How Do MOHME-Affiliated Hospital Libraries Comply with the National Standards?

Hospital libraries have a special role in providing knowledge-evidence-based services to their users, including medical staff, patients, and their families. The present study aimed to evaluate the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME)-affiliated hospital libraries of Iran based on the national standard approved in 2021 by the National Standard Organization.

The present research is an applied study regarding its purpose and a descriptive survey regarding its method. The study’s statistical population includes 213 hospital libraries of 60 universities of medical sciences affiliated with the MOHME of Iran. The data collection tool is a researcher-made checklist extracted from the national standard book of hospital libraries. SPSS software was used for data analysis.

The obtained results revealed that, in common, less than 50% of the hospital libraries of medical universities in Iran complied with two components of the Organization and nine components of Resources Management standards: five components of Human Resources Management and four components of Physical, Environment, and Equipment Management.

MOHME-affiliated hospital libraries have fundamental weaknesses in the key components of Organization standard and Resource Management standards, i.e., human resource management and physical resource, environment, and equipment management, and do not comply with the standards. Therefore, taking practical measures by officials and stakeholders to improve the services, the quality of patient care, and, ultimately, the satisfaction of patients, their families, and users are essential.