[ relationship between turbidity, residual chlorine concentration and microbial quality of drinking water in rural areas of Kashan during 2008-9]

Common belief is that water quality evaluation must be based on its appearance, while not only the apparent characteristics but also the microbial and chemical characteristics should be considered. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between turbidity, residual chlorine concentration and microbial quality of water used for drinking in rural areas of Kashan. This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on drinking water samples taken from 57 villages of Kashan during 2008-9. Among the total samples taken during three stages, only one sample was selected and analyzed for water quality parameters of turbidity, residual chlorine concentration and heterotrophic plate count [HPC]. HPC, residual chlorine concentration and turbidity of water samples desirable in three stages and undesirable in another three stages were 86%, 22.8% and 75.4%; 12.3%, 29.8% and 0%, respectively. Furthermore, HPC in 95% of samples under the supervision of rural water and wastewater company [RWWC] and in 64.7% of samples that were not under the supervision of RWWC, were in the range of standard drinking water. The results of the study show that correlation between residual chlorine concentration and HPC level of drinking water in Kashan rural areas was significant, while there is no significant correlation between residual chlorine concentration and turbidity; HPC and turbidity. Hence, RWWC supervision has a prominent role in supplying safe drinking water for such areas

[ quality of hospital services in Kashan educational hospitals during 2008-9: the patients' viewpoint]

The main mission of any hospital in a health care system is to promote care quality for patients and to meet their needs and expectations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of hospital services from the viewpoint of patients admitted to Kashan educational hospitals. In this cross-sectional study, 390 patients admitted to Kashan educational hospitals were selected based on the stratified sampling and their points of view were evaluated using SERVQUAL questionnaire during 2008-9. The quality attributes of the questionnaire consisted of seven dimensions [e.g. physician's empathy, physician's availability, the reliability of physician performance, nurse's responsibility, nurse's empathy, drugs management and tangibility of services]. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed using content validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient [0.93], respectively. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. The mean age of the respondents was 45.72 +/- 18.36 years and 54.1% of subjects were men. There was a significant difference among the mean of seven dimension scores and the total quality dimension. Moreover, a significant difference was observed in the quality score mean of different dimensions among hospitals. The highest and lowest means of quality score were for physician's empathy [3.97 +/- 0.75] and tangibility of the services [3.76 +/- 0.58], respectively. From the patients' viewpoint, educational hospitals have made good progress in providing hospital services; however, different quality scores among quality dimensions in any hospital signify that the health care administrators should pay more attention on the quality improvement programs to improve patients' satisfaction