Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Universities of medical sciences play a vital role in promoting population health and without a doubt, their performance should be measured and evaluated.

Methods: The study was a mixed method study (consecutive combination) and the universities were examined by census. In the qualitative phase of the study, by examining the documents and focused group discussions, the basic framework of the performance evaluation model and its associated challenges were elicited. Then, the policies, objectives, and strategies related to each dimension were extracted and finally, key indicators were selected. Finally, by running Analytic Hierarchy Process method, the weight of dimensions and their key aspects were calculated and the model was implemented.

Results: BSC was designed in accordance with the universities. In this model, four main aspects including population health, services, finance, and development were identified. Then, by reviewing the documents, key policies and strategies, key policies and criteria, primary and secondary strategies were extracted. 13 key indicators were chosen as the final indexes. Moreover, 3 main challenges and 11 secondary challenges were identified. The results of the AHP-BSC model indicated that categorizing (ranking) universities had an impact on their functional status.

Conclusion: The main challenge for evaluating the performance of universities was the presence of a logical connection between policies, strategies, and criteria to have comprehensive and concise indexes for evaluation and ranking.