Abstract

Process orientation was one of the new approaches in managerial topics, which were recently considered by the Iranian healthcare centers. The study’s aim is to identifies the main factors of process orientation in health care management arena in Iranian hospitals. To achieve this objective, the main variables were recognized and the questionnaire was determined. Iranian Social security organization’s hospitals were chosen as a sample among all Iranian healthcare centers (n=48).The validity of questionnaire were assured with expert judgment and the reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha and Pearson correlation (1^st and 2^nd times). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Pearson correlation were 0.819 and (p<0.001) 0.951 respectively. The questionnaire was filled out by the research community. After the sample size was proved to be sufficient, the exploratory and confirmatory factors were analyzed. The findings of the present research showed that, after conducting the factor analysis of “process orientation” in health care management, 2 factors were extracted. The factors were “design and implementation of processes” and “control and improvement of processes”. The calculated fitness indexes proved the desirability and appropriateness of structural relations. It may be concluded that these factors have substantial roles in the performance of process orientation and are considered to be the main factors while performing process orientation approach in these organizations.

Key words: Process orientation, Iranian healthcare, social security organization, health care management.