gates and windows, stairs, lobby and parking space which had the worst status of improvement. According to the views and opinions of those individuals who filled the disabled questionnaire it can be concluded that elevators had the best improvement status (75.01%) regarding the improvement while parking spaces had the worst situation.