Evaluation of Inpatient Surgical Wards’ Performance at the Hospitals Affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018

Surgery wards account for a significant portion of hospital costs, followed by patient costs. Improving surgery wards' performance plays a major role in enhancing the accountability and efficiency of the hospital. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of inpatient surgical wards at the hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences(TUMS).

A descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study was performed at all hospitals affiliated with TUMS in 2018. To measure the efficiency of these wards, three indicators have been considered; bed occupancy rate, the average length of stay, and bed turnover. Data have been analyzed using Excel software based on the Pabon Lasso model .

Among the 15 active surgical departments, 5 (33.31 %) were categorized in quadrant three, including ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, vascular and trauma surgery, plastic surgery, and infertility department. The oral and maxillofacial surgery and general surgery departments were the poorest in their performance and located in quadrant one. Ten surgical wards out of 38 (26.33 %) have reported a satisfactory performance.

Understanding and comparing the performance of clinical departments is also useful in making decisions for standardizing the patterns of health services delivery, evidence-based management in health care centers, and enhancing accountability in the health system. It is suggested that managers revise the departments in the inefficient area to reduce the number of inefficient departments or attract more patients by marketing, diversifying services, and increasing the quality of services.