Challenges of Implementing Patients' Bill of Rights: A Qualitative Study Download PDF

Background and Objectives: Assuring patients' rights is among the most basic duties of all health service providers. In order to fulfill this task, Iranian patients' bill of rights was compiled and communicated. However, its full implementation faces some challenges and problems. This study aims to explore the above-mentioned challenges through a multidimensional approach considering the views of patients, university teachers and students. Materials and Methods: In this exploratory study, insights from key informants including 43 teachers, students and patients were gathered in grounded theory approach, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis method. Results: Barriers to the implementation of patients' rights from the perspective of the participants in this study were classified in 3 main themes including health system characteristics, health care providers' personal and sociocultural characteristics, and patients' personal and sociocultural characteristics. Lack of a proper system of evaluation and control, incomplete information dissemination, undesirable justice in services, inadequate patient participation in decision-making, insufficient human resources, inappropriate work environment (physical and human relations), lack of an ideal system of dealing with complaints, personal problems of service providers, outdated knowledge of service providers regarding patients' rights and about Islamic affairs in addition to social, cultural and ethnic differences among service providers and among patients, are the most important obstacles. Conclusion: Optimal implementation of patients' rights in health centers is related to multiple factors in the areas of economy, culture and society. So, oversimplification should be avoided and all the factors be addressed.