Intrahospital Mortality Rate after the Implementation of the Second Phase of the Health Sector Reform in Comparison with Before that in Iran

Abstract

Background: The second phase of the health sector reform, called the Health Sector Evolution Plan (HSEP), has been implemented in Iran since 2014, aims to improve the equity and quality of health services. In the present study, we aimed to measure the trend of hospitalization and the crude intrahospital mortality rate from 1 year before the HSEP implementation (2013) to 5 years after the HSEP implementation (2018) in public hospitals compared with profit, nonprofit, and charity hospitals, which are affiliated with the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (MUI). Methods: In a prospective, cross-sectional study, the data related to the frequency of hospitalized patients and intrahospital mortality during the time of hospitalization were collected through census sampling from 39 public hospitals as the exposed hospitals and 20 profit, nonprofit, and charity hospitals as the control hospitals. Results: After HSEP implementation, the frequency of hospitalization increased in public hospitals by 50.45 compared with the previous period. Although the crude intrahospital mortality rate increased from 12.61 to 12.93 per 1000 hospitalized patients (an increase of 2.54) in public hospitals, the raise was not significant (P value = 0.348). The frequency of hospitalization increased in Social Security Organization's (SSO) hospitals as well as charity hospitals. However, the percent of decrease in the intrahospital mortality rates were -42.96, -34.76, and -18.47 in the private, charity, and SSO hospitals, respectively, but was not significant (P value > 0.05). Conclusions: The crude intrahospital mortality rates in public hospitals affiliated with MUI did not change significantly after the implementation of the HSEP.