Journal of Health Information Management
Year:2013 | Volume:10 | Issue:2 (30)|Papers Count:20

Introduction: Nowadays, organizations have resorted to various techniques and strategies to institutionalize ethic according to which the organizational members behave. Hence, by focusing on Islamic ethics and culture governing organizations, the present study was an attempt to investigate the importance of work ethics in organizations and its outcomes in Iran, taking into account the organizational citizenship behavior and the impact of job values.Methods: 239 out of 8282 employees of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences who all hold at least a bachelor’s degree were selected. The participants were selected using cluster stratified random sampling method. They were given three questionnaires, however, only 198 (83%) were returned. The required data for this practical field study were collected through the documents, papers or theses existed in libraries, or online in valid scientific databases. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and factor analysis were used to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaires, respectively.Results: The highest correlation coefficient among the variables was between the organizational citizenship behavior and job values. Furthermore, among all the variables, only two (perseverance or efficiency at work, and healthy relationship) had a direct, indirect and general impact on citizenship behavior. The amount of general impact was higher than the other two. Moreover, job values affect citizenship behavior directly.Conclusion: Islamic work ethics significantly affects employees’ viewpoint and made them behave appropriately in an organization. Furthermore, the values of each individual or the whole group in working atmosphere were in line with the increased social attention to humane and ethical values, i.e. considering job values, Islamic work ethics affect organizational citizenship behavior.

Introduction: According to Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), information literacy is defined as a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information". ACRL provides "Information literacy competency standards for higher education". The purpose of this study was to evaluate the medical student information literacy competency of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This was an analytical-descriptive study. Total of 150 medical students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences participated in the study. The data were collected by information literacy questionnaire based on "information literacy competency standards for higher education", according to Ghasemi's PhD thesis. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire have been previously confirmed by Ghasemi.Results: The mean score of students were significantly up to 50 and bellow 100 in all the standards (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between male and female students in all the standards (P>0.05). There was a significant difference between students in various levels of education in standards 1 and 5, however, there was no significant difference in standards 2, 3 and 4 (P>0.05).Conclusion: Self-examination can be one of the reasons affecting the findings, because the means were significantly up to the moderate level. On the other hand, reaching the upper level of information literacy skills needs information literacy training and relationship between students and faculty members.

Introduction: Nowadays, the widespread distribution of hospital information systems (HIS) in healthcare institutions requires professional evaluation to assess the practical usefulness of these applications. Nursing staff are the largest group of staff in a hospital and play an important role in the adoption and evaluation of HISs.Methods: This was a descriptive, analytic, cross-sectional study. This study was done during six months. The study subjects included nursing staff of university hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who used HIS. Data were collected by the questionnaire ISO 9241/10 to assess HIS which comprises 75 items in seven criteria (suitability for the task, self-descriptiveness, controllability, conformity with user expectations, error tolerance, suitability for individualization, and suitability for learning). The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by experts. Sampling was done using cluster sampling that included 354 nurses.Results: Findings showed the most satisfaction rate of the nurses with HIS according to the criteria of ISO 9241/10 were as the following: conformity with users expectations (2.96), suitability for the task (2.93), suitability for learning (2.93), error tolerant (2.83), self-descriptiveness (2.77), controllability (2.72) and suitability for individualization (2.56). The most satisfaction rate of the nurses of HIS vendors was Rayavayan with score 2.95.Conclusion: Mean of users satisfaction with the criteria of ISO Metrics in HIS was in a desirable level. Particular attention should be given to users' expectations to achieve the desirable condition.

