فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Growth and development in any country’s national health system, without anefficient evaluation system, lacks the basic concepts and tools necessary for fulfilling thesystem’s goals. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a technique widely used to measure theperformance of an organization. The basic core of the BSC is guided by the organization’svision and strategies, which are the bases for the formation of four perspectives of BSC. Thegoal of this research is the performance evaluation of Al-Zahra Academic Medical Center inIsfahan University of Medical Sciences, based on Iran BSC model. Materials and Methods:This is a combination (quantitative–qualitative) research which was done at Al-Zahra AcademicMedical Center in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2011. The research populationswere hospital managers at different levels. Sampling method was purposive sampling in whichthe key informed personnel participated in determining the performance indicators of hospitalas the BSC team members in focused discussion groups. After determining the conceptualelements in focused discussion groups, the performance objectives (targets) and indicatorsof hospital were determined and sorted in perspectives by the group discussion participants. Following that, the performance indicators were calculated by the experts according to thepredetermined objectives; then, the score of each indicator and the mean score of eachperspective were calculated. Results: Research findings included development of the organizational mission, vision, values, objectives, and strategies. The strategies agreed upon bythe participants in the focus discussion group included five strategies, which were customersatisfaction, continuous quality improvement, development of human resources, supportinginnovation, expansion of services and improving the productivity. Research participants alsoagreed upon four perspectives for the Al-Zahra hospital BSC. In the patients and communityperspective (customer), two objectives and three indicators were agreed upon, with a meanscore of 75.9%. In the internal process perspective, 4 objectives and 14 indicators were agreed  upon, with a mean score of 79.37%. In the learning and growth perspective, four objectivesand eight indicators were agreed upon, with a mean score of 81.11%. Finally, in the financialperspective, two objectives and five indicators were agreed upon, with a mean score of 67.15%.Conclusion: One way to create demand for hospital services is performance evaluation bypaying close attention to all BSC perspectives, especially the non-financial perspectives suchas customers and internal processes perspectives. In this study, the BSC showed the differences in performance level of the organization in different perspectives, which would assist thehospital managers improve their performance indicators. The learning and growth perspectiveobtained the highest score, and the financial perspective obtained the least score. Since thelearning and growth perspective acts as a base for all other perspectives and they dependon it, hospitals must continuously improve the service processes and the quality of servicesby educating staff and updating their policies and procedures. This can increase customersatisfaction and productivity and finally improve the BSC in financial perspective.