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ABSTRACT
Objectives
In 2015, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) developed and introduced an operational plan (OP) mandatory for implementation for all medical sciences universities. Through this program, a set of indicators were defined for the annual assessment of the universities’ performance. This study examined the effect of OP implementation on universities’ performance and the healthcare system.
Methods
We compared seven key performance indicators before and after OP implementation related to public health, education, research, nursing, treatment, food and drug and student affairs. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests and Wilcoxon tests were used for data analyses using SPSS 26.
Results
Of 32 studied indicators, ten indicators were not affected by the OP. Of 22 indicators, including public health (7 indicators), education (2 indicators), research (2 indicators), nursing (5 indicators), treatment (1 indicator), food and drugs (4 indicators), and student (1 indicator) that changed, 17 have improved.
Conclusion
OP implementation reached some of its intended goals. The existing OP program process should be replaced with evidence-informed health policies and programs to achieve significant changes in health system functioning and overall public health.
Acknowledgements
This study is form part of RA’s PhD dissertation, supervised by LD and supported by Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Approval ID:IR.TBZMED.REC.1398.876).The authors thank all the experts in this study for their participation and valuable comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Financial disclosures/funding statements
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for its financial support. This project was part of a PhD thesis that was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at TBZMED (63534).
Précis
Operational planning implementation reached some of its intended goals. The existing operational planning program process should be changed and replaced with evidence-informed health policies and programs to achieve significant changes in health system functioning and overall public health.