Forty years review of upstream documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran's health sector on strategic purchasing of advanced-expensive medical equipment

Abstract

PurposeAccording to the importance of strategic purchasing as an effective tool for resource allocation and service procurement, this study examines national laws, regulations and other related documents related to the strategic purchasing of health services related to the advanced medical equipment in Iran.Design/methodolgy/approachIt was a national qualitative document analysis conducted in 2019 applying content analysis approach. The four-step Scott method was used to include the documents in terms of authenticity, credibility, representation and meaningfulness. After retrieving the related documents, they were coded with the implicit and explicit approach. MAXQDA10 was used for content analysis.FindingsThe findings show that according to the framework of effective factors on the strategic purchasing of health services, seven main factors are determined as the main essential factors in purchasing advanced medical equipment. These factors consist of health care providers, health service buyers, purchaser and service provider contracts, payment mechanisms, organization and management evaluation of health technology including expensive medical equipment and technology-related.Research limitation/implicationThe study had some limitations as follows: the proposed method should be tested and its feasibility has to be investigated through appropriate tools for Iranian insurance companies and those with the similar settings.Practical implicationThe results of this study can shed more light for policy makers affiliated in Ministry of Health as the main service provider, Ministry of Welfare and the insurance agencies as the main purchasers of health services on paying attention to these seven main themes extracted from the upstream documents and laws and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran.Social implicationThe strategic purchasing of expensive high technology-based medical equipment is a necessity for Iranian public health insurance organizations that is emphasized in national documents in the way of implementing this necessity.Originality/valueThis study examines all the laws and regulations and all related documents in the strategic purchasing of health services related to advanced medical equipment, giving an analysis of the most important challenges and requirements of implementing strategic purchasing in the health services provision sector with expensive medical equipment.