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Background: Today there is still a shortage of postgraduates of medicine for multiple reasons. This study aims to determine factors related to Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and Iran Universities students' educational and career tendencies. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population consists of medical students of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences. A sample of 510 individuals was selected using simple random sampling method proportional to the category size.Data were collected using a structured questionnaire of acceptable validity and reliability. Descriptive statistical methods were used for data analysis. Results: Medicine was selected due to its social dignity, motivation to serve the people and interest in medical sciences affect studying medicine as a major .Existence of Medical Universities, improving information and abilities and the need for medical services in different areas affect physician's choice of working location .Simultaneous activity in both private and governmental sectors , disorganized in governmental sectors compared to well organized and well equipped private sector , affect physicians` choice of working sector . Realistic thinking instead of idealism, lack of adequate support from students and differences between the academic environment with student`s interest affect changing the students' educational and career tendency. Conclusion: Actions like regulating the capacity of medical students admission, improving the quality of studies, modification of human resources , better familiarity of students with medicine field while choosing the university field and financial support for young physicians could improve the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health equity has become a progressively popular research topic in recent years. Therefore, this study was made to identify the contributions made by socioeconomic determinants in order to quantify their roles to healthcare utilization inequity and to show their status especially after the recent reform in Iran, i.e. Health Transformation Plan, which one of its main goals is providing access to healthcare for all people. This study is a cross-sectional study conducted on a national level in Iran in 2015. For the sampling frame, three-stage cluster sampling was used. A total of 22 470 households from the whole country were surveyed by questionnaires through face-to-face interviews. A total of 78 378 subjects responded to the survey, 18 984 subjects (24.2%) reported the need to outpatient healthcare services in the 2 weeks preceding the interview and 12 944 (68.2%) of them had utilized the outpatient services. In addition, 5928 participants (7.6% of total population) reported the need to inpatient healthcare in the 15-month interval prior to the interview. Of these, 5405 subjects (91.2%) had received the inpatient cares. Several factors such as age group, education, marital status and status of household economy play significant roles in seeking inpatient cares. In addition, age group and household economic status have significant impacts on the utilization of outpatient services. While there are several variables that have different effects in determining the need for both outpatient and inpatient services, most of them are not any more significant than what are on the receiving end of these services., (© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: Hospital services are the most expensive component of modern health care systems and inappropriate hospital stay is one of the most important challenges facing hospitals in many countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of inappropriate hospital stay and investigate the related factors in Semnan city (Iran)., Methods: In this study, the Iranian version of Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) was used in a representative sample of 300 hospital admissions and 905 hospital days. Data collection was performed during six weeks in January and February 2014 in four wards (two internal medicine and two surgical wards) of two hospitals in Semnan city (Iran)., Results: The results showed that 7.4% of admissions and 22.1% of stays have been inappropriate. Inappropriate stays were mainly concerned to the factors, including length of stay, inappropriate admissions, as well as factors related to hospitals. The most frequent causes of unjustifiable days were due to waiting for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures (35.1%), and 20.6% delay in discharge of patients by physicians due to conservative medical policy., Conclusion: In conclusion, this study confirms the existence of inappropriate hospital stays which may be due to patient characteristics and hospital factors. The most unjustifiable reasons for inappropriate hospital stay were related to internal processes of hospital, which mostly could be prevented through appropriate management Therefore, some steps must be taken to decrease inappropriate hospital stay and preserve hospital resources for patients who need them.

Purpose: In the ever-increasing competitive market of private hospital industry, creating a strong relationship with the customers that shapes patients' loyalty has been considered a key factor in obtaining market share. The purpose of this paper is to test a model of customer loyalty among patients of private hospitals in Iran., Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2010. The study samples composed of 969 patients who were consecutively selected from eight private hospitals. The survey instrument was designed based on a review of the related literature and included 36 items. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling., Findings: For the service quality construct, three dimensions extracted: Process, interaction, and environment. Both process and interaction quality had significant effects on perceived value. Perceived value along with the process and interaction quality were the most important antecedents of patient overall satisfaction. The direct effect of the process and interaction quality on behavioral intentions was insignificant. Perceived value and patient overall satisfaction were the direct antecedents of patient behavioral intentions and the mediators between service quality and behavioral intentions. Environment quality of service delivery had no significant effect on perceived value, overall satisfaction, and behavioral intentions., Originality/value: Contrary to previous similar studies, the role of service quality was investigated not in a general sense, but in the form of three types of qualities including quality of environment, quality of process, and quality of interaction.