RESUMO
Clinical governance is a framework in which the organizations providing clinical services are responsible in exchange for the permanent improvement of quality and preserving the service's high standard. It relies on the responsibility to maintain current levels of care and on clinical governance pillars to improve the quality of future care. Also, it is a concept that attempts to integrate the previous methods and tools in measuring and improving quality of care. This descriptive-analytic-interventional study was conducted to evaluate the hospitals of Mashhad before and after the establishment of clinical governance in 2011. Data were collected by both questionnaires and observation. Comparing the range of clinical governance's pillars obtained, from the selected hospitals, showed a significant improvement in all studied axes following the establishment of clinical governance. The highest effectiveness was related to clinical audit, staff management and training axes, whereas the least effective part was the interaction with patients, their relatives and the community. Regarding the significant difference in the obtained results after the establishment of clinical governance in this study, it could be concluded that the establishment of clinical governance and its performance could remarkably improve the quality of health services.