Introduction: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the dimensions of personal knowledge management (PKM) of administrators in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. A survey research method was applied to conduct the study.Methods: A simple random sample of 91 academic, research, student affair, financial administrators, and department chair subjects in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences participated in the study by responding to PKM questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was tested and verified. The collected data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, repeated measure analysis and multivariate analysis of variance procedures.Results: Results showed that Most of the administrators had a medium level of PKM skills. Furthermore, results indicated that highest mean was self-learning management (19) and lowest mean were knowledge networks (14.37) and research skills (14.30). Comparing PKM skills of administrators to sex (f=2.50, P=0.01) and type of organization (between faculty and central organization of university) (f=2.50, P=0.01) demonstrated a significant difference, however, the rest did not so.Conclusion: PKM skills are one of the most essential skills of administrators, especially educational administrators, because of their task such as teaching and improvement of every educational and research activity.

Introduction: Commitment of staff is intangible asset that can highly provide better services. Since providing healthcare services is only possible through efficient human resources, this study evaluated the association between person-organization fit and organizational commitment of staff in university hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study which was conducted in 2011. All the staff employed in university hospitals and medical centers have been chosen. Firoozgar, Baharloo, Shariati and Hazrate Rasoul Hospitals were randomly selected as the study samples. Sample size (n=180) distributed between the hospitals using the class-ratio method. Data were collected using person-organization fit (Scrogines) and organizational commitment (Myer and Allen) questionnaires, and their validity and reliability were evaluated. Data analysis was done through the Spearman-Pearson correlation test, Cronbach's alpha and Intra cross-correlation tests.Results: According to the study, the level of person-organization fit between staff was moderate (4.48). In the dimensions of organizational commitment, normative commitment (4.68) had the highest mean and continuous commitment (4.42) had the lowest mean. In general, organizational commitment among the staff has been in high levels. In addition, there was a statistical significant association between person-fit and affective commitment, continuance commitment, normative commitment and organizational commitment.Conclusion: Considering the important role of healthcare organizations and human resources for providing services and achieving conclusive goals, it is necessary to prove the association between person organization fit and organizational commitment and policymaker must give more attention to the person organization fit in attraction, selection and adjustability of staff.

Introduction: Efficiency is the missed part of a health sector in developing countries. Moreover, concerns about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) lead to specific attention for optimal use of limited resources in health sector.Methods: This study utilized data envelopment analysis (DEA) and linear programming methods to evaluate the efficiency of the government health expenditures from 2000 to 2008 for a sample of 88 developing countries. First of all, the countries were classified into two categories using cluster analysis method, and then, the efficiency analysis was applied separately for each group. In addition, by the use of multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), the importance of each variable in the clustered groups was determined. Results: According to the cluster analysis, the first cluster composed of 49 countries and second cluster included 39 countries. MDA revealed that the infant mortality, mortality of children under 5 years, total fertility rate and life expectancy had a main role in disparity of the two clusters. Due to appropriate outputs, Iran took 16th rank among the first cluster countries.Conclusion: Measles vaccine is the most sensitive output in the first cluster countries due to appropriate performance in that indicator. In the second cluster, there was no country without sensitivity, in other words, these countries cannot achieve to the balanced growth in their health sector.

Introduction: People are eager to obtain medical information. Existing web search engines cannot handle medical search well because they do not consider its special requirements. One way to restore data in the fields related to medicine is using the search engines that are designed specifically for medical information. This study was performed to compare the level of efficiency of specialized and technical search engines in retrieving documents concerning the obstetrics and gynecological diseases.Methods: To do so, a comparative method was used. Thus, some consultations were made with the obstetricians and the gynecologists, and five keywords related to women's diseases were chosen and searched at five engines i.e. Honsearch (Medhunt), Omni, Pogo Frog, Search Medica, and Trip Database. The required data for this research were collected via a checklist. The first 10 retrieval results of each restoring engine were investigated via the checklist including 47 constituents. The checklist was examined by five experts and professors of Library and Information Sciences. Those questions, which needed to be reviewed for correction, were revised. Thereby, the validity of checklist was confirmed. In this study, the significance level was considered 0.05 (P<0.05) or the coefficient of trust was equal to 95%.Results: Among 250 retrieved documents Search Medica with 94% of items retrieved was in the top and Pogo Frog with 78% of items retrieved stood in the second place. In addition, given the precision, Search Medica with 94% placed in top and Pogo Frog with 92% was in the second place. In terms of retrieving, no significant difference was observed among the medical search engines. In connection with the authority level of the retrieved resources, the highest authority went to Pogo Frog with 66% and Search Medica with 44% was placed in the second level. Regarding search possibilities and potentials, Med Hunt with score 25 gained the highest rank.Conclusion: Totally, more than half of the retrieved results (75%) in the field of medical search engines were relevant. In order to obtain more specific results, users are advised to search information about gynecological diseases in Search Medica engine which provides enormous potential benefits in retrieving more accurate and relevant documents where broad coverage across a variety of subject areas are encompassed.

