Health system responsiveness after health sector evolution plan (HSEP): An inpatient survey in Kermanshah in 2015

BACKGROUND Responsiveness is one of the three main goals of the health system introduced by World Health Organization. This study aimed at examining health system responsiveness after Health Sector Evolution Plan in Kermanshah, Western Iran. METHODS A sample of 335 hospitalized patients was selected using proportionate allocation to population size method in the city of Kermanshah (Iran) in 2015. World Health Survey (WHS) questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and principal component analysis by STATA 12. RESULTS The overall health system responsiveness score was 72.6. The best and worst performance for domains of dignity and autonomy were 82.2 and 62.5, respectively. Socio-demographic variables of the patients had no significant effect on the total health system responsiveness score. The principal component analysis findings indicated that 68% of the variance of the overall responsiveness score was explained by four components. CONCLUSION The overall responsiveness score of each of the domains was higher than that of other similar previous studies in Iran. Although it is difficult to reach a conclusion, our findings may show better responsiveness of the health system compared to the previous reports.