Hospital

Designing a Model of Selection and Assessment of Hospital Outsourcing Services Based on Approach Hierarchical Possess(AHP)in Hospitals

Masoud Etemadian

Background: In recent years, Hashemi Nejad Hospital was outsourced or insourced some of their services to private sector or will have decision to do it. Selection and assessment of suppliers in outsourcing of hospital services is a critical issue. In this study, selecting and evaluating suppliers for outsourcing services in hospitals was evaluated.
Materials and Methods: In order to achieve the goal, evaluating and selecting outsourcing service providers with studies and using opinion of the experts and medical experts, consisting of hospital manager, quality manager, HR managers, officials outsourced parts and other experts in this respect which includes 14 criteria. Identified criteria were clustered in three areas of service features, characteristics and criteria for communications suppliers in the supply chain; supplier selection problem is the problem multi-criteria decision. So, criteria were ranked and weighted using the Expert choice 11 software and AHP.
Results: Based on the study results, sub-criteria of the quality of service, management systems, customer care, and information security had greatest impact on the selection of suppliers and sub-criteria, geographic location, flexibility and problem solving had the lowest priority.
Conclusion: C supplier had the highest priority according to the communication criteria and A supplier had the highest priority according to two other criteria. In total, the supplier A had the first priority, supplier B had the second priority and supplier C had the third priority.

Root Causes Analysis (RCA) of Error in Detecting Microbial Contamination in Intensive Care Unit of a Selected Hospital Affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Providing a Suitable Strategy Using Delphi Technique

Narges Asadijanati

Background: microbial contamination of hospital wards is one of the most important factors in the transmission of hospital infections among inpatients in hospital units.
This study aimed to analyze the error in the diagnosis of microbial contamination in the hospital's intensive care unit and its root causes analysis in 2015.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in three stages. The first stage conducted as a case report. The second stage was designed to identify the factors affecting the occurrence of error by Root Causes Analysis and conducting an interview and panel. Third stage was provided using self-made questionnaire and Delphi technique to obtain appropriate strategies to identified errors. In order to data analysis SPSS software was utilized.

Results: The main causes of hospital infections were organizational and managerial causes, task related causes, laboratory-related causes, causes associated with training, causes associated with work teams and causes related to working conditions in the intensive care unit. The study findings extracted from the Delphi technique revealed that simple actions such as hand wash and disposable appliances usage are significantly effective in hospital infection prevention.

Conclusion: One of the most important ways of preventing and controlling hospital infections is investigating the root causes of these infections. Also, personnel training regarding effective methods to nosocomial infections’ care and control and patient safety culture should be considered by managers.

Human Reliability Assessment in The Members of The Cesarean Section at a Teaching Hospital Affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Sayed Abolfazl Zakerian

Background:Human reliability assessment consists ofusing quantitative and qualitative methods to predict human contribution to the occurrence of error;so, using reliability assessment techniques is necessary to prevent and limit the consequences of errors in sensitive work environments.Healthcare considers as the high-risk areas.With due attention to the high rates of cesarean section in Iran, this study aimed at evaluating human reliability during this operation.
Materials and Methods:This was a qualitative-descriptive study which was performed as a cross-sectional one using the EMEA technique. At first, the process of operation was divided in to tasks and sub-tasks using the method of hierarchical task analysis. Then, according to the EMEA instructions, the work sheet was completed for all personnel in the operating room.
Results: A total of 126 errors, including 40 errors (31.75%) related to circular nurse activities, 34 errors (26.98%) related to anesthesia activities, 33 errors (26.19%) related to scrub nurse activities and 19 errors (15.08%) related to the activities of the surgeon, were identified.In general, skill-based errors (51.59%) and judgment-based errors (1.59%) were the highest and the lowest amount, respectively.
Conclusion:According to the study results, among three working groups, skill-based errors forcircularand scrub nurses and anesthesiology expert with the most frequency, and knowledge-based errorsfor surgeon tasks, with the highest frequency should be considered as priorities tocontrol errors.

Pathology of Human Resources in Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex Based on Applying Three-Dimensional Model

Background: Considering the key role of human resource management in health care organizations, assessing human resources and its pathology are essential. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate human resources pathology in Imam Khomeini Hospital complex in Tehran.
Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted using descriptive-analytical method in 2016. In this research, 342 employees of Imam Khomeini Hospital complex were selected. The data were collected using a standard three-dimension questionnaire, then, descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Pearson Correlation Coefficient) were used to data analysis.
Results: Study results revealed that the highest and the lowest mean and standard deviation were obtained for the variable of motivation and job satisfaction (3.51 ± 1.02) and improvement methods (2.81 ± 0.84), respectively. Among all studied variables, behavioral (3.29) and contextual (2.91) factors scored the highest and lowest points respectively. Correlation between structural, behavioral and contextual with demographics revealed a statistically significant association with sex.
Conclusion: According to study findings, considering the importance and role in providing the desired services, human resource managers should pay special attention to identify all organizational factors, especially organizational culture, motivation and job satisfaction, employee training, job security and customer orientation.

