Structural and non-structural safety status of Tabriz primary health care centers

The healthcare environment should provide the highest level of safety for staff and clients. This study aimed to assess the structural and non-structural safety status of Tabriz primary health care centers.

This cross-sectional study assessed 40 comprehensive healthcare centers in Tabriz, Iran in 2019. The data collection instrument was a self-designed questionnaire We assessed the compliance of comprehensive healthcare centers with the standards checklist through conducting interviews, considering observations, and reviewing the documents. The descriptive results for qualitative data were reported as frequency (percentage) and for quantitative data as mean (standard deviation). Furthermore, to evaluate the association between contextual variables and physical safety status of centers, t-test, ANOVA, and Tukey’s post hoc tests were used as appropriate (structural or non-structural).

The results of the study showed that the level of structural, non-structural, and total safety for the physical space of the centers was 48.2%, 37.4%, and 43%, respectively. Accordingly, based on cutting points, the level of structural safety and total safety was identified as moderate, and the level of non-structural safety was identified as low. In addition, descriptive results showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between urban area and non-structural safety so that non-structural safety of centers located in zone 4 was significantly higher than the safety of centers located in zone 10 (P = 0.011).

Based on the findings, the safety status of Tabriz health centers was identified as unfavorable and will not able to provide proper services to their covering population in serious hazards.