Assessing the health system responsiveness: A qualitative study

Responsiveness is considered as a strategic tool through which organizational performance is evaluated, customer satisfaction is promoted, and operational efficiency and improvement of business operations are achieved. Since the study of the dimensions of accountability of any organization requires the determination of specific indicators for that organization, recognizing the indicators and determining the degree of reliability becomes an important issue.

This qualitative study was conducted in 1399 with content analysis method. Participants were purposefully selected. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview. After conducting 30 interviews with managers, experts and experts, the data were saturated. And was analyzed using Granheim-llandman's qualitative content analysis method.

By reviewing and analyzing the interviews, 6 main themes and 84 sub-themes were extracted. The main themes include designing an appropriate structure for accountability, considering trustees for accountability of the health system, defined and independent management for accountability, predicting units outside the health system for accountability, designing an appropriate model for customer-centered accountability, use indicators and checklists to assess the accountability of the health system.

This study identified six strategies for evaluating health system accountability to be suggested to managers and policymakers, and to consider these strategies when planning to evaluate health system accountability.