Journal of

Background: one of the most essential components in patient- physician relationship is the length of visit. Short time visit can affect visit quality and patient- physician relationship. This study aimed at comparing specialists visit length with standards in general hospitals of Qazvin.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted in general hospitals of Qazvin  in 2013. 428 patients were randomly selected to participate who were referred to the outpatient clinics of selected general hospitals. Studied specialties were including Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology. In order to data collection, a Checklist including physician and patient related items was used and data analysis performed using SPSS version 19.

Results: The study results revealed the mean score of outpatients' visits length was 4.67±2.43 minutes which had a significant difference from standards (p<0.0001).Higher mean score was relate to  pediatrics (2.55±7.08) and the lower one was internal physicians (1.82±3.93).

Conclusion: In this study, Visit time in developed countries was lower than developing ones. Several factors were identified which affect visit time. Thus, decision makers should use the results to improve outpatients visit quality.

Background: Three aspects of health, responsiveness rate and equitable financing introduced as the main goals of health systems. In this study, responsiveness rate was assessed among private and social security hospitals in 2013.

Materials and Methods: The descriptive-analytical study conducted as a cross-sectional one among 10 hospitals in Tehran city (20 percent of total social security and private, 8:2 respectively) in 2013. Study population consisted of all inpatients and outpatients referee to eight private and two social security hospitals and 333 subjects selected to data gathering randomly. The valid and reliable World Health Survey questionnaire was utilized. Data was analyzed by SPSS₁₇ using descriptive statistic, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests.

Results: In points of view among inpatient and outpatient, the mean score of responsiveness rate were 4.1±0.71 and 3.7±0.60 respectively. These amounts estimated 4.4±0.46 and 3.2±0.82 for inpatient and 3.8±0.58 and 3.5±0.63 for outpatient in private and social security hospitals respectively. Also, the mean score of responsibility rate assessed 4.4 in private hospital which was higher than social security ones (3.2); and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Responsiveness rate dimensions were evaluated moderate to high among assessed hospitals. These results were enhanced in private hospitals rather than social security ones. It is recommended that hospital managers should pay more attention to client and mechanisms to improve responsiveness rate and providing more services quality. 

Background: The quality of services is a comparison of the customer´s perspective (expectations) with what it has received. If the expectations are more than perceptions, the quality of received services is not sufficient based on customer´s view which resulted in his/her dissatisfaction. The present study performed with the purpose of determining the quality of provided and excepted services to outpatients among hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Material and Methods: The present study is a descriptive- analytics and cross sectional one which has been done in 2015. The study population included all outpatients attending hospital clinics affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.The sample size was calculated 225 participants based on formula. In order to data gathering in quality of provided and expected services, a 22-items standard questionnaire of Servqual was utilized. Data analysis performed by SPSS using paired t-test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: The study findings represented that there was a negative gap in the quality of services provided. The highest gap was related to accountability (-0.97) and the lowest gap related to tangibles factors (-0.69) .Moreover, regarding to  relationship between demographic variables with perceived service quality, there were significant relationship between  insurance type with reliability and empathy dimensions and supplementary insurance with tangibles factors and reliability.

Conclusion: Negative gap (higher expectations than perception) in all aspects of quality improvement is required in all dimensions. Especially, it is necessary to adopt some strategies in the accountability dimension. Reforming management processes, reducing waiting times and increasing employees' motivation in order to achieve appropriate accountability are in this kind of strategies.