Managers' knowledge on patient rights in Tehran hospitals

Abstract Background: Currently, increased knowledge of patients over their rights has been accompanied with greater demands and expectations and thus, it is of prime necessity to all members of medical care including hospital managers, to be fully aware of such rights. Objective: To comparatively determine the managers' knowledge on patient rights in Tehran public and private hospitals. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out in 2004. All managers of public and private hospitals in Tehran were included (n=70). Data were collected using a 36-question questionnaire and further analyzed by SPSS. Fisher and χ2 tests were used for statistical analysis. Findings: Among the public hospitals managers, 34.5% were found with good level of knowledge on patient rights, 48.5% with medium and 17% with poor knowledge. In the same way, 23% of private hospitals managers were shown to have good level of knowledge, 54% with medium and 23% with poor knowledge on patient rights. There was no meaningful difference between the levels of knowledge among two groups. Conclusion: Based on data found in our study, lack of good knowledge on patient rights was obvious among the managers of both public and private hospitals. Since the knowledge is considered as a solid base for appropriate functionality, it could be predicted that the performance of hospital managers on patient rights to be in parallel with the extent of their knowledge. Thus, a comprehensive series of training courses on “patient’s bill of rights” for health care members including hospital managers is suggested.