Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have been the most important centers for the
virus spread. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the management of infection control in central
corona hospitals in Kashan using the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) matrix.
Methods: The existing documents studied the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the
organization identified by environmental health experts. The internal and external factors were identified
as internal factor evaluation (IFE) and external factor evaluation (EFE) matrices, respectively, then,
prioritized and weighted. In the next step, the SWOT matrix was formed and the type of used strategy
by the organization was determined, and solutions to improve the current situation were presented
by experts. Finally, the attractiveness table was compiled and weighted using the QSPM method to
prioritize the proposed strategies.
Results: After identifying 25 strengths, 28 weaknesses, 15 opportunities, and 13 threats, weighting was
performed, the final score for internal and external factors was 2.6475 and 2.3825, respectively. The final
strategy for implementing COVID-19 disease control in the studied hospitals was the Conservative
Strategy (WO). Based on this, six control strategies were presented. The priority and attractiveness of
each strategy were evaluated using the QSPM matrix. Finally, the strategy of “structuring the system and
providing and upgrading the equipment and infrastructure facilities” was implemented as a priority.
Conclusion: According to the results, the combination of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats) and QSPM methods can play an efficient role in identifying and evaluating the factors
affecting the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals and further developing and
prioritizing control strategies for this infectious disease.
Keywords: COVID-19, Environmental health, Hospitals, Research desig