Transition towards health promoting hospitals: adapting a global framework to Pakistan

Self-assessment of health promoting Hospital's activities in the largest heart Hospital of Northwest Iran

BACKGROUND

Health Promoting Hospitals are among the major health promoters of the society. To acquire Health Promoting Hospital (HPH) status, a hospital must self-assess to know their inadequacies and then lay the foundation for improvements. This study has been performed with the aim of assessing readiness of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran regarding the HPH standards.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted through the participation of 270 administrative and clinical staff of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran. Data were gathered using self-assessment tool for health promoting hospitals including demographics and the HPH standards. HPH standards' dimensions were Management policy, Patient assessment, Patient information and intervention, Promoting a healthy workplace, and Continuity and cooperation. Analysis was performed by SPSS v. 16 with a significance level of 0.05.

RESULTS

The participants included clinical (67.4%) and administrative (32.6%) staff. Among the HPH standards, the lowest score belonged to the management policy (1.44 ± 0.53) and the highest one to the patient information and intervention (1.72 ± 0.47). The average score of compliance with the HPH standards was 1.60 ± 0.40 which shows moderate progress of the hospital towards the HPH standards.

CONCLUSION

Regarding the moderate situation of the hospital in HPH standards and the low score of the management policy, the studied hospital should enforce the standards, especially in the management policy. Also, there is a need for health promotion programs in all three levels of prevention with the participation of the staff and the patients as much as possible.

The Impact of Setting the Standards of Health Promoting Hospitals on Hospital Indicators in Iran

Hospitals play a critical role in the health promotion of the society. This study aimed to determine the impact of establishing standards of health promoting hospitals on hospital indicators in Shahroud. This applied study was a quasi-experimental one which was conducted in 2013. Standards of health promoting hospitals were established as an intervention procedure in the Fatemiyeh hospital. Parameters of health promoting hospitals were compared in intervention and control hospitals before and after of intervention (6 months). The data were analyzed using chi-square and t-test. With the establishment of standards for health promotion hospitals, standard scores in intervention and control hospitals were found to be 72.26 ± 4.1 and 16.26 ± 7.5, respectively. T-test showed a significant difference between the mean scores of the hospitals under study (P = 0.001).The chi-square test also showed a significant relationship between patient satisfaction before and after the intervention so that patients' satisfaction was higher after the intervention (P = 0.001). Commenting on the short-term or long-term positive impacts of establishing standards of health promoting hospitals on all hospital indicators is a bit difficult but preliminary results show the positive impact of the implementation of standards in case hospitals which has led to the improvement of many indicators in the hospital.

Health promoting hospitals: a study on educational hospitals of Isfahan, Iran

Background: The current situation of health promotion (HP) services in hospitals of Iran is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the status of HP in hospitals in Isfahan, Iran.

Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey in which 9 educational hospitals selected through census sampling. HP self-assessment was used for the data collection. The assessment teams formed, and evidence examined in line with the tools.

Results: The results identified five categories of HP activities in the hospitals consisted: patients,staff, environmental, community, and organizational. The mean of total score of HP was 48.8(9.8). In terms of the HP standards scores, 5 hospitals (55.5%) were at the intermediate level;3 hospitals (33.3%) were at the weak level, and 1 hospital (11.1%) was at the good level.About the standards, the highest score was "information and patient interventions" standard 79.8 (13.5), and the lowest was "continuity and cooperation" standard 36.2 (10.8).

Conclusion: It seems that some of the health promoting hospitals (HPS) duties carried out by hospitals. So, to improve the quality of health services, it seems useful to encourage policymakers and health service managers to create coherent policies and guidelines in HPS.