[Bottlenecks on discharge process at Beheshti hospital in Isfahan]

The hospital discharge process is a basic bottleneck in hospital management. Improved discharge process is the main strategy that covers many hospital activities. Discharge process is the last patient's contact with hospital system. Therefore, it is the most important stage affecting patient's satisfaction. If this process takes long, not only it makes patients dissatisfied but it also will not be beneficial for the hospital. The main objective was determining average waiting time of patient discharge process at Beheshti Hospital in Esfahan, Iran in the spring of 2006. This study was case study in which data were collected by questionnaires, observation and forms. The statistical population was all personnel involved in discharge process and patients discharged throughout the spring of 2006. To analyze data SPSS and Win QSB [Windows Quantative Systems for Busines] were used. According to the personnel's views, the main factors affecting average waiting time were patients' financial problems and un-accessibility of interns to complete the summery sheets. The longest patient's waiting time for discharge was 345 minutes and the least was 35 minutes. Average time for patients in discharge process was 197 [ +/- 65] minutes. Discharge planning is a routine feature of health systems in many countries. Hospital information system should be implemented at least between wards, Para-clinics stations, accounting and cashier station. It causes many stages in manual patients' discharge process will be omitted

Quantitative improvement of emergency rooms' nursing staff at Chamran Hospital using linear programming method

Most of Iran's health budget goes to hospitals as the largest care providing unit in the community. More than 60% of hospital resources are allocated for staffing. One of the problems facing hospitals especially in critical and sensitive parts such as in emergency room is appropriate staffing. This research was designed to investigate and improve nursing staffing and human resource planning at the emergency room of Chamran Hospital using Linear programming as amethod of Opertional Research. This descriptive-analytical study used a checklist for data collection. Study population included patients and nursing staff of emergency room during the months of November and December 2006 and January 2007. After estimating the average number of patients and the average time required for nursing care to each category of emergency patients, the number of nurses needed for each hospital shift was calculated using Wine Windows Quantitative Systems for Business [QSB] program. According to the findings, for more appropriate patient care, Chamran hospital emergency room needs at least 28 nurses per shift. Various models of Operational Research such as linear programming are practical for estimating the appropriate staffing at various parts of a hospital