A Survey on the Satisfaction of Retaining Physicians in Underserved Areas of Yazd in the Implementation of Healthcare Reform

One of the causes of health inequalities in deprived areas is lack of equitable distribution of human resources, especially physicians. Retention of general practitioners and specialists in deprived areas is one of the service packages of health system reform plan to deprived areas in order to prevent physician shortages. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the satisfaction of retaining physicians in underserved areas of Yazd province in the implementation of healthcare reform. The present study was conducted as a cross-sectional one. The study population included all physicians participating in the persistence project of Yazd province in the first quarter of 2016; of whom 94 physicians who participated in the study were randomly selected. The data collection tool was questionnaire and data analysis software SPSS 21 was used using descriptive statistics, frequency and percent. During the study, 63.4% of physicians were involved in the persistence project on a voluntary basis. 47.1% of them were satisfied with their income after implementation of the transformation plan and 75.4% were satisfied with the facilities placed at their disposal. Finally, 52.1% of retaining physicians were very satisfied and 23.4% was fairly satisfied with the implementation of the healthcare reform plan. Considering that the overall aim of the program which is the benefit of the public health services through the constant presence of specialist physicians in the hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the results showed that the main indicators of the program has been in relatively good condition.