Adherence to facility management and safety standards in Shiraz hospitals, Iran

Background: Evaluate the adherence to facility management and safety standards among governmental and non-governmental hospitals in Shiraz, Iran. Methods: In this cross sectional study, 22 hospitals of the 33 hospitals in Shiraz, Iran including 13 governmental and 9 non-governmental facilities were surveyed. A 74-item self-administered questionnaire was used. Collected data were entered to SPSS Version 15.0 software. The level for statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results: Adherence to facility management and safety standards was 65.17% in governmental and 72.79% in non-governmental hospitals. Compliance by governmental hospital in the areas of leadership and planning, safety and security, emergency management, medical equipment, utility system and staff education ranged from 60% to 86%. However, hazardous materials and fire safety adherence was below 50%. For non-governmental hospitals standard compliance for all areas ranged from 60% to 86%. Compliance rates between governmental and non-governmental hospitals in the areas of hazardous materials and staff education standards were statistically significantly different (p=0.02 and p=0.05 respectively). Conclusions: To achieve more effective functional health care services, additional studies must be undertaken to assess the nature and extent of problem areas that exist in planning, implementing and monitoring of facility management and safety programs.