Reflection on the future of medical care: Challenges of social accountability from the viewpoints of care providers and patients

INTRODUCTION Clearly, there are some challenges and difficulties in fulfilling social accountability which should be identified and dealt with in order to reach the ultimate goal. The main objective of this study was to identify the challenges associated with social accountability. METHODS In this qualitative study, focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interview were used to obtain the opinions and experiences of 35 people with 4 focus groups of students, faculty members, patients and their companions in Jahrom University of Medical Sciences. Purpose-based sampling was performed. The participants asked "What is social accountability?" And then it continued with the more specific question, i.e. "What factors increase or decrease social accountability?" After identifying the categories and sub-categories, conventional content analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS Overall, 97 codes were extracted from the text and five main categories were revealed: notification, sense of responsibility, practical education, and professional status and ethics. CONCLUSION Since there are numerous challenges in the field of social accountability, it is essential that we understand the challenges and barriers and take effective steps to implement reforms.