Background & Aims With the growing number of chronic diseases and the aged population, the need for more home care centers has increased. Home care as a new approach can have many pros for the patients, families, and society. This study aims to investigate the challenges of home care Service provision in Iran from the point of view of Service providers and recipients and propose solutions to improve these Services.
Materials & Methods This is a qualitative study. Participants were 28 people, including 15 Service providers (policymakers, home care center managers, professors from medical universities, and experts) and 13 Service recipients, who were selected using a purposive sampling method until reaching data saturation. Data was collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. To analyze the data, Graneheim and Lundman’s content analysis method was used in MAXQDA 2020 software.
Results Four themes (challenges) were extracted with 12 sub-themes: Challenges of families with the Service center (manpower, difficulty in providing care Services, and costs), challenges of the Service center with the families (Therapeutic/communication process, security), challenges of the Service center with hospitals (Referral method and previous hospital treatments, hospital violation), and existing challenges in the field of policymaking (culturalization, statute, insurance, violation of the law, and license provision). The solutions were proposed in three categories: the Services center, treatment system/law, and culturalization.
Conclusion The home care Service provision in Iran is facing several challenges, including the challenges of families with the centers, challenges of the centers with families and hospitals, and challenges related to policymaking. These challenges can be solved by using the proposed solutions, which can improve home care Service quality and planning.