Abstract
Background and objectives : Nowadays, respecting patients’ rights is the principal concern of hospital administrators to improve quality and patient satisfaction. It is also one of the most important competitive advantages for hospitals. Since administrative personnel are at the top of the healthcare team, their awareness of patients’ rights is essential for better implementation of these rights. This study was conducted to determine the extent of administrative personnel awareness of patients’ rights in Tabriz educational hospitals in 2009.
Material and Methods : This descriptive-analytical study was conducted as cross-sectional by census method with the contribution of 55 participants (including hospital administrators, supervisors and matrons) of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used for data collecting. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were applied for data analysis. Chi-square and Fisher tests were used to compare the relationship between variables. SPSS 10 was used for data analysis.
Results : In total, 1.8% of the managers had poor awareness, 76.2% average and 22% of the managers had good awareness. The findings of the awareness divided by administrators, supervisors and matrons are as follows: poor, average and good awareness of managers were (0%, 10%, 7.2% respectively). Also, poor, average and good awareness of supervisors were (1.8 %, 47.3%, 14.8 % respectively). The awareness of all matrons was on average in patients’ rights. The rate of good awarenessamong hospital managers had the highest rank compared with other groups. By investigating the relationship between individual variables and awareness of patients’ rights, there was a significant and inverse relationship between job experience and knowledge about the patient’s rights. The findings indicated that 63.3% of studied subjects had no training course about patient’s rights.
Conclusion : The moderate knowledge and awareness of administrative personnel about the patients’ rights indicated necessity of implementation of combined strategies for improving the awareness level. Educational courses, continuous training on patients’ rights in educational curriculum of medical sciences fields can be applied to promote the awareness of health care staff about patients’ rights.