An evaluation of adherence to society of pharmacists' standards care in pharmacy information systems in Iran

Introduction: Pharmacy information system (PIS) is a complex computerized system used for collecting, storing, and managing the medication therapy data in the course of patients' care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of adherence to the standards established by the societies of pharmacists in the PISs employed in the hospitals in Isfahan, Iran. Methods: The present study was an applied, descriptive-analytical study conducted on the PISs of 19 teaching, private and social insurance hospitals in Isfahan in 2011. Study population consisted of the PISs available in the hospitals under study. Study sample was the same as the study population. The data collection instrument was a self-developed checklist based on the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, whose validity was assessed and confirmed by expert professors' views. Having been collected by observation and interview methods, data were analyzed by SPSS 18 software using Mann-Whitney statistical test. Results: The findings of the study revealed that the highest rank in adherence to the standards of societies of pharmacists was obtained by social services hospitals (32.75%), while the private hospitals obtained the lowest rank (23.32%). Conclusions: Based on the findings, in the PISs in the hospitals under study, some standards of the society of pharmacists were ignored. Hence, prior to designing and implementing PIS, a needs analysis is required to increase its users' motivation to identify the system potentialities and to allow the system development in compliance with the world technology advancement

Investigation of Challenges Ahead of in-service Training for Nurses in Educational Hospitals of Isfahan City in 2016: A Qualitative Study

Background: The need for training throughout the whole occupational life time of a personnel is crucial. As educational needs of all personnel in hospitals are not the same, planning for holding in-service training courses is complex and sensitive, which in some cases causes incidence of challenges and different taste in training. Understanding these challenges and offering solutions to them are really important. Methods: This research was a qualitative study, conducted through a phenomenological approach, for which structured interviews were used to collect data. A total of 10 training supervisors, training volunteers, and administrators of clinical sections, who had been chosen through a targeted method were interviewed. The average duration of interviews was 35 minutes, and their analysis was done through content analysis method. Results: In this research, five primary codes and fifteen secondary codes were obtained. The primary codes comprised support by managers, financial supply, need assessment, time period, and program content. Conclusion: Based on this research, holding in-service training is faced with serious challenges due to different training needs of the hospital personnel and medical team, which are categorized into five groups of support by managers, program need assessment, program time period, program financial support, and educational content. It appears that solving such challenges requires collaboration between the three major decision-maker pillars, i.e. vice-chancellor for treatment, hospital, and universities of medical sciences. &nbsp

Improvement in Ablation and Thermal Properties of Ultra-lightweight Silicone/Cork Composites Insulator Using Novolac Aerogel

Hypothesis: Thermal insulating materials are essential in optimization of energy consumption and to reduce heat and energy loss. Lightweight thermal insulator materials can reduce weight/density and improve the performance of final product. One of the ways to approach lightweight thermal insulator is to develop porous polymeric nanocomposites with low density and good thermal insulation properties. Cork is a cellulosic material with microcells that are widely used in lightweight thermal insulating applications. Porous structure in cellulosic cork allows it to be chosen as an adequate thermal insulator, especially in aerospace applications. Since cork has low density and very low thermal conductivity, many research works are conducted to reduce its thermal conductivity and improving its thermal stability. Methods: In order to improve the thermal insulation performance and ablation of silicone/cork composite, a novolac aerogel nanostructure was used. Novolac aerogel had a nanoporous structure with very low density, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity. The presence of novolac aerogel in the microcell structure of cock and filling its porous spaces led to higher density of the cork, eliminated the air thermal convection process in its microcells, and it therefore decreased the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the composites, significantly.Finding: The mechanism of heat transfer elimination of novolac aerogel by convection could decrease the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of silicone/cork composites by 39% and 45%, respectively, due to pore size reduction. Also, the aerogel could increase thermal stability and thermal resistance and the residual char with adequate thermal stability. Moreover, a resole/graphene oxide coating layer on the composites surface could significantly improve the composites thermal ablation. Under these conditions, the back surface temperature of composite in the presence of aerogel nanostructure decreased by 55%

Hospital Services Quality from Patients’ viewpoint in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The identification of strengths and weaknesses of services provided is the first step for the improvement of the quality of services. In hospitals, patients are the most important groups for the evaluation of the quality of healthcare services. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate hospital service quality from patients’ perspective in Iran using Servqual model. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies evaluating patients’ perspective about hospital services quality was conducted. Required data were collected through searching following key words: Servqual, services quality, gap, hospital, patients, Iran, using the database sources including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, MagIran, SID and IranMedex. Comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) software, Version 2 was used to estimate the total mean score of patients’ perception and expectation of services quality and the gap between them. Results: Totally, 11 eligible studies were entered into the systematic review. Based on the random effect model, the total mean score of patients’ perception, patients’ expectation and the gap between them were estimated 3.66 (95% CI, lowest = 3.40, highest = 3.92), 4.62 (95% CI, lowest = 4.42, highest = 4.82) and 0.94 (95% CI, lowest = 0.78, highest = 1.10), respectively. The mean score of the gap between perception and expectation was 0.95 and the biggest gap was related to the responsiveness dimension. Conclusion: Responsiveness is related to the areas, such as providing appropriate and timely services, the reliability of providers, good communication between staff or physicians and patients. The importance of these areas signifies the necessity of taking actions in order to provide more appropriate and higher quality services

Evaluation of pharmacy information system in teaching, private and social services Hospitals in 2011.

OBJECTIVE Supporting a therapeutic approach and medication therapy management, the pharmacy information system (PIS) acts as one of the pillars of hospital information system. This ensures that medication therapy is being supported with an optimal level of safety and quality similar to other treatments and services. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study is an applied, cross-sectional study conducted on the PIS in use in selected hospitals. The research population included all users of PIS. The research sample is the same as the research population. The data collection instrument was the self-designed checklist developed from the guidelines of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, Australia pharmaceutical Society and Therapeutic guidelines of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association. The checklist validity was assessed by research supervisors and PIS users and pharmacists. FINDINGS The findings of this study were revealed that regarding the degree of meeting the standards given in the guidelines issued by the Society of Pharmacists, the highest rank in observing input standards belonged to Social Services hospitals with a mean score of 32.75. Although teaching hospitals gained the highest score both in process standards with a mean score of 29.15 and output standards with a mean score of 43.95, the private hospitals had the lowest mean score of 23.32, 17.78, 24.25 in input, process and output standards, respectively. CONCLUSION Based on the findings, it can be claimed that the studied hospitals had a minimal compliance with the input, output and processing standards related to the PIS