Do Patient Experiences Have Mediating Roles on Patient Loyalty?

The study aimed to evaluate the mediating roles of patient experiences on patient loyalty. The data were collected through an electronic questionnaire regarding feedback from 5732 patients received outpatient clinics. Patient loyalty was evaluated using the Net Promoter Score (NPS11) that patients were asked whether they would like to recommend the hospital to their relatives or friends. Patient experiences with physicians, nurses, and waiting times were also asked in the questionnaire. After preliminary analysis, mediation analyses were performed to evaluate direct and indirect causal effects among variables for NPS11. While patient experiences are used as possible mediators, Branch Groups in the first and Admission Time in the second model are independent variables. In the analyses, Surgical Medical Science (p = 0.019) and Day Shift (p = 0.000) have a direct mediating effect on NPS11. Nursing care experiences were found to be a mediator variable for NPS11 in both models (p = 0.000 for both). Patient loyalty was associated with Surgical Medical Science and Day Shift primarily whereas Nursing care experience had a mediating role.

Readiness for Health Information Technology is Associated to Information Security in Healthcare Institutions.

BACKGROUND: Health information technologies (HITs) present numerous opportunities for the improvement and transformation of healthcare, which include reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, facilitating care coordination, improving efficiency of practice and tracking data over time. HITs involve various technologies that range from simple charting, to a more advanced decision support and integration with medical technology. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to examine the readiness for the implementation of health information technologies (HITs) among medical and administrative staff as well as to evaluate the effects of information security status on the readiness. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 236 medical employees (F/M: 192/44; mean age: 34±7.43 years) and 139 administrative employees (F/M: 93/46, mean age: 36±7.64 years) from 15 public health institutions in Kocaeli, Marmara Region were included. The data were collected via a structured questionnaire regarding opinions about information security and privacy, use of information technologies and the Organizational Information Technology Innovation Readiness Scale (OITIRS). After an explanatory factor analysis was performed for the scale, two subgroups regarding Organizational Readiness and Technological Readiness were obtained. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate related factors for these subgroups of OITIRS. RESULTS: According to binary logistic regression analysis, establishing of a password management system was found to be a crucial factor for both organizational and technological readiness among medical and administrative employees in health institutions (p<0.05). The enhancement of collaboration among staff by implementing information technologies was a critical factor for the medical staff; whereas, the attitude of employees to ensure information security was an important factor for the administrative employees in both subgroups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Both medical and administrative unit employees stated that establishing a password management system that determines the frequency of changing passwords in the organization would affect both organizational and technical readiness in healthcare institutions.

Dental Websites as New Media Tools for Patients in Dental Health Tourism.

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, potential patients surf the internet to check the websites of health care organizations to select the most suitable health organization for their needs within the perspective of health tourism. To this effect, dental health tourism as a subset of health tourism is considered to be a developing sector. AIM: The aim of the study was to assess whether websites are effectively used as media tools by dental health care organizations, which serve as currently active as well as promising components of health tourism in Turkey. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 555 websites of dental health care organizations were examined. Web pages were evaluated by using E-Information Quality Scale of the Health Centre. A low score indicates well-designed websites. RESULTS: Scores related to "contact information" and "website layout" were lower in the private ones (n:146) than the public institutions (n:409)(p=0.000, p=0.011). It was observed that 80.8% (n:122) of the websites with foreign language options (n:151), were private institutions); whereas, public institutions only constitute 19.2% (n:29) of the total. All sub-group scores in the scale were lower in the organizations offering foreign language alternatives in contrast to the ones without foreign language options (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In private dental health care organizations," contact information" and "website layout" of websites were observed to be the most prominent features in the conduct of public relations activities. Websites with foreign language alternatives were well-designed due to the fact that language options were considered to be an incentive for the health tourists.

An Assessment of Health Information Systems Through the Perspective of Computer Engineering Students and Medical Students.

INTRODUCTION: Computer Engineering Students (CES) and Medical Students (MS) will actively participate in the management of health information system in the future. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the views of CES and MS about the patient privacy and security of health information systems. METHODS: The participants of this cross-sectional study were the 3rd and 4th year CES of Marmara University, (n=163, F/M:71/92) and the 5th and 6th year MS of Marmara University (n=65, F/M:38/27). The data were collected via questionnaire comprising questions and statements about patient information security and confidentiality. Responses were prepared on the basis of 5 Point Likert Scale. RESULTS: During the assessment of the questionnaires, it was observed that the statement "Health records should be accessible to the other health workers besides the physician" discomforted more CES (93,3%) than MS (78,5%) (p=0.003). A similar proportion was observed about "On-line communication with the physician" more CES (87,1%) prefer to communicate with the physician via electronic media than do the MS (66,2%) (p=0.001). Another significant point to be noted about the questionnaire results was that slightly more CES (40,5%) favor restrictions on the accessibility of "personal correspondance information" than MS (35,4%) (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In the future, CES, who will be both internal and external stakeholders of the multi-disciplinary structure of healthcare management, thought that problems regarding security and privacy may occur. Therefore, the relation between health information system and the occupational education and training of CES and MS are extremely important through the perspective in healthcare management.