Journal of

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Background: Since, energy consumption per square meter in hospitals is much higher than other types of service institutions; in this study, some actions performed toward optimizing energy consumption improvement projects based on the definition and prioritization in hospital.

Materials and Methods: The necessity of optimizing energy consumption in hospitals were described according to some scales including the average consumption and cost of water, electricity and gas for bed days and active bed, and these indices calculated in the case. Then, improvement actions were identified using energy audit, interviews with hospital experts and conducted studies in hospitals. Next, projects with high importance were extracted regarding to impact on energy consumption indices, expert opinion, aggregation, feasibility, and limitations such as prerequisite, synchronicity and post-requisite. Finally, specific criteria were identified in three dimensions, i.e., factors affecting the level of energy consumption, trying to execute project and risk and the projects were prioritized using questionnaire and FAHP.

Results: The study results revealed that energy consumption was higher than the world standards in the studied hospital; this confirmed the necessity of optimizing energy consumption and using energy management systems. The results of prioritization also showed the first four priorities.

Conclusion: It seems necessary to save energy consumption through improvement projects implementation in the hospitals. Regarding the number and resources limitation, hospitals can choose to implement some low risk and payback period projects based on existing priority and budget annually.

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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.

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Background: Assessing and improving the quality of services in hospitals because deal with the health of humans is very important. The purpose of this study is to identify and weigh quality criteria and ranking of four hospitals in Mashhad.
 
Materials & Methods: The present study is of type  Applied Studies  that is a cross-sectional study conducted in the winter of 1396. In this study, by literature review, dimensions of service quality in the hospital was identified. Then, a paired comparison questionnaire (including 8 people) was used to conduct the survey. Then coefficients of importance of each dimension were calculated through the process of hierarchical analysis in a fuzzy environment. Decision-making matrix questionnaire was completed by a 400-person sample of patient companions in four hospitals.Then, hospitals were ranked using GRA-TOPSIS method. The validity of questionnaires were confirmed by the expert group.
 
Results:Using FAHP, knowledge and skills of medicine obtained the most important coefficient. Also, using GRA-TOPSIS, third hospital received the fourth place in the provision of services. Also in the third hospital the quality of access requires the greatest improvement.
 
Conclusion: In addition to ranking hospitals based on quality of service criteria, the GRA-TOPSIS method is able to identify each hospital's weaknesses in each criterion. As a result, the priorities for improving the quality of service in each hospital were identified, and the hospital manager could work to improve performance on the criteria that he or she achieved with lower performance than other hospitals.