Background and purpose: In order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of health care services, it is necessary to manage their organizational knowledge and information. In this paper, the readiness of Iran’s health centers for establishing knowledge management was studied.

Materials and methods: We conducted a descriptive study in which the status of some indicators for the establishment of knowledge management was studied. The indicators included the leadership, human resources, technology, culture, structure and processes of Iran’s health care centers. A questionnaire was administered that consisted of items scored according to Likert scale from very high (5) to very low (1). The research population included the managers and administrators in health centers who were selected from 15 provinces. Data analysis was done in SPSS V.16. 

Results: The indicators of information technology 3.24±1.06, organizational processes 3.21±1.04, human resources 3.21±0.93, organizational structure 3.19±0.84, and organizational leadership 3.16±1.05 were in appropriate state for establishing knowledge management. But the organizational culture 2.91±0.99 was found to have inappropriate condition.

Conclusion: Health policy makers are needed to plan for enhancing health care centers readiness for establishing knowledge management. The poor state of health centers in organizational culture calls for appropriate planning to improve its sub-indicators such as creativity and critical thinking, collaboration between experienced staff and newcomers, institutionalization of knowledge among the staff, supporting innovation in knowledge and teaching methods, and performance evaluation based on the individuals’ contribution in the organization.