Designing a Process for Developing and Revising a Basic Health Services Package in Iran: A Mixed Methods Study

Using a proper method to prioritize and develop a basic health services package is a serious challenge. This study was conducted to design a process for developing and revising a basic health services package in Iran.

A combined study of quantitative and qualitative methods was used in this study. The qualitative part was conducted through holding 25 in-depth individual interviews and two focus group discussions with experts from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Program and Budget Organization and insurance organizations, while the quantitative part was a descriptive cross-sectional study including 277 experts using a valid and reliable questionnaire.  Data analysis of the qualitative and quantitative parts was done using a content analysis and the SPSS-23 software, respectively.                                                                                                                             

The process of developing a basic health services package includes 4 steps, namely, explaining the list of services in the basic health services package, extracting the criteria for including services in the service package, prioritizing the criteria for including services in the package, and comparing services with priority criteria. In the prioritization stage, disease burden criteria, target groups and community needs were found to have the highest means and recognized as the most important criteria.

The process designed in this study for developing and revising a basic health services package provides policymakers with the required scientific evidence by emphasizing the introduction and continuity of services that have higher priorities and the elimination of services that have lower priorities.