Prioritizing Medication Management Criteria of National Hospital Accreditation Standards Using FDANP Model

Abstract

Introduction: Accreditation is an evaluating tool of health care systems especially in hospitals: Iran’s Ministry of Health emphasizes its importance. We attempted this descriptive study to classify medication management criteria of hospital accreditation standards using a hybrid approach of fuzzy DEMATEL based on ANP (FDANP). Methods: This study included all Iran’s hospitals. Nine medication management criteria and their sub-criteria were evaluated. AHP questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: The following were demonstrated to be effective: The standards of safe storage of drugs and medical equipment, and providing practical procedure for reporting and controlling medication errors. The other factors were affected by them: Continuous monitoring of drugs and medical equipment utilization was the most affected and not independent factors/standards. Conclusion: Focus should be made on effective standards and their related measures, not on standards affected by other factors/standards.