Developing Improvement Solutions for Evaluation System of the Iranian Maternal Health Program: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Maternal health program is one of main domains of the primary health care worldwide. Considering the identified problems in evaluation system of the Iranian maternal health program, this study was conducted to develop improvement solutions for evaluation system of this program. Material and Methods: This was a qualitative study which was performed by the participation of 14 experts in maternal health program. The inclusion criteria included having at least five managerial experiences or 10 years of operative experiences in maternal health program. The study participants were selected using purposive sampling. The researchers conducted three non-structured grouped interviews and two individual interviews to obtain experts’ solutions for resolving identified problems. The content analysis was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: The present study identified improvement solutions for evaluation system of maternal health programs in the form of four main themes. The identified solutions were reported in four main themes including “the evaluation process of the maternal health program”, “the evaluation program tools”, “the clinical information system”, and “the required manpower to execute the program”. The themes related to the “evaluation process of the program” and “the required human resources for the program” had the most and least of the findings, respectively. Conclusion: The identified shortcomings and solutions in this study revealed the reasons for the failure of the maternal health program to achieve its desired outcomes. Undoubtedly, the implementation of the proposed procedures will lead to the quality and performance improvement in this program.

Keywords

• maternal health
• evaluation system
• improvement
• solutions