A Comparative Study of Productivity Mechanism in Supporting Services at Arak Hospitals: Designing a Model

Around 50 to 80% of total expense of health and therapeutic sector is allocated to hospitals. Thus, quality promotion through application of productivity mechanisms can be effective in dynamism of the hospitals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the productivity mechanisms in supporting units of the hospital that was conducted in Arak in 2005. This research is a descriptive study in which the research society includes all supporting units in three education hospitals and one social security- affiliated hospital. Mechanisms of productivity promotion in different units including: sterilization, medical records, laundry, nutrition, drug warehouse, equipment warehouse and transportation were evaluated through eight separate checklists. Mechanisms were compared in four hospitals on the basis of indicators such as rate of mistakes, complaints, wastage and so on. The data were analysed through Excel software. The research results showed that social security hospital possessed the highest score in productivity mechanisms with the mean score of 77.1 (good ranking) Amirkabir and Taleghani hospitals received 47.3 and 42.7 respectively (Moderate ranking) and vali-e-Asr hospital got 38.7 (poor ranking). This research demonstrated that efficacy and efficiency of hospitals lie in compiling structural, processing and outcome strategies in supporting sectors and continuos monitoring of services. This also necessitates the commitment of senior managers and participation of the whole administration staff of the hospital.