Patients and Public Involvement in Patient Safety and Treatment Process in Hospitals Affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2013.
BACKGROUND
In the recent decades, healthcare providers had a perspective of benevolent paternalism. Nowadays, the patients' role has changed and they have a significant obligation to participate in their caring decisions.


OBJECTIVE
The current study aimed to investigate the involvement of patients and public in the patient safety and treatment process in hospitals affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran, 2013.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted in the hospitals affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences in 2013. Subjects included all of the 18 chief managers, 10% of nurses in each hospital, and 375 patients. Data collection instruments included a questionnaire and a checklist designed according to the research objectives. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS ver. 13. Descriptive statistics, percentage and frequencies, were calculated for all variables and analyzed by Chi-square test.


RESULTS
In the treatment process, 81 patients (21.61%), 50 nurses (80.6%) and 15 chief managers (83.3%) had awareness about Patient Bill of Rights. In patient Safety, 19.73% of the patients stated that hospitals received their feedbacks. Management activities were weak in evaluation. All of the six hospitals (100%) had a defined process to perform satisfaction surveys' quality improvement and patient authentication policy.


CONCLUSIONS
Patient and public participation in Kashan hospitals are not adhered well. As the patient has an important role in improving the quality of services, more use of mass media especially local newspapers, hospital websites, and training programs are suggested to inform both the patients and public on their rights and roles in improving the healthcare services.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Atoof
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Mohammad Reza
MR
Eshraghian
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Mahmood
M
Mahmoodi
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Kazem
K
Mohammad
Health Information Management Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, IR Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Rangraz Jeddi
Health Information Management Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, IR Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Abootalebi
Consumer Participation; Decision Making; Patient; Patient-Centered Care