Azami-Aghdash Saber, Ghaffari Samad, Sadeghi-Bazargani Homayoun, Tabrizi Jafar-Sadegh, Yagoubi Alireza, Naghavi-Behzad Mohammad
Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
J Cardiovasc Thorac Res. 2013;5(1):23-8. doi: 10.5681/jcvtr.2013.005. Epub 2013 Mar 18.
Cardiovascular diseases are among the most prevalent chronic diseases leading to high degrees of mortality and morbidity worldwide and in Iran. The aim of the current study was to determine and develop appropriate indicators for evaluating provided service quality for cardiovascular patients admitted to Cardiac Care Units (CCU) in Iran.
In order to determine the indicators for evaluating provided service quality, a four-stage process including reviewing systematic review articles in premier bibliographic databases, interview, performing two rounds of Delphi technique, and holding experts panel by attendance of experts in different fields was adopted. Finally, after recognizing relevant indicators in resources, these indicators were finalized during various stages using ideas of 27 experts in different fields.
Among 2800 found articles in the text reviewing phase, 21 articles, which had completely mentioned relevant indicators, were studied and 48 related indicators were extracted. After two interviews with a cardiologist and an epidemiologist, 32 items of the indicators were omitted and replaced by 27 indicators coping with the conditions of Iranian hospitals. Finally, 43 indicators were added into the Delphi phase and after 2 rounds of Delphi with 18 specialists, 7 cases were excluded due to their low scores of applicability. In the experts' panel stage, 6 items were also omitted and 10 new indicators were developed to replace them. Eventually, 40 indicators were finalized.
In this study, some proper indicators for evaluating provided service quality for CCU admissions in Iran were determined. Considering the informative richness of these indicators, they can be used by managers, policy makers, health service providers, and also insurance agencies in order to improve the quality of services, decisions, and policies.
心血管疾病是全球和伊朗最普遍的慢性疾病之一，导致了很高的死亡率和发病率。本研究的目的是确定并制定合适的指标，以评估伊朗心脏监护病房（CCU）收治的心血管疾病患者所接受服务的质量。
为了确定评估所提供服务质量的指标，采用了一个四阶段的过程，包括在主要文献数据库中检索系统评价文章、进行访谈、开展两轮德尔菲技术，以及召集不同领域的专家参加专家小组会议。最后，在识别出资源方面的相关指标后，利用27位不同领域专家的意见在各个阶段对这些指标进行了最终确定。
在文本检索阶段找到的2800篇文章中，研究了21篇完全提及相关指标的文章，并提取了48个相关指标。在与一位心脏病专家和一位流行病学家进行两次访谈后，剔除了32项指标，并替换为27项符合伊朗医院情况的指标。最后，将43项指标纳入德尔菲阶段，在与18位专家进行两轮德尔菲后，由于适用性得分较低，排除了7项。在专家小组阶段，又剔除了6项指标，并制定了10项新指标来替代它们。最终确定了40项指标。
在本研究中，确定了一些用于评估伊朗CCU收治患者所提供服务质量的合适指标。考虑到这些指标丰富的信息量，管理者、政策制定者、卫生服务提供者以及保险机构都可以使用它们来提高服务、决策和政策的质量。
