Diagnosis of Government Policy Implementation in Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences by Shannon Entropy Approach

Background: Given that the health system is one of the most important areas for social development in all countries, special attention should be paid to policy making and monitoring in this area. This research aimed to diagnose achievement goals of government policies focusing on government medical universities in Iran, which are the mainstay of providing health care. Methods: The present study is practical in terms of purpose and qualitative (content analysis) in terms of data collection. The barriers of achieving policy goals were reviewed and classified by reviewing the literature through content analysis. Later, the ideas of experts (45 senior managers of Iranian government medical sciences universities selected based on the study goals) were collected using a questionnaire. As a result, the barriers were determined and ranked by Shannon entropy technique. Results: The findings showed that the identified barriers in achieving government policy goals were related to policy makers (0/3320), policy nature (0/2810), policy implementers (0/1740), environmental (0/1330), and organizational factors (0/0780), respectively. Conclusion: Based on the findings, the importance of client (recipients of health services) is not properly understood. In other words, personal and partisan interests take precedence over national and client interests in policy-making.