نشریه مدیریت سلامت
پیاپی 55 (بهار 1393)

Health locus of control is defined as the extent of one’s belief that his/her health is controlled by internal or external factors. The aim of this study was determining the health locus of control and its relation with the health-promoting behaviors among people over 15 in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012. To collect data, Form A of Wallston questionnaire and health-promoting lifestyle profile II (HPLP II) were used. Out of 830 questionnaires, 687 were completed. Multiple regression analysis was used to predict health-promoting behaviors through health locus of control dimensions.

The mean age of participants was 34.3 (SD=12.1) and 49.8% of them were male. There was a significant difference between internal health locus of control, chance, and powerful others (p<0.001). The Least and the most mean scores belonged to chance (21.35) and both powerful others (30.31) and internal health locus of control (30.32), respectively. Based on regression analysis, internal locus of control (β =0.23, p<0.001) and powerful others (β =0.29, p<0.001) significantly predict health-promoting behaviors.

The findings suggest that to improve health behaviors of the individuals, internal control and significant others should be focused in educational intervention programs.

In recent decades, the quality of educational programs has experienced several challenges. Identifying these challenges can help planners in terms of any change, review, or enhancement in the quality of educational programs. This study aimed to survey the challenges of Health Services Management program at the bachelor level.

In this qualitative study, 27 participants (Academics, Instructors, and Alumni) took part in the research. Participants were chosen based on purposive sampling. After verbal consent, data were gathered through in-depth and semi-structured interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and content analysis approach was used for further analysis.

A deep concern about the curriculum, clinical fields and program goals/objectives emerged as the strongest themes from the interviews. It seems that the current curriculum and objectives of bachelor program of health services management are outdated and less effective than they should be. Furthermore; participants felt that clinical fields should be taken into consideration by means of orientation classes, hospital-based skills and skillful trainers.

The findings can be helpful for decision makers, educational planners and academics to review the existing program and plan a more suitable one based on the needs of the health care system in the country in order to help alumni gain the required skills and competencies to run the health care units.

Hospital Emergency Departments (ED) face different problems affecting their performance. Deficiency of inpatient beds, inability to access suitable care, noisy and overcrowded places, etc. lead to prolonged waiting time, increased length of stay and low service quality. The main purpose of this study was to improve patient flow processes in emergency departments.

The population of this descriptive- applied study included unlimited number of patients who referred to the ED of the selected hospital. Colored Petri Net was used to model patient flow processes and CPN Tools software was employed to simulate and investigate different improvement scenarios. Input data for the simulation model were obtained through timing during data collection period. Patients’ waiting time, length of stay, and resource utilization were defined as performance measures. Four improving scenarios (B, C, D, and E) were defined and their effects were investigated to improve processes.

According to simulation outputs, scenario B led to 45% decrease in waiting time for the specialists while the other scenarios had no positive (decreasing) impact on waiting time. Scenario E was the most effective one in decreasing the length of stay for patients at different ESI levels. Scenarios E and D had positive effect on resource utilization.

Selection of the best scenario depends on the mission of ED, i.e. to save patients’ life. Therefore, a scenario which is the most effective one in saving life must be chosen even if it is expensive. Although it is expensive, scenario E is preferred to scenario D due to its improved outcome. Scenario D is the second best scenario, compared to the other two scenarios, because it is less expensive.

Nowadays, anyone with any knowledge of the Internet environment can act as producer and distributer of information. It differs from most traditional media of information transmission, lack of information control and lack of quality management to contents. This leads to quality of health information on the internet is doubtful. The objective of this study is guidance patients to select valid depression websites for identify and treat their depression and determine the quality of Persian depression websites.

This was survey and an applied study that the study population was all Persian depression websites. Sample of this study was 14 Persian depression website was created by individuals or organizations.Data collection was performed with the WebMedQual checklist. Web sites was assessed based on indicators as content standards, credit references, design, accessibility and usability, links, support, and privacy of user data (Maximum score for any website was 83, mean score 41.5 and minimum score was 0). Collected data analyzed by one sample T- test in SPSS 18.findings presented by Mean score and optimal score.

Persian websites of depression were weak in the content (mean 6.6), reliability of sources(mean 4.2), accessibility and usability (mean 2.1), links (mean 1.5), support (mean 3.9), and the privacy of user data(mean 2.5) and they were below average. Only design criteria (mean 9) were rated good and above average. Also there was no significant relationship between ownership type and rating website evaluation, finally provided a list of sites ranked on the basis of indicators.

Persian websites data on depression dont have essential reliability for users. It is better to use the ranked list websites or search on the internet by help information experts.