Developing Iranian primary health care quality framework: a national study

BACKGROUND: Providing comprehensive and high-quality services is one of the most important goals of the health systems and a basic principle for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Fulfilling this important task would be feasible through continuous evaluation and improvement of the health services quality. The aim of this study was to develop a framework for quality assessment of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Iran’s health system. METHODS: This study is a literature review which continued by a qualitative research. The extracted quality dimensions and indicators for initial screening were reviewed and discussed in two panel meetings attended by the experts with regard to the current package of health system in Iran. Using Delphi method, the dimensions and Quality Indicators(QIs) were evaluated and approved by 39 national health professionals in two rounds. Finally, after 4 panel sessions at ministerial level, the selected QIs were categorized in form of the final dimensions of the quality of care. RESULTS: The literature review emerged 13 Primary Health Care Quality Assessment Frameworks (PHCQAF) including 20 and 698 QIs. Delphi study resulted in developing Iranian PHCQAF comprising 7 dimensions and 40 QIs. Among these, 8 QIs of the dimension of access and equity, 5 QIs of safety dimension, 2 QIs of efficiency dimension, 13 QIs of effectiveness dimension, 2 QIs of patient-centeredness dimension, 3 QIs of governance dimension and 7 QIs of appropriateness dimension were presented. CONCLUSIONS: The presented PHCQAF can be used as a comprehensive and practical tool for continuous improvement of the quality of PHC services at local, national and regional levels. Moreover, it can give some useful information to the health managers and policy makers on how the services are provided. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7237-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.