Barriers to healthcare delivery in Iranian prisons: a qualitative study

Ahmad Hajebrahimi; Khalil Alimohammadzadeh; Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini; Ali Maher; Mohammadkarim Bahadori

doi:10.1108/IJPH-01-2020-0008

Barriers to healthcare delivery in Iranian prisons: a qualitative study

Int J Prison Health. 2020 Aug 17;16(4):373-388. doi: 10.1108/IJPH-01-2020-0008.

Authors

Ahmad Hajebrahimi¹, Khalil Alimohammadzadeh², Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini³, Ali Maher⁴, Mohammadkarim Bahadori⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Healthcare Management, School of Management and Social Sciences, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Healthcare Management, School of Management and Social Sciences, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran and Health Economics policy Research Center, Tehran Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Health Services Management, School of Management and Social Sciences, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Economics and Health Policy, School of Management and Medical Education, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Health Management Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 33634668
DOI: 10.1108/IJPH-01-2020-0008

Abstract

Purpose: High quality health-care delivery is not only the governments' responsibility but also every prisoner's right. Health care in prison and, particularly, of Iranian prisoners is increasingly important topic because of the rising number of the prison population. This paper aims to explore health-care managers' perspectives and experiences of prisons and the barriers to health-care delivery in Iranian prisons.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design was conducted in Iran from October 2018 to August 2019. The participants consisted of 51 health-care managers (50 men and one woman) from Iranian prisons. A combination of face-to-face (N = 42) and telephonic (N = 9) semi-structured interviews were used because of the geographical distribution of the respondents. The first part of the interview guide consisted of demographic characteristics, and the second part consisted of three main open ended-questions. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and thematic descriptive analysis was used to interpret the data.

Findings: The barriers to health-care delivery in Iranian prisons were categorized into four main topics: human resources, financing, facilities and barriers related to the health-care delivery process. Data synthesis identified the following themes for barriers to human resources: barriers to human resources planning (with eight sub-themes); barriers to education (with three sub-themes); and motivational barriers (with seven sub-themes). Moreover, barriers to financing consisted of five sub-themes. The barriers to facilities consisted of barriers related to physical infrastructures (with two sub-themes) and barriers related to equipment (with six sub-themes). Finally, barriers to the health-care delivery process included the following themes: communication barriers (with six sub-themes); legal barriers (with five sub-themes); and environmental-demographic factors (with seven sub-themes).

Originality/value: Identifying the barriers to health-care delivery in Iranian prisons plays a critical role in the improvement of planning, decision-making and the health-care delivery process.

Keywords: Health-care delivery; Health-care management; Prison; Prisoner.

MeSH terms

Female
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Iran
Male
Prisons*
Qualitative Research
Quality of Health Care*