International Journal of Hospital Research 2016, 5(3): x-x http://ijhr.iums.ac.ir Research Article Managers’ Perspective Toward Responsiveness in Nonclinical Services © 2016 Rafei et al; licensee Iran University of Medical Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original work is cited properly. Background and Objectives Provision of quality health services is the primary respon- sibility of every health system. A key criterion to evaluate the performance of health system is responsiveness. 1 Re- sponsiveness concerns the extent to which a health sys- tem performs in line with patients’ expectations in terms of nonclinical aspects of care. 1-5 High responsiveness will be achieved only when the internal and external organi- zational relations are properly planned to identify patients’ *Corresponding Author: Roohollah Askari, Department of Health Ser- vices Management, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi Univer- sity of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Tel: +98 9125262737, Fax: +98 3538209119, Email: r.asqari@gmail.com Sima Rafei 1 , Mahboobeh Irany Nasab 2 , Razieh Montazerolfaraj 2 , Fatemeh Sepaseh 2 , Arefeh Dehghani Tafti 3 , Roohollah Askari 2 1 Department of Health Management, School of Health, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran. 2 Department of Health Services Management, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. 3 Department of Statistics, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. non-clinical expectations and respond them in a maxi- mum level. 4 Evidence shows that the perceived respon- siveness brings significant impact on individuals’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of health systems’ functions. 6-9 Hospitals are the health system’s terminal point of ser- vices delivery, and thus the responsiveness as perceived by the hospitals’ customers (patient) will shape for the most part the community attitudes towards the respon- siveness of the entire health system. Constant monitor- ing of the perceived responsiveness in hospitals, hence, is crucial to obtain feedback from the potential strength and weaknesses in health services delivery, particularly in nonclinical aspects of care. 10-14 IJHR Open Access doi 10.15171/ijhr.2016.17 Background and Objectives: Responsiveness is a measure of how well a healthcare organization performs in accordance with patients’ expectations and is a central factor to patient satisfaction. To enhance responsiveness in a health facility, the first step is to identify its current situation. This study was conducted to evaluate the responsiveness of a sample of hospitals in Yazd province (Central Iran) as perceived by their managers. Methods: Three hospitals of various types (1 public, 1 private and 1 charity) were selected for survey, based on simple sampling. All hospital administrators, matrons, supervisors and head of the departments were asked to complete the study questionnaire. Based on an adapted version of WHO-proposed assessment model, responsiveness was measured in 7 dimensions, including respect and dignity, informed choice, confidentiality, patient education and provider-patient communication, access to prompt services, quality of physical amenities and social support. The data were summarized by descriptive statistical methods. Findings: A majority of respondents (37.9%) considered dignity and respect as the key responsiveness dimension. The mean score of responsiveness was found to be 2.27 ± 0.39 in a public hospital, 2.02 ± 0.35 in a private and 2.24 ± 0.32 in a charity hospital. Respect and dignity scored the highest among responsiveness dimensions (2.35 ± 0.44), followed by patient education (2.34 ± 0.32), and quality of physical amenities (2.23 ± 0.39). The lowest score was given to informed choice (1.73 ± 0.34), followed by access to services (1.95 ± 0.43), and confidentiality (1.99 ± 0.27). Conclusions: Responsiveness and all of its dimensions were scored at moderate. Responsiveness and all its dimensions were scored at moderate level by the hospital managers. One should notice that the scores may be even lower from the patients’ perspective. Thus, our study in line with previous ones conducted in Iran indicates a large room to improve responsiveness in the health facilities. Based on our data, informed choice, access to the services, and confidentiality are the prime domains for improvement. Keywords: Responsiveness, Nonclinical services, Hospital management, Patient satisfaction, Health system performance Abstract First Published online xx xx, 2016