A Comparative study on organizational positions of health management and information technology department of hospitals and proposing a model for Iran

Introduction: Human resources in hospitals are one of the most important factors that play a key role in the information management plans success. This study was carried out with the aims of proposing an organizational jobs and positions model for health management and information technology department in Iranian hospitals. Methods: Our descriptive study was completed in two phases. In the first phase, the organizational positions of the mentioned department were extracted from the selected countries and in the second phase a total of 22 unique organizational positions were sent to 36 experts to ask their opinions. Checklists and the researcher’s questionnaire were tools used to collected information in the first and second phases, respectively. After collecting questionnaires, their agreement and disagreement with various dimensions of the suggested model was appraised using descriptive statistical indicators and SPSS Software. Results: The organizational positions related to management department are health information manager and health information senior manager. The organizational position of management and IT is IT manager, statistician, Health information management expert, Information storage and retrieval expert, information analyzer, health informatics and IT expert, IT expert in-charge, and clinical coder. Conclusion: Lack of an organizational structure proper with a department may be problematic for employees of that department who intend to fulfill their jobs. Since in Iran Medical Records departments work mostly based on manual activities and information technology has been marginalized, it is stressed that information management and IT departments perform in concert information related affairs of hospitals, which helps them to achieve their main objectives