e-bookingwebsites in iranian public clinics: a step toward health equity

Background: scheduling doctor appointments at healthcare centers have been a managerial challenge for health systems. in recent years, many efforts have been made to implement e-booking websites in medical universities and their affiliated healthcare centers. objectives: the aim of this study was to analyze the recent situation of e-booking in the medical sciences affiliated clinics. methods: the present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 in 31 provinces, universities of medical sciences, and affiliated health centers. a checklist with 11 items was used for situation analysis. results: the results showed that just 5 out of 31 (15.15%) provinces and their affiliated universities of medical sciences lacked an e-booking system. moreover, 85.71% of cases had an integrated e-booking portal, 67.86% had mobile-based applications for e-booking, and just 14.29% of the cases had online payment gateway that was the lowest score in all items studied. conclusions: based on the results of this study, there is a significant growth in the situation of e-booking websites in iran in the last two years. if this improvement continues, it can lead to equity development in healthcare services, reduction of patients’ waiting time, a decrease in waste of resources, and an increase in patients’ satisfaction.