Explaining the Challenges of Providing Healthcare Services from the Perspective of a Selected Military Organization's Healthcare Managers During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: During Covid-19 pandemic, the health and treatment departments of military organizations provided various services to control the epidemic, however there were some challenges for the organization. This study was conducted with the aim of explaining the challenges in providing healthcare services in the covid-19 epidemic from the point of view of managers. Materials and methods: In this study, a qualitative research method with conventional content analysis approach was used. 58 managers were present in this study. The participants included 8 senior managers, 23 middle managers, and 27 executive managers who were included in the study by purposive sampling. A semi-structured, in-depth individual interview with open questions was used to collect data. Primary codes were extracted and compiled into main and sub-categories based on the codes. Findings: The initial codes after integration with inductive content analysis included 4 main categories and 13 subcategories including: challenges in the field of mental health (unknown illness and mental problems of military personnel), lack of risk perception (in executives and employees), intra-organizational challenges (lack of equipment, dysfunction of functional structure, lack of medicine and vaccine, lack of resources, inconsistency of information) and external challenges (disruption of social order and unity, lack of reliable news information, change of national education program and inconsistency between organizations). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that managers of military organizations have faced important challenges in providing healthcare services. Carrying out measures to improve mental health, improving risk perception in managers and employees, internal and external coordination can eliminate the weak points of the organization to manage similar incidents.

Explaining the Challenges of Providing Healthcare Services from the Perspective of a Selected Military Organization's Healthcare Managers During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study Keywords:

Health services , Military medicine , COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2- Qualitative research​​​​​​