ABSTRACT
Introduction: In recent decades, the quality of educational programs has experienced several challenges. Identifying these challenges can help planners in terms of any change, review, or enhancement in the quality of educational programs. This study aimed to survey the challenges of Health Services Management program at the bachelor level
Methods: In this qualitative study, 27 participants [Academics, Instructors, and Alumni] took part in the research. Participants were chosen based on purposive sampling. After verbal consent, data were gathered through in-depth and semi-structured interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and content analysis approach was used for further analysis
Results: A deep concern about the curriculum, clinical fields and program goals/objectives emerged as the strongest themes from the interviews. It seems that the current curriculum and objectives of bachelor program of health services management are outdated and less effective than they should be. Furthermore; participants felt that clinical fields should be taken into consideration by means of orientation classes, hospital-based skills and skillful trainers
Conclusion: The findings can be helpful for decision makers, educational planners and academics to review the existing program and plan a more suitable one based on the needs of the health care system in the country in order to help alumni gain the required skills and competencies to run the health care units
ABSTRACT
Medical-Services Insurance Organization [MSIO] is one of the major financial health institutions in Iran. The obligation of the optimal use of the resources has made the evaluation of the efficiency of this organization necessary. The purpose of this study was to measure the efficiency and the ranking of all the head offices of MSIO in Iran. This applied cross-sectional study was descriptive in nature. The study population constituted all the 31 head offices of MSIO. To determine the efficiency through Data Envelopment Analysis, the information related to the inputs and outputs in 2009 were collected from the Office of Statistics and Information of MSIO by means of self-developed checklists. APDEA Model was run in EMS software to estimate the efficiency. The mean values of the three types of efficiency of the head offices of MSIO, namely; technical, managerial, and criterion were 0.5093, 0.5851, and 0.8292, respectively. Considering the findings of AP-DEA model of Data Envelopment Analysis, the capacity of efficiency promotion at these head offices- using the same amount of inputs without any increase in fees- is approximately 17 percent. The findings indicated that AP-DEA Model could better measure the efficiency capacity of MSIO head offices compared with the basic DEA models. It was also found that those offices showing efficiency capacity less than one bear a surplus of inputs in human resources, physical space, and overhead expenses. The development of a comprehensive plan aiming at reducing these inputs can help reach the optimal efficiency