Assessment of Technical Quality of Pregnancy Care in Shahid Chamran Health Centers in Tabriz, 2014

Technical quality of health care, compared with whatever is presented on the basis of scientific evidence as a standard service, is an important aspect of the quality in health services and everything that customer receives. The purpose of this study was to assess the technical quality of prenatal care according to the standards of the Ministry of Health from the perspective of pregnant women at Shahid Chamran Health Centers in Tabriz.

This was a cross-sectional study based on CQMH model. Forty pregnant women were selected randomly from the women who referred to Shahid Chamran Health Centers. We used standard questionnaire for collecting data which its validity has been tested and its reliability was confirmed. (Cronbach's alpha,. 952)

The findings of the study showed that the highest level of compliance with the standard was the examining of women and listening to fetal heartbeat (16.7%) in the clinical examination. Regarding the prenatal care standard, the highest level of compliance was in oral health education (6.8%) which is 80% lower than the standard and 13.3% higher than the standard. These findings also indicated that education about bleeding and spotting is 90% lower than standard. Prescribing pharmaceutical supplements was higher than standard. In part of paraclinical services, the highest level of compliance with standard was the number of blood tests (50%) that was 6.7% lower than standard and 43.3% higher than standard.

A significant proportion of pregnant women statements indicated the underuse and overuse of the standard which leads to a need for indispensable changes in order to improve the quality of prenatal care according to the standards of the Ministry of Health. Standards were in poor condition at the clinical examinations and prenatal care educations fields which require appropriate intervention based on the results of this study.