The relationship between organizational health and performance indicators of Iran University hospitals

Objective: To investigate hospital employees perception on organisational health, and to examine the contribution of organisational health to hospital performance indicators. Methods: The explanatory study was conducted over six months in 7 teaching hospitals affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences. A sample of 320 hospital employees were chosen through a random, cluster, sampling strategy from four job categories: hospital support, nursing, paramedical and medical staff. The pre-designed Parsons model was adapted to develop the study questionnaire, aiming at measuring the organisational health, while self-designed checklists were used to measure performance indicators of the relevant hospitals. SPSS18.0 software was used for statistical analysis.Results: Of the total 320 questionnaires distributed, 20(6.25%) had to be discarded. The study population, as such, was 300(93.75%). Of then 216(72%) were males and the largest group (n=111; 37%) was in the 30 -39 age group. According to the respondents perception, all hospitals were assumed healthy. Although two dimensions of organisational health institutional integrity and initiating structure were closely linked to some hospitalperformance indicators (p≤0.05), but the overall organisational health scores of the hospitals showed no correlation with performance indicators. Conclusion: Organisational Health Index has the potential to offer a simple diagnostic tool for healthcare authorities to measure the organisational health of their facilities.