Challenges of Maintaining the Quality of Hospital Services during the Coronavirus Pandemic in Iran

Hospitals are the main providers of health services during an epidemic. Given their involvement in human life, it is especially vital that they maintain consistent high-quality services.

This study aimed to identify the challenges in the resilience of hospital service quality during the coronavirus pandemic.

This qualitative study was conducted using a content analysis method in the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. Seventeen senior and middle managers of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and from affiliated hospitals assigned as coronavirus centers were included in the study. Data were analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman's method in the MAXQDA 2020 software.

Challenges affecting the quality of hospital services during the pandemic were summarized under 9 main themes, namely "providing human resources, resolving extra-organizational issues, providing tools and equipment, treating psychosomatic disorders, resolving pharmaceutical issues, hospital management, nature of the disease, providing financial resources, and providing physical infrastructure," and 58 sub-themes. Senior and middle managers introduced human resources as the main challenge.

Resilience of hospital service was one of the governing indicators of the Ministry of Health during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite many efforts in this field, there are still numerous challenges in the country's hospitals, highlighting the need for planning to prepare hospitals for epidemic conditions.