The necessity revealed by Covid-19: Paradigm shift of Iran's health system

Abstract

Background: Covid-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes around the world, revealing the vulnerable aspects of health care systems. The purpose of this study is to explore the paradigm shift of Iranian health system and determine the aspects that need improvement, considering the experience of the recent pandemic. Method: This research is a qualitative and thematic analysis study that was conducted using the content analysis method. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and the data was saturated. To increase the accuracy and precision of the study, Guba and Lincoln's four criteria were used. And for data analysis, MAX QDA10 software and Goldsmith's five-step framework analysis were used. Result: The findings identified 8 main themes and 33 subthemes. The main themes included strengthening the electronic health infrastructure, research for evidence-based decision making, dedicated pandemic financing, prevention of disruption in the effective provision of services and drug therapy, enriching the authority of the Ministry of Health by focusing on interactions, recruiting, managing and empowering health human resources and paying attention to financial and non-financial incentives, reforming educational approaches in training students in medical universities, learning lessons from neglects. Conclusion: To be ready to respond to a possible future pandemic, bold steps must be taken to make fundamental changes in various aspects of the health system.