Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: Hospital accreditation is a systematic external evaluation of a hospital’s structures, processes and results (outputs/ outcome) by an independent professional accreditation body using pre-established optimum standards. This study aimed to examine the relationship between accreditation and hospital performance. In addition, the most important accreditation constructs affecting hospital performance were identified and ranked.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study was conducted using the data related to accreditation scores and nine performance indicators of 121 hospitals in 2014 and 123 hospitals in 2015 in Tehran province, Iran. Shannon entropy method was used for calculating the weights of the hospital indicators. Then, Feature Selection method in data mining was used to explore the relationship between accreditation scores and hospital indicators. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Modeler software. Analyses were carried out at the 0.05 significance level
Results: The mean of hospitals’ accreditation scores were 61.98% and 69.56% in 2014 and 2015 respectively. All performance indicators except the number of outpatients were increased in 2015 compared to 2014. There was no significant difference in the scores between 2014 and 2015 data. Hospitals’ accreditation scores were not associated with their performances. However, accreditation scores of leadership and management; accident and emergency; and procurement departments had the most effect on hospitals’ performance.
Conclusion: Accreditation was not correlated with hospital performance. Thus, improving accreditation system including standards, methods and surveyors and using quality management strategies in hospitals are necessary for improving hospital’ performance.
 

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Background and Aim: Despite the increasing prevalence of infection with some blood-borne viruses, no standard precautions have been developed so far based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). This study aimed to assess, based on the HBM, the predictors of adherence to standard precautions in preventing needle stick injuries among the Personnel of Sanandaj Teaching Hospitals, Sanandaj City, Iran in 2020.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 444 medical and non-medical staff members of the Sanandaj teaching hospitals in Sanandaj City, Iran, using a researcher-developed questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical data analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way analysis of variance, multivariate regression and the chi-square test, the software being SPSS version 22.
Results: The results of multivariate regression analysis showed that from among the HBM constructs, three constructs, namely perceived sensitivity (p=0.033), perceived benefits (p=0.032) and self-efficacy (p=0.001), were the predictors of staff duty performance (implementation of  standard precautions) in preventing needle stick injuries. As regards the implementation of standard precautions, 22%, 75.3% and 2.7% of the staff members had a low, medium and high performance level, respectively.
Conclusion: The constructs of perceived sensitivity, perceived benefits and self-efficacy are the strongest predictors in adherence to standard precautions.