Identifying and prioritizing challenges related to promoting the health system performance assessment in Iran

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Because the performance assessment of the health system is used as the basis for decision-making and demonstrates progress or failure in achieving the goals of the health system, promoting the health system performance assessment can play a major role in improving and enhancing the health system. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to identify and prioritize the challenges of promoting the health system performance assessment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: There were two approaches in both qualitative and cross-sectional studies. At first, using semi-structured interviews with 52 performance appraisers, data related to the challenges of promoting the health system performance assessment were collected and thematically analyzed. Then, in cross-sectional terms, the performance appraisers were provided with researcher-made checklists which contained a list of challenges to determine the priority of challenges by scoring. The data were handled and analyzed using MAXQDA Plus version 12 and Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: Our results revealed five themes and ten subthemes on the challenges of promoting the health system performance assessment. Themes (subthemes) included infrastructures (cultural and technological), implementation (organizational support, process, and responsibilities), human resources (motivation and training), assessment (performance monitoring), and content of measures (reliability and validity). We also prioritized 31 listed challenges in three priority groups, including below average, average, and above average. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that promoting the health system performance assessment in Iran can be accomplished by allocating financial and nonfinancial motives to the performance assessment staffs, using performance assessment results in policymaking, clarifying tasks of assessment process executors, and reviewing and adapting the performance assessment indices according to contingencies in the health system.