Evaluating the Health Reform Plan in Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital, Tehran in 2010- 2017 Using the Balanced Scorecard

The performance evaluation of the health system is a method of measuring the success rate of this system in fulfilling its objectives.

The present study was conducted to measure the performance of the Health Reform Plan (HRP) in Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran; in terms of reducing the expenses of inpatients and promoting natural childbirth using the balanced scorecard.

The present descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study was performed using the balanced scorecard and the data associated with 2010 - 2017, i.e., four years before to four years after implementing the HRP. The data collected were analyzed in SPSS V. 21 using the paired t-test.

Executing the HRP caused significant increases in the average hospitalization cost from 14439773 to 30966249 IRR, the number of natural deliveries from 283 to 455, the number of cesarean sections, the average basic health insurance coverage, the bed occupancy rate, the number of inpatients, the number of surgeries, the satisfaction of inpatients, and the number of nurses per special and ordinary beds. Moreover, this plan significantly reduced the patient share of hospitalization costs from 31.5% to 6.5%, the patient share of the cost of medication and medical supplies from 32% to 11.7%, and the average length of stay from 7.1 days to 6.5 days (P < 0.05).

The HRP has been able to take effective steps towards the financial protection of citizens in public teaching hospitals as its primary and most important objective. Indicators associated with reductions in inpatients’ expenses are recommended to be paid more attention and revised from the perspective of growth and learning, and promotion of natural childbirth indices from the perspectives of internal processes and customer appreciation.