Search

Background: Quality improvement in delivering healthcare services is the main mission of every health system. Safe surgery checklist was introduced by World Health Organization (WHO), and hospitals were required to use it to reduce the risk of surgery-related mortality and morbidity. This study aimed to determine study hospitals’ compliance with safe surgery checklist in 2016.Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study was done in training general hospitals affiliated by Qom University of Medical Sciences from April to June 2016. All surgery checklists in this period were collected, and its use regarding to each operation was mentioned. Data were entered into SPSS version 20 and analyzed through descriptive statistical tests and One-way ANOVA. Results: A total of 1771 surgeries in six university hospitals performed in three months study period and their related surgery checklists were investigated. The overall use and completion rate of checklists were 74%. Among which the sign-in, time-out, and sign-out items compliance were 58%, 16%, and 26% respectively. Conclusion: The overall compliance rate of safe surgery checklist was satisfactory except for time-out and sign-out processes. Complimentary training and regular assessment of checklist utilization could be suggested to ensure the positive attitude among operating room’s staff about the value of such a safety tool in improving patient safety.

Background: Self-medication is a serious danger in every health sector which potentially brings harmful side effects for the society. The aim of this research was to investigate self-medication and its contributing factors among residents of Yazd province in Iran in 2014. Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted in 2014 using a self-constructed questionnaire. A total of 580 families living in Yazd in the time period of study were contributed to fill out the questions organized in two sections of demographic and self-medication factors. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 through appropriate descriptive and analytical statistical tests. Results: Self-medication was reported in 53.4% of the cases. The most frequent self-prescribed medications were related to pain killer drugs (26.6%). There was a significant statistical relation between self-medication and households’ age, occupation and income, level of parents’ education, number of children and place of residence. Among different reasons for self-medication the most important one was reported to be accessibility (3.44+1.3). Conclusion: Due to the considerable prevalence of self-medication and its harmful effects on every society, such an issue should be appropriately controlled through legal regulations particularly in the area of selling dangerous drugs. Furthermore, provision of proper information and warning the population about harmful side effects can be helpful in this regard.

Health services marketing is an integrated approach which consists of marketing principles based on scientific strategies mainly focus on health promotion and service recipients’ satisfaction through ensuring the congruence between customers’ needs and service provided features. In this systematic review study, we aimed to explore affecting factors on healthcare marketing in Iran. For this purpose, Pub Med, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Iranian databases such as SID, Iran Medex, Magiran, and Iran Doc were searched using relevant search terms linking healthcare marketing and associated factors for literature published from 2008 to 2016. After reviewing 968 records, 24 studies met inclusion criteria; among which the greatest number focused on appropriate communication between service providers and patients, quality of provided services, lower costs, service availability, credibility and continuity, quality of physical facilities and convenience as significant factors affecting healthcare marketing in Iran. Although a considerable amount of research has been done in this area, each focusing on a particular issue, this review tried to bring various research findings together. Due to the inadequate attention paid to health marketing principles in Iran health sector, many care providers are not able to benefit from related advantages. Therefore, identification of influencing factors and strengthening them can take important steps in this regard.

Background: Hospital services quality plays an increasingly important role in today’s competitive environment. This study aimed to evaluate causal effects of different healthcare quality aspects on quality of services perceived by patients in hospitals affiliated by Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences using DEMATEL and TOPSIS techniques in 2014. Method: Through literature review and expert opinions, different service quality dimensions in under study hospitals were identified and required data were gathered. In the next step, DEMATEL technique was applied to determine cause and effect relationships between identified quality aspects and quality perceived by service recipients. Also to rank dimensions according to their priorities, TOPSIS method was used. Given the literature review, six quality dimensions including responsiveness, assurance, security, tangibility, communication and patient centeredness were identified. Result: Results obtained from DEMATEL technique introduced patient security as an influential aspect which was ranked in the sixth place in terms of importance. Conclusion: The prioritization of quality dimensions along with their causal effects provides a beneficial insight for hospital managers to effectively plan and make improvement decisions. It is suggested that considering a remarkable impact of security on patients’ perception toward quality of care, this aspect should be regarded in decision makers’ programs with a greater emphasis.