Strategies to develop and promote public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the provision of hospital services in Iran: a qualitative study.
BACKGROUND
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been constructively considered in recent years to reform health sectors in many countries. This study aimed at explaining the strategies to develop and promote PPPs in the provision of hospital services in Iran.


METHODS
This qualitative study was conducted in 2015. The study population consisted of experts and professionals of the health system and individuals familiar with PPPs and roles in the development of such models in hospital services in Iran that were selected through purposeful sampling, and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. To this end, 18 experts and professionals of the health system and individuals familiar with PPPs and roles in the development of such models in hospital services in Iran were selected. The data were analyzed and classified using MAXQDA10 software and content analysis, respectively.


RESULTS
According to the results of this study, four main themes and 20 subthemes in terms of strategies to develop and promote PPPs in the provision of hospital services in Iran were identified, including changes in policies and laws, socio-cultural changes, improvement of mechanisms and current processes, and financial and capital capacity building.


CONCLUSIONS
To develop and promote PPPs in the provision of hospital services, there is a need to consider prerequisites and measures to help such partnerships to be effective and produce valuable results.
Ph.D. Candidate of Health Services Management, Department of Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Ahmad
A
Sadeghi
Ph.D. of Health Services Management, Assistant Professor, Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Omid
O
Barati
Ph.D. of Health Services Management, Assistant Professor, Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Peivand
P
Bastani
Ph.D. of Economics, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.
Davood
D
Daneshjafari
Urologist, Associate Professor, Department of Urology, Hasheminejad Kidney Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Masoud
M
Etemadian
Public-Private Partnership (PPP); hospital services; qualitative study