Effects of Iran's Healthcare System Reform Plan in the Viewpoint of Staff Working in Government Hospitals in Mashhad

Iranian healthcare reform plan was devised to improve and expand health care services to Iranian nation and has been implemented since May 2014.
This qualitative-descriptive study was conducted during May to September 2015 by performing a survey among medical and administrative staff in two governmental-university hospitals in city of Mashhad. In addition to demographic features and employment status of the participants, the survey questionnaire contained two open-questions asking respondents to express their opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of the reform plan. Respondents could provide only 3 entries in answer to each question.
One-hundred and nine respondents participated in this survey. Mean age of the respondents was 31.7±8.3 years, and most of them were men (61.5%). In terms of working position, the majority of participants were physicians (50.4%). The most frequent advantages expressed by the participants were: "maintaining social justice, increase in insurance coverage and reduction of health costs for patients" (59.6%), "increase in patients’ satisfaction of health care services" (27.5%), "increase in revenue received by employed physicians and hospital staff" (24.8%). The most common disadvantages in respondents’ viewpoint were: "increase in the number of patients / crowded hospitals" (59.6%), "great gap between the number of patients and the number of medical personnel, thus increasing the workload of medical staff" (49.5%) and "inadequate infrastructure prior to the implementation of the plan and thus disproportionate facilities for patients after starting the plan"(31.2%).
It is indeed evident that the Iranian healthcare reform plan has lead to great achievements; nonetheless, resolving the problems expressed by the staff of governmental hospitals will increase the utility and efficiency of the plan and will result in bilateral satisfaction between staff and patients.