Analysis of Hospital Costs in Road Traffic Injuries

Objective: To investigate the factors affecting the hospital costs in the road traffic injuries.Methods: This applied study examined the information of patients presenting to Yazd Trauma Center in 2018. The data were extracted from Comprehensive Traffic Injuries System affiliated to the center, which were described with frequency, percentage, mean, and SD, and then analyzed using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA.Results: Most injuries (%66.4) are caused by motorcycle and pertained to head region (%61.8). Some significant correlations were found among gender, type of injury, patient’s final status, site of road accident, patient’s nationality, type of vehicle used at the time of accident, length of stay (hospital stay), patient’s age, and hospital costs (p <0.05). Moreover, the costs were higher in men, and in those with head and neck injuries, dead casualties, suburban high-way accidents, motor cyclists, hospital stay longer than three days, and older patients.Conclusion: Given the significant correlations between demographic and social variables under study, the results may be used in planning and designing strategies for controlling road traffic injuries and reducing the related hospitalization costs

Application of FMEA and AHP in Elevated Highway Construction Project Risk Assessment

Background: By investigating accidents in industries, it can be concluded that a significant proportion of work-related accidents occur in the construction industry. The present study aimed to apply a hybrid model in identifying and prioritizing risks in a construction project with new machinery. Methods: In this study, the methodological shortcomings of the traditional failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) method and the need to prioritize control measures were modified by the analytical hierarchy of process (AHP). The FMEA was used for risk identification and risk assessment in the elevated highway construction project, then AHP accidents were prioritized according to their physical, psychological, economic, and socio-political burden. Results: In the AHP structure, several sub-criteria for each criterion were considered and weighted for each item. The five activities included crane collapse, falling from a height, collapse, and electrocution devices that their risk priority number is more than 250 weighted by the AHP. Discussion: Based on the literature, the traditional FMEA has many shortcomings that need to be corrected by other methods. This study aimed to modify the traditional FMEA method using a hybrid model. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that in urban projects, hazards threaten workers, citizens, and company properties. In addition to accidents, deaths, and injuries, they have negative consequences, such as health, psychological, economic, and socio-political impacts. Accidents cause loss of human life, worker's mental health problems, damage to equipment or property, worker's productivity loss, and affect the profit and reputation of the organization. Due to many deficiencies of the conventional risk priority number (RPN) in the FMEA method, it was criticized, and to enhance the performance of the FMEA in risk analysis, various risk priority models have been proposed

Investigating Characteristics of Hospital Building Fires in Iran

Background: Building fires are the most common threatening and distressing hazard in hospitals. Fire is one of the top 10 hazards that threaten Iranian hospitals. Nevertheless, no study has been done on the features of fires in Iran hospitals. So, this study aimed to investigate the characteristics of fires taking place in Iranian hospitals. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, news related to fire broke out in Iranian hospitals was retrieved from the archive of 5 reputable Persian news agencies using the Persian search terms: “Fire”, “hospital”, and “clinic”. Quantitative content analysis was used to assess retrieved news text. Data gathered by the Emergency Operation Center of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education were also studied.  Results: In total, 86 incident reports were assessed for the period spanning from 2005 to 2020, with more than half accessed just through reputable news agencies. The electrical short circuit was the most reported incident cause, and the medical care environment was the most reported place of incident. Twenty-five incident reports indicated that partial or complete emergency evacuation was executed.  Conclusion: It is imperative to raise awareness about the lack of an integrated mechanism for registering such incidents. Future research can be conducted designing a critical registry system that collects, analyzes, and disseminates hospital incident data