Evaluation of the health promotion standards in governmental and non-governmental hospitals in East-Azerbaijan

Considering the importance of assessing the program of health promotion hospitals (HPH) for elucidating the compliance with the standards, the present study aimed to evaluate the health promotion standards in governmental and non-governmental hospitals of East-Azerbaijan.

In the present cross-sectional study, all hospitals in East-Azerbaijan province in 2018 were recruited. The Persian validated World Health Organization (WHO) a self-assessment questionnaire was sent to the director of each hospital and invited to corporate with the study. Self-assessment questionnaire consists of 40 measurable elements that assess management policy, patient’s assessment, patient information and intervention, promoting health work placed and continuity and cooperation. Independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the mean score of each standard across hospitals type, location, and size. A significance level of 0.05 was used.

Hospitals total HPH score was 56.06±21.27 (out of 100). Among five standards, Standard 3 had the highest score (66.85±18.80), and Standard 4 had the lowest score (47.79±19.12). The capital cities’ hospitals had a significantly higher score in Standard 5 (p=0.02). Non-governmental hospitals had a significantly higher score in standard 4 (p=0.02). There were no significant differences in all five standards of HPH between hospitals with ≤200 and >200 beds (p>0.05).

The hospitals in East-Azerbaijan-Iran had moderate compliance with HPH program, and they need to improve their performance especially in the field of providing healthy workplace and offering proper education and health-promoting services to patients after discharge.