Designing an Administrative Model for Iranian Charity Hospitals

Introduction and Healthcare is considered as one of the most important indicators for determining the level of development in all societies. To this end, hospitals play an important role and the role of the charity hospitals which provide healthcare for poor patients is of great importance. Therefore, understanding and analyzing the administrative manner of these hospitals is crucial. The main goal of this study is to design an administrative model for charity hospitals in Iran. Information from Library documents including books, scientific magazine, and domestic foreign texts documents as e-mail, electronic database and also contact with several charity hospital executive in several countries and visiting charity hospitals in other countries were used. Further information gathered about weaknesses and strengths of charity hospitals in Iran, and several foreign countries charity hospital models. The primary model was designated and after analyzing various view points, reviews and criticism by scholars and experts, the final model was presented using the Delphi method. This study showed that charity hospitals in Iran are managed in different ways without any specific model and do not supported financially by the government. A number of these hospitals are not autonomous. In charity hospitals outside Iran, different management styles were being used, but they were not managed like Iranian charity hospitals and most of them were foundations or companies. Furthermore, a number of them were not managed as charity hospital since the nationalization of healthcare had taken place. Whereas the cost of healthcare in private sector is very expensive and most of them do not have contracts with insurance companies, charity hospitals can have an important role in providing healthcare for the society. Using model described in this paper could be helpful in responding to the needs of poor clients.