Selection criteria of public hospital managers in Iran health system

The importance of management's role in any organization is obvious. Selection and appointment of competent managers in healthcare organizations -given the importance of their services- will also have a significant impact on health systems and communities. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and validate key management skills and competencies to design educational programs and identify and employ the best managers.

This descriptive study consisted of two phases. First, a literature review was performed to identify the required competencies and skills for healthcare management and leadership based on which a five point likert-scale qestionnaire was developed. In the second phase, a Delphi technique was used to collect 20 experts' opinions about the extracted criteria in the questionnaire.

Based on the experts' opinions, eight key criteria including: personality traits, values, basic management knowledge, hospital management knowledge, planning skills, organizing skill and resource allocation, leadership skills, monitoring and supervision skills, and 46 sub-criteria were approved.

Management knowledge is one of most important skills for managers; therefore, it is necessary to revise approaches for selecting managers and change the attitude of hospital managers form autocratic management to leadership and Intra-organizational collaboration and coordination.