Comparing the levels of hospital’s social accountability: Based on ownership

ABSTRACT

Background and objective: Social accountability is an effective strategy for improving the quality and performance of health-care service providers. This research aimed to compare the social accountability levels of hospitals based on the kind of their ownership.

Material and methods: This applied research was conducted in 2016. Research population included hospitalized patients in different selected hospitals located in Golestan province, Iran. 361 patients were selected as the study sample by applying Kochran's sample size formula in 95% confidence interval. The Persian version of a standardized questionnaire made by World Health Organization was used for measuring the social accountability. Data were analyzed in SPSS.

Findings: The total mean rate of social accountability in the private hospital was the highest (135.55 ± 15.55). There was a significant difference in social accountability rate among studied hospitals based on the kind of their ownership (p < .001). Taking the kind of ownership into account, there was a significant difference among the hospitals in the all components of the social accountability in favor of the private hospital (p < .05).

Conclusion: The social accountability has better status in the private hospital than that of social security and teaching ones.

KEYWORDS:

• Hospitals
• social accountability
• ownership
• private
• teaching
• social security

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the managers and personnel of hospitals who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Contributors: MAJ, GM, SHM, FHR contributed to the conception and methodology of this work; FHR collected the data and administered the project; MAJ, HN, FHR contributed to the formal analysis; MAJ, FHR investigated the work; HN, FHR provided the software; MAJ, GM supervised the work; FHR, MAJ, GM, SHM wrote the original draft; MAJ, GH helped in writing – review and editing.

Ethical approval: Primarily, the study received ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of College of Islamic Azad University (IR.IAUSARI.REC.1395.24). To gain access into the hospital, letters were collected from the management of the hospitals, names of patients completing the questionnaire were not indicated and participation in this study was voluntary, and written informed consent was given by the patients.

Implications for practice: There is not any study on comparing the levels of social accountability in hospitals based on the kind of their ownership. This study tried to bridge the gap and its findings can be beneficial to hospital managers in scientific and comprehensive their weakness in Accountability and planning for improving their social Accountability in Hospitals with different ownership, to be able to improve the satisfaction of patients as well as employees job satisfaction and better performance through appropriate responses.

Notes on contributors

Ghahraman Mahmoudi is associate of Health services management (Ph.D), Faculty member of department Health care Management, Head of Department of Health care Management, Associate of Hospital administration research center, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran. Departmental (universal) website is: www.iausari.ac.ir, Email: [email protected].

Mohammad Ali Jahani is an Associate of Health services management (Ph.D), Faculty member of department public education and Associate of Social determinants of Health Research Center, Health Research Institute, School of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Departmental (universal) website is: www.mubabol.ac.ir, Email: [email protected].

Fatemeh Hosseini Rostami is Master of science in management of health services and a researcher in non-faculty of Golestan University of Medical Sciences. Active in research for 2 years. 2 published article in health care management. Universal website is: www.goums.ac.ir. E-mail: [email protected].

Shahrbanoo Mahmoudjanloo is PH.D. student in healthcare management in Islamic Azad University and in non-faculty of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (Universal website is: www.mazums.ac.ir). E-mail: [email protected].

Hossein Ali Nikbakht is PhD student in Epidemiology and a researcher in non-faculty of Babol University of Medical Sciences. Active in research for 8 years. About 25 published article in health care management, epidemiology and public health. Departmental (universal) website is: www.mubabol.ac.ir, Email: [email protected].