Evaluation of the Public hospital Management Training cources in Northwest of Iran

Abstract

Abstract Background and objective: As one of the key assets of organizations, managers are the distinguishing feature of successful organizations from unsuccessful ones. Moreover, the extensive changes in the health system of countries have led to the increasing importance of managers' role in better management of health care organizations because the performance of a system depends on its management. Therefore, improving the level of competency and the performance of managers of health care organizations, including hospitals, is one of the effective components in improving these organizations' performance. This study aimed to evaluate the managers' empowerment program in public hospitals in the northwest of Iran. Methods: This was an evaluation study which was conducted using different methods in two steps. The first step was extracting indicators for evaluating the managerial performance of hospital managers by reviewing the literature. Hospitals managers' perspective regarding management training courses (information management, crisis management, quality management and patient safety, governance and strategic thinking, financial management, human resource management and supply chain and support services) was evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively in the second step. Results: The results showed that working with skilled individuals (96.3 %), working with trained staff (90.9 %), participating in research tour (76.9 %) and attending in groups and educational courses (76.9 %), respectively were the most effective learning methods. 78.52% of participants had a positive attitude (totally agree and agree) twoard the educational courses. Moreover, the courses of supply chain and support services (71.45 %), information management (65.72 %), governance and strategic thinking (65.55 %), as well as human resource management (63.8 %), had the most influence on participants' skills and knowledge level. On the contrary, the courses of crisis management (52.24 %), financial management (55.51 %), quality management and patient safety (58.43 %) had the lowest influence on participants' skills and knowledge level. Finally, according to the qualitative results of the study which was categorized into 5 main themes; strengths (7 sub-theme), weaknesses (6 sub-theme), challenges (6 sub-theme), implications (7 sub-theme) and strategies (8 sub-theme), most of the participants had a positive attitude twoard these courses. Participants also reported that these courses resulted in an increased in their skills and knowledge level. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that participants had a positive attitude toward the courses, and evaluated them as effective. In order to increase the effectiveness of educational courses, it is necessary to address the weaknesses of these courses and challenges related to hospitals managers' empowerment.