Impact of implementation of LDR system on qualitative indicators of maternity services

The importance of hospital quality services in order to best utiliz available resources are not unknown to managers. This is especially important in the maternity sector due to the high density of referrals. Implementation of LDR (Labor, Delivery, Recovery) is one of the new approaches to improve delivery services in the country. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of LDR system on quality of delivery services in two selected hospitals of Qom. Methods and Materials: This is a descriptive-survey study. Data were collected with a cross-sectional approach to compare the quality of service indicators of a hospital with LDR system as a case and a hospital without LDR system as a control group. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire by Poisson sampling and analyzed by SPSS software.

There was no significant difference between the two hospitals except for LDR implementation. There was no significant association between LDR implementation in delivery sector with overall quality of service indicators (3 vs. 2.5) , input, process and output quality indices. However, LDR implementation had a significant effect on some items of these indices (level of significance = 0.05).

According to the research findings, implementation of LDR did not have a significant effect on overall quality of services, but it did affect the subscales of these indices. Therefore, it seems clear that there is a need for proper management policy to control the costs involved in implementing this system.