Assessing hospital performance by the pabon lasso model

The Pabon Lasso model was applied to assess the performance of six State-run hospitals in the province of Kohgilooyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, to produce information that used by policy makers in their attempt to make the health care system more productive. This cross-sectional study involved all the six public hospitals in the province, with 607 registered beds. Data collection accomplished by the use of two ad hoc questionnaires that dealt with both general information and admission data from various hospital wards. The statistical software SPSS-13 used to derive three basic performance indicators, namely average length of stay, bed occupancy rate and bed turnover, which analyzed in Pabon Lasso model. The overall average length of stay, bed occupancy and bed turnover rates were 2.99 days, 62.78% and 76.73 respectively. Two hospitals were in Zone III of the model, indicating a satisfactory level of efficiency. Three hospitals demonstrated inefficiency and underutilization of resources by falling into Zone I. one hospital placed in Zone IV. The best approach to address the existing inefficiencies would lie in stopping the expansion of the current facilities [e.g. not adding any more beds]. As any further expansion will only serve to make hospitals more inefficient. Future research should focus on why the performance is not at a desirable level and how the situation can be improved

Strategic planning in a health leadership sector: a report from UNESCO chair in health education, Iran

Strategic planning defines the formal decision of a company for its future. Like all organizations, health care sectors need to prepare their strategic planning and act according to it. UNESCO chair in health education as a leader health sector, describes the course and steps for preparing its strategic planning based on SWOT analysis technique

World AIDS day campaign in Iran: a population-based study

This was a population-based study to examine whether the campaign for World AIDS Day 2005 in Iran was successful. A random sample of the general population was asked whether they had seen the campaign and knew the message. They were also asked whether it was attractive; there was anything offensive, whether the campaign could raise awareness, and how they rated the campaign. In all 1215 individuals were approached and 1014 agreed to take part in the study. Only 43% [n= 435] said that they had seen the campaign. Of those who had seen the campaign 79% knew the subject and 24% acknowledged the main message correctly. Only 27% said it was very attention getting or eye-catching, 64% said the campaign could raise awareness but 75% said the message was unclear, and confusing. A few respondents [23%] rated that the campaign overall looked good or very good. The findings suggest that if the World AIDS Day is an opportunity to give visibility to the problem, then there is an urgent need to think seriously to choose other approaches for raising global awareness on the state of the epidemic in Iran and elsewhere

[HIV positive patients and utilization of dental health services]

To determine the level of dental health services utilization by HIV-positive patients. In this study we used a proportional random sampling method to select 230 HIV-positive patients from three HIV counseling centers. An anonymous questionnaire was completed for each patient. The total demand for dental services was 165. The rate of demand was 47.9% and the rate of utilization was estimated 75.9%. Most patients [56%] did not have insurance. Only 60% of these individuals notified the health workers of their HIV status. The most common reason for not demanding services was high cost, and the most common reason of non-utilization was the refusal by health workers to provide services. The main reason for not reporting the HIV-positive status was fear of rejection by the dentist. Inadequate insurance coverage and poverty might result in decreased access to dental health in HIV-positive individuals. In addition there is need to improve knowledge of HIV in dentists and change their attitudes and practices in order to increase utilization of dental services by HIV-positive patients

Dental care provision in private clinics: an introductory explanation for dental manpower estimation and dentistry educational needs assessment

Having an estimate of needed workforce is necessary for workforce planning. Time and work study is a means to provide basic data in this regard. To determine delivery time for common type of dental care, dentists' working time in Tehran. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the general dentists who work in private clinics in Tehran. 100 dentists were chosen randomly. They filled out a self-administered questionnaire. In order to determine the time spent on each service by the dentists, the median was calculated as the central index. The list of dental treatments was determined by median time to deliver each of them. The useful working time was 90000 minutes for each dentist during a year. The results of this study can be used in estimating dental workforce and reforming dental educational programs