مجله تصویر سلامت
سال چهارم شماره 3 (پاییز 1392)

Service quality is defined as patients’ self-reported experience of care, and is used as a measurement tool for evaluating systems quality. This study was aimed to assess the quality of services from the perspective of patients who used the medical laboratory of Tabriz Heart and Cardiovascular Hospital (Shahid Madani) to evaluate and improve service quality at this laboratory.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a sample of 150 patients who used our laboratory. Service quality was calculated based on importance and performance of non-health aspects from the customers’ perspective. A researcher-developed questionnaire whose validity and reliability was reviewed and confirmed was used for data collecting. Data were analyzed using SPSS-14 software. Independent sample t-test and Regression test were used to investigate the relationship between service quality dimensions and categorical variables.

From the customers’ perspective, the average service quality score in our laboratory was 7.93 out of 10 which is relatively a low score. Meanwhile, in some aspects, such as respect and immediate attention by the laboratory staff, good interactions and trust on the laboratory with a score higher than 8, achieved acceptable quality. The ease of access to the laboratory achieved 5.78 score which is the lowest among the dimensions of services quality.

Our findings have clarified that even in a high ranking hospital, there are still significant points for service quality improvement in most aspects such as human resources, basic utilities, and technical equipment.

Customer Quality refers to customers’ capabilities to be effectively participating in service delivery and correct care processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of customer quality questionnaire in services related to patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

This is a qualitative study with the aim of assessment of customer quality questionnaire with 16 questions. This questionnaire was distributed among 11 experts to determine the validity of the questionnaire. Finally, 10 of them expressed their own opinions based on the criteria of validity and in the face validity section, they expressed their opinions qualitatively. Also, reliability of questionnaire was reviewed with 30 samples, according to the internal consistency.

In determining the content validity, all the questionnaire items were confirmed by CVR (1) and CVI (0.89) indicators. Also, reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha (α=0.78).The final questionnaire was changed according to the experts’ recommendations and their qualitative comments on the 19 questions in four stages of customer quality, including: a) the patient’s belief that his/her role in care process is important, b) having knowledge, skill and confidence to take action in the care process, c) taking action to protect and improve the health or active involvement, d) continuity of care, even in critical situations and under stress.

Confirmation of the questionnaire with statistical scientific methods showed that this questionnaire is a very strong tool that using it in research can be an effective step in order to improve the quality of health services.

Overhaul program is one of the sensitive, dangerous and extensive activities in petroleum industries. As a result of high rate of occupational accidents throughout this program, it is necessary to study the cause of accidents carefully. The current study as a descriptive-analytical was designed and conducted to evaluate the rate and cause of occupational accidents that were occurred throughout the overhaul program within ten years (2001-2010) in one of the petroleum industries The occupational accidents data including demographic parameters (age, marital status), job experience, year of accident, affected organ, type and nature of injury and cause of accident were collected from workers’ medical records. The collected data were then analyzed by SPSS-11 and descriptive statistics. According to the results, about 23 occupational accidents were occurred in the-refinery during the last 10 years throughout the overhaul program. The majority of accidents (43.5%) was occurred in 2006, while the lowest was (4.3%) in 2002.The mean age of injured subjects was 30.2±11.2 years. Most injured subjects (56.5%) were observed in age category of 21-30 years and less (13%)in age category of 31-40 and over 50 years old. The most injured organs were lower parts of body (52.2%) and upper parts of body (47.8%) respectively. Main causes of accidents were reported as unsafe acts (careless, unsafe and lack of skill), while environmental conditions (slipperiness) caused a lowest number of accidents. In this study, unsafe acts were the most important factors of the occupational accidents. In order to reduce the occupational accidents throughout the program, job safety courses and trainings are essential to be held for workers. Moreover, applying comments of HSE staffs, precise supervision on accomplishment of the regulations, providing and using the proper personal protective equipment are helpful to prevent the occupational accidents.

According to complexity of resource allocation, issue about how to allocate health care resources in an accurate and fair manner has become the subject of discussions and decisions of related groups. Therefore, in this research we aim to study the methods of financial resource allocation of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses for its promotion.

This study is a descriptive, qualitative sectional research and all comments have been collected by focus group discussions with experts and managers involved in the allocation of financial resources of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. All factors affecting the process of allocation have been reviewd carefully.

Results suggested that except the health sector, none of the other sectors use the formulated and scientific methods for allocating financial resources and despite the emphasize in the 4th development plan for operating funding, the final cost of the services, has no role in allocating financial resources.

Regarding to judgmental and subjective method of financial resources allocation of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and lack of documented and formulated methods, there is an essential need for developing an appropriate and formulated model for scientific allocation of financial resources in order to improve the efficiency and fairness of the allocation.

There are always changes in our planet that can threat human life and earthquake is one of them and has an increasing importance. This study aims to survey earthquake-affected region and controlling actions to communicable and non-communicable diseases in Azerbaijan Earthquake, 2012. This is a cross-sectional study that its data were collected by East Azerbaijan province health center personnel and were analyzed and reported by current research team on the disease categories and relevant, controlling activities. In addition, the researchers assessed strengths and weaknesses of the teams’ performance from their members’ perspectives by interview. The findings indicate that status of environmental health and psychological disorders is suitable and status of communicable and non-communicable diseases is acceptable. The strengths points of health teams included rapid assessment and on-time response to earthquake and constant monitoring of diseases and weaknesses were lack of coordination and organizing in disaster management This study showed that implemented activities for disease control and preventing epidemics had enough effectiveness and this experience can be used as a suitable model for disaster management in similar situations.

Earthquake of East Azerbaijan with magnitude of 6.3 to 6.4 on the Richter scale, impressed the cities of Varzegan, Ahar and Heris on 11 August 2012 which left 306 victims and more than 8000 billion Rials cost, caused irreparable damages. Present study aims to investigate and present an analysis of relief performance and also health, environmental and safety aspects after earthquake. Required data were gathered during the early days after earthquake via presence and observation in the affected areas. Besides, opinions of health experts were collected through interviews. The rest of required information was collected from websites and publications. In the following days after the earthquake, coordination between government offices was at a low level and duties were not clear. Lack of correct statistics of permanent and non-permanent residents of villages caused many problems in the construction of new houses. A significant feature of recent earthquake was the approach of community participation; so that they personally distributed the humanitarian aids to the quake-hit areas instead of delivering aids through governmental offices which had its own advantages and disadvantages. Absence of specific responsible until a week after earthquake for the installation of sanitary toilets was a significant problem in the earthquake areas. Other problems included the difficulties associated with the distribution of tents, solid waste collection, distribution of excessive bottled water and its improper storage, and the disposal of demolition waste in the natural drainages. The situation after the earthquake indicates that despite the presence of government forces in the earthquake affected areas, there were obvious problems especially in field of sanitary which need an integrated planning for relief after earthquake.

Growth of scientific products is one of the important reasons for indexing journals in scientific databases. Increasing Article Visibility and Audience Access one the adventages of indexing. All scientific databases including Scopus and Embase use specific criteria to select journals for indexing. This study reviews the journal selection criteria and benefits of indexing in Embase and Scopus.