Author/Authors :
Shafaghat، Tahereh نويسنده Student Research Committee, School of Management and Medical Information, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz , , Jabbari، Ali Reza نويسنده Health Management and Economics Center (HMERC), School of Management and Medical Information, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan , , Kavoosi، Zahra نويسنده Assistance Professor, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran , , Ayoubian، Ali نويسنده Health Research Center , , Rahimi Zarchi، Mohammad Kazem نويسنده Student Research Committee, School of Man-agement and Medical Information, Shiraz Uni-versity of Medical Sciences, Shiraz ,
Abstract :
Introduction: Medical tourism is one of the competitive and income industries in world and has the ability to attract tourists in the health sector and international markets are totally dependent on international accreditation. This study has been done to evaluate the capabilities of active public and private hospitals in Shiraz regarding attraction of tourists’ base on accreditation standards.
Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study which performed on four hospitals which were active in medical tourism in 2012. A checklist of inter-national accreditation standards based on Joint Commission International (JCI) was applied for collecting data. Data were analyzed using descriptive analytic statistical tests. In descriptive statistics, frequency tables and standard deviation were used for scoring the hospitals. Independent student (T-test) was used to compare the mean of public and private hospitals in attracting medical tourists.
Results: Hospital No.3 in the Patient-Centered Standards and Health Care Organiza-tion Management Standards was in the best position whilst hospital No.2 in the Pa-tient-Centered Standards was in the worst state and hospital no.1 in Health Care Organization Management was in the worst position. Also there was a significant difference between public and private hospitals in attracting medical tourists according to Joint Commission International (sig=0.01).
Conclusion: Shiraz hospitals have good ability to attract medical tourists; these abilities are very good in most cases and in some cases there is a need to improve. Having recognized the strengths and weaknesses of these hospitals can use SWOT analysis model, which is used in medical tourism program of some countries, for improving their abilities in attracting medical tourists.
