Compliance of General Health Clinics to National Licensure Standards: A Survey in Northwestern Iran

Abstract

<strong>Background and Objectives: </strong>Monitoring of health organizations by the regulatory bodies is crucial to ensure high performance of health system. Although Iranian health settings are monitored by the MOHME in various ways, periodic evaluation of their continuous commitment to the national licensure standards in health domain is rare. The aim of the present study was to highlight the important of such evaluations by auditing the general health clinics of Tabriz (a metropolitan city in Northwestern Iran) based on national licensure standards.<br /> <br /><strong>Methods: </strong>This across-sectional study surveyed all general health settings in Tabriz city. The data were collected using a validated researcher-made checklist. The collected data were summarized using descriptive statistical methods. The mean values were compared by t-test and ANOVA.<br /> <strong>Findings: </strong>The score of compliance to national licensure standards averaged at 70.5%. The highest level of compliance was observed for <em>medical and non-medical devices</em> dimension (78.2%) whereas the loest compliance was recorded for <em>hygiene</em> dimension (58.4%). Public clinics showed a significantly higher compliance to standards compared to the private settings (P < 0.05). Also a significant difference in total compliance score was identified between clinics with >and <br /><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The level of current compliance of the surveyed clinical settings shows room for considerable improvement. Private health settings and the <em>hygiene</em> domain are the primary targets of focus for monitoring and intervention. Our results encourage further national-wide studies to gain a comprehensive view of the compliance of Iranian clinics to the licensure standards.