[Progress of hospital information systems in Kerman teaching general hospitals in 2012]

Introduction: Health care facilities have intended to mechanize their information systems. The rate of mechanization of information systems is not similar within these organizations. The study aimed to assess the mechanization rate of hospital information system among four teaching- general hospitals in Kerman in 2012

Methods: This applied research was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in four teaching general hospitals. A Ministry of Health and Medical Education checklist on "Health Information System evaluation" was used for data gathering. Data was analyzed using SPSS 13 and Excel through descriptive statistics

Results: The Findings of this study revealed that the highest and the lowest mechanization progress rate of hospital information system were concerned to medical record information system and decision support with 91.66 per cent, and 15. 62 per cent, respectively

Conclusion: It is recommended that executives establish a committee to plan, organize, supervise and hold training courses and conduct periodic assessment of hospital information system in order to identify and amend weaknesses and also allocate adequate budget to hospital information system

Comparison of mechanically ventilated patients with three types of Communication

Communication is one of the most essential needs of human beings.Mechanical ventilation compromises patients' ability to communicate their needs. This research was conducted to assess the effect of three methods of communication with patients receiving mechanical on their satisfaction in Arak hospitals 1389[2010]. This randomized clinical trial was conducted in Intensive Care Units of Valey Asr, Amir Al Momenin and Ghods hospitals in Arak, Iran. 60 patients who were admitted in ICU and were receiving mechanical ventilation were included in the study. These patients were randomly allocated in three groups.During a 12 hours period researcher used I method of communication for each group of these patients. These mrthods of communication included :A: Communicational board [words and letters]. B: Communicational board [pictures and letters]. C: The conventional method. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three', parts: demographic variables, medical history and satisfaction with communication method.Validity of the instrument was assured by content validity index.. Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the reliability of the iinstrument. SPSS, version 16 was used for data analysis. There was not a significant difference among three groups in terms of age, gender, mean length of stay in the ICU before mechanical ventilation treatment. The mean satisfaction scores were 2.58. 3.83 and 4.10 for conventional communication group, communication board A and words and letters] and communication board B[pictures and letters] respectively. There was a significant difference among three groups in terms of their satisfaction with communication method [P0.00l].The one way analysis of variance indicated that using communication boards A and B significantly increased patient satisfaction. Using communication boards facilitates communication with mechanically ventilated patients and increase their satisfaction