Assessing the Medical Tourists Satisfaction Referee to Hospitals of Tabriz City

Mohammad Arab

Background: Necessity of development, quantity and quality improvement needs of medical tourists had been unavoidable based on medical tourism growth with its competitive function. This study aimed to determine satisfaction rate of medical tourists referee to Tabriz hospitals to get treatment services.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was conducted on 82 medical tourists referee to all wards of selected hospitals using convenient sampling method in Tabriz city. Data was collected using a-28 items valid and reliable researcher made questionnaire. Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated 0.708. In order to data analysis, SPSS Software version 23 was utilized. Also, Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the association between different aspects of patients’ satisfaction.
Results: Satisfaction rate was obtained in five main aspects including cultural problems (51.88%), structural issue (57.50%), insurance payment system (16.04%), information system and communication channels (41.34%) the economic challenges (50.35%). The information system and communication channels had high effect on economic aspects (p<0.001).
Conclusion: It seems necessary that health policy makers and managers pay more attention to foreign medical tourists and faced challenges correction in order to change Tabriz city to a medical tourism center of excellence and improving regional economic development.

Identifying and Prioritizing Factors Affecting Patient's Length of Stay in Selected Hospitals Affiliated to Tehran and Iran University of Medical Sciences

Farhad Habibi Nodeh

Background: Length of stay is one of the most important and practical indices used in hospitals today which represents the performance and efficiency of the hospitals. This study aimed to identify the factors affecting length of stay in hospitals affiliated to Tehran and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences based on Hierarchical Analysis Technique.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013. Study population consisted of 40 participants using purposive sampling method in the two groups including 13 matrons (nursing managers) and 27 supervisors (Clinical and educational) of hospitals affiliated to Tehran and Iran Universities of Medical Sciences. Data collection tool was the paired comparisons questionnaire which was confirmed validity by experts using Lawshe and reliability by Inconsistency Ratio. Data analysis was performed using Expert Choice software version 11.
Results: In general, in the studied hospitals, study results revealed that the "diagnostic, treatment and care methods (treatment efficacy)” with the mean of 21.4% and "admission and discharge in the end days of the week and the days off” with an average of 0.36 were the highest and the lowest priority is given to other factors affecting the length of stay of the patient,respectively.
Conclusion: Efficacy of provided treatment through using equipment, appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and factors related to hospital manpower were effective on length of stay in quantitative and qualitative dimensions. These important issues need more planning and pay attention by hospital officials.

Identification and Prioritization of Solutions for Handling of Administrative Violations Time Reduction among Medical Universities Staff and Their Subsidiary Organizations

Farhad Habibi Nodeh

Background: Administrative violations of employees at their workplace create a conflict between individual and organizational goals. Due to the long process of handling these violations, this study aimed to identify and present some suitable solutions in order to reduce delay in the health sector.

Materials and Methods: This study was carried out at three steps. At the first step, causes of delay in handling of administrative violations were extracted along with the proposed solutions using interviews. In second step, Delphi method was applied in order to find out the agreement of experts on the suggested solutions. In third step, practical solutions were prioritized using the analytic hierarchy process.

Results: Overall, 23 out of 39 solutions were certified after consultation with experts running the first round of Delphi using the interview. These solutions were presented to 15 experts using a self-constructed questionnaire and 18 solutions were approved by the experts finally.Solutions were divided into six groups of motivational, organizational, administrative, process, and research group solutions.

Conclusion: Training as the main key to prevent the delay can work effectively at all levels and processes of service delivery. Hiring well-informed and conscious managers at various organizational levels as well as having experienced and mindful research group on administrative violations can speed up the process of handling these violations.

Resource Allocation Criteria for Health Care System Regulation: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

Leila Riahi

Background: Priority setting and resource allocation are assumed to be the most important issues of health-sector and fairness thereof requires considering various criteria. This study was performed to identify the criteria used for priority setting and resource allocation in the world health systems through comprehensive review.

Materials and Methods: Cochrane, PubMed and SCOPUS database were searched systematically from Jan.1,2005 to Oct.10,2016. The English articles with codified and specified qualitative and quantitative criteria in the resource allocation context in health sector were included in the study. The obtained data were synthetized thematically.

Results: Overall, 9162 papers were extracted. At the beginning of review of the included articles, 9089 papers were removed due to duplication and also based on the title. The abstracts of the remained papers were reviewed and 17 papers were removed. Full text of 59 remained papers were reviewed and based on matching with the inclusion criteria, 34 other papers were removed, too, and ultimately 25 papers were included in the final phase of the study. Extracted criteria were categorized into four dimentions based on economic, management, structural and contextual, out of which the most frequent ones were related to cost, health system goals, local capacity and disease status, respectively.

Conclusion: In this study, the most important criteria used by policy makers and decision makers of health system in the world were extracted for priority setting and resource allocation. The results indicated that in the world, priority setting and resource allocation in the health system is made mainly based on criteria such as cost-effectiveness, disease status, equity/equality and the need.