Self-assessment of health promoting Hospital’s activities in the largest heart Hospital of Northwest Iran

BACKGROUND: Health Promoting Hospitals are among the major health promoters of the society. To acquire Health Promoting Hospital (HPH) status, a hospital must self-assess to know their inadequacies and then lay the foundation for improvements. This study has been performed with the aim of assessing readiness of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran regarding the HPH standards. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted through the participation of 270 administrative and clinical staff of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran. Data were gathered using self-assessment tool for health promoting hospitals including demographics and the HPH standards. HPH standards’ dimensions were Management policy, Patient assessment, Patient information and intervention, Promoting a healthy workplace, and Continuity and cooperation. Analysis was performed by SPSS v. 16 with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The participants included clinical (67.4%) and administrative (32.6%) staff. Among the HPH standards, the lowest score belonged to the management policy (1.44 ± 0.53) and the highest one to the patient information and intervention (1.72 ± 0.47). The average score of compliance with the HPH standards was 1.60 ± 0.40 which shows moderate progress of the hospital towards the HPH standards. CONCLUSION: Regarding the moderate situation of the hospital in HPH standards and the low score of the management policy, the studied hospital should enforce the standards, especially in the management policy. Also, there is a need for health promotion programs in all three levels of prevention with the participation of the staff and the patients as much as possible.