Patrick-Murray Administration Issues South Coast Rail Executive Order and Awards Technical Assistance

BACKGROUND:The migration of healthcare specialists from developing countries has increased in recent years. This has caused a rapid reduction in the access to and quality of healthcare services in such countries. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors affecting the migration of specialist human resources in Iran's healthcare system. METHODS:This is a qualitative study, which was carried out through semi-structured interviews between 2015 and 2016. For sampling, purposive sampling method with maximum variation sampling was used. Further, data saturation was observed by conducting 21 interviews, and data analysis was performed using the MAXQDA10 content analysis software. RESULTS:Factors affecting the migration of specialists were classified into five key themes, including structural, occupational, personal, socio-political and economic factors. These themes consisted of 12 categories and 50 subcategories. The most important factors affecting the migration of our study population were structural issues, occupational problems, and personal concerns. CONCLUSION:Identification of factors influencing migration is the first step to prevent the migration of specialist human resources. Implementing the recommendations proposed in this study would assist to prevent migration of medical professionals

The Survey of Quantitative Effect in Human Capital on the Economic Growth and Household Welfare in Rural and Urban Areas: A Structural Path Analysis Approach

Background: Because of the close relationship between economic growth and welfare of the societies many economists have been seeking to identify the sources of economic growth. Human capital through enhancing workforce skills and quality, increases the amount of workforce income which consequently leads to economic growth. Methods: This study is based on data from the Social Accounting Matrix of Iran in 2006 and is performed using structural path analysis. The study population is comprised of all Iran’s economic sectors and households. SIMSIP_SAM software was used to analyze the data. Results: A billion Rial increases in human capital would lead to income increases which are: 0.087 in energy, 0.083 in services, 0.082 in agriculture, 0.064 in industry sector, and 0.052 billion Rial in mining sectors. Among households' quintiles, the urban fifth quintile, with 0.15 billion Rial increase, is the most affected by human capital growth. In whole, household income showed 1.23 billion Rial increase. Conclusion: The development of human capital increases households’ quintile income almost equally. Thus these increases would prevent the increases of class differences and makes adjustments to it. Hence, increasing free provision of health and education services increase household welfare, economic growth and economic development. Keywords: human capital, economic growth, household welfare, structural path analysis, health, educatio

Preventing blood transfusion failures: FMEA, an effective assessment method

Abstract Background Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a method used to assess the risk of failures and harms to patients during the medical process and to identify the associated clinical issues. The aim of this study was to conduct an assessment of blood transfusion process in a teaching general hospital, using FMEA as the method. Methods A structured FMEA was recruited in our study performed in 2014, and corrective actions were implemented and re-evaluated after 6 months. Sixteen 2-h sessions were held to perform FMEA in the blood transfusion process, including five steps: establishing the context, selecting team members, analysis of the processes, hazard analysis, and developing a risk reduction protocol for blood transfusion. Results Failure modes with the highest risk priority numbers (RPNs) were identified. The overall RPN scores ranged from 5 to 100 among which, four failure modes were associated with RPNs over 75. The data analysis indicated that failures with the highest RPNs were: labelling (RPN: 100), transfusion of blood or the component (RPN: 100), patient identification (RPN: 80) and sampling (RPN: 75). Conclusion The results demonstrated that mis-transfusion of blood or blood component is the most important error, which can lead to serious morbidity or mortality. Provision of training to the personnel on blood transfusion, knowledge raising on hazards and appropriate preventative measures, as well as developing standard safety guidelines are essential, and must be implemented during all steps of blood and blood component transfusion

The impact of disease characteristics on multiple sclerosis patients’ quality of life

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to investigate the effects of characteristics of MS such as disease course, severity, and relapses on patients’ QoL. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study, in which 171 patients were enrolled. Health-related QoL was assessed using the Persian version of the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 questionnaire. To measure patients’ disability status, we used the Expanded Disability Status Scale. Other variables included in the study were disease course and relapses of the disease. RESULTS The average scores for patients’ physical and mental QoL were 60.9±22.3 and 59.5±21.4, respectively. In a bivariate analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were significantly associated with the physical and mental health composite scores. In a hierarchal regression analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were responsible for 38 and 16% of the variance in physical and mental QoL, respectively. It was also observed that relapses were a strong predictor of both physical and mental QoL. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed that disease characteristics significantly affected both dimensions of QoL. It is therefore suggested that health care providers should be aware of these characteristics of MS to more successfully improve MS patients’ QoL

Factors affecting the migration of human resources in the health system of Iran–Themes 4–5.

<p>Factors affecting the migration of human resources in the health system of Iran–Themes 4–5.</p

Factors affecting the migration of human resources in the health system of Iran–Themes 1–3.

<p>Factors affecting the migration of human resources in the health system of Iran–Themes 1–3.</p

Characteristics of the participants in the study.

<p>Characteristics of the participants in the study.</p