An Evaluation of Four Years Implementation of National Nutrition and Food Security Policy in Iran: Lessons Learned

IntroductionOutsourcing is one of the major strategies for keeping competitive gain in today’s highly varying markets, especially in health systems. This study endeavored to identify operational challenges of outsourcing health facilities affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2019.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted with content analysis approach. To conduct the interview, key informants were from the managers of health facilities and decision makers of health deputy and managers from private sector were selected through purposive sampling. The saturation point was reached at 12 semi‑structured interviewees; this way, data were collected through interviews with experts. A thematic analysis was employed to analyze the transcriptions by MAX QDA10.ResultsAccording to the results of thematic analysis, seven major themes identified as operational challenges of outsourcing health services in health facilities with 40 sub‑themes.ConclusionsOutsourcing health services in health facilities needs to be done more scientifically and logically. Decision makers must predict the challenges and apply solutions before outsourcing, supervise, and evaluate the impacts of outsourcing after at least 1 year.