Introduction: The main aim of this study was to recognize the correlation between the emotional intelligence factors and virtual reference skills in academic libraries of medical sciences in Iran.Methods: In this study, the study population consisted of 44 subjects (employed in academic libraries of medical sciences) who were randomly selected. The data collection tools were two questionnaires one of which was to measure emotional intelligence skills based on interpersonal subscale of Bar-on emotional intelligence questionnaire, and the second one was based on researcher-made information questionnaire, in order to evaluate the virtual reference skills. The reafter, the collected data were studied and analyzed via central indices and dispersion (scattering) of descriptive statistics and statistical tests of parametric single sample-t and t for independent group as well as Pearson correlation coefficient and step by step multiple regression.Results: The findings of the study showed a significant correlation between the emotional intelligence factors and the related subscales with virtual reference skills.Conclusion: The regression analysis results showed that empathy skills can foretell and adapt the virtual reference skills in librarians.

Introduction: Insurance agencies are the most influential organizations in the health system so that they can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and patient satisfaction through eliminating the financial relationship between provider and client services. Given the current health organizations in Iran and different definitions and higher goals, this study aimed to provide solutions to enhance the quality and quantity of health insurance in Iran.Methods: The present study was conducted in two stages. The first stage was done through literature review of databases related to insurance organizations, articles and study of laws and regulations related to various types of health insurance and the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Iran. After identifying the factors in organized the checklist, they were discussed with experts.Results: Existence of many uncoordinated insurance agencies, lack of universal coverage, problems related to resource costs and problems related to lack of actual tariff were identified as a major weakness of current health insurance. Integration of health insurance law and defining a clear pattern, correct formulation of the basic health insurance package and a clear line between basic and supplementary insurance, expansion insurance coverage, legislation for the financial disconnect between the service provider and the recipient, and ultimately creating social cohesion in a way to provide cross-subsidies between low income and high income groups were the qualitative and quantitative approaches to enhance the health insurance system in Iran.Conclusion: Ministry of Health and Welfare and Social Security have to solve problems related to the health insurance system, enforcement action based on several studies done in this area and does not suffice to the rules provided in the development of multi-year program, because more damage of the process ultimately impact the weakest class of the society (patients, people with low income, etc.).

Introduction: Nursing information system (NIS) has made progressions in resolving multiple challenges of healthcare organizations such as influencing the workload, effective planning in working methods and communication among multiple jobs. This study aimed to investigate the experience of nurses in impact of NIS on nursing services efficiency.Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 316 nurses in affiliated hospitals of Semnan University of Medical Sciences and Social Security Organization in 2011-2012. Data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire that evaluated the computer literacy and nurses’ perception with effect of computer system on nursing services efficiency. After expert confirmation and reliability assessment based on Cronbach's alpha, the questionnaire was distributed among the study subjects. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Most nurses experienced the impact of information system on nursing practice acceleration (52.4%), having more time for patient care (49.7%), and the ease of intersectional information exchange (49.3%). They believed that they could not enter clinical data into computer simultaneous with care delivery, and there was duplication in recording information. There was a significant association among some of demographic profile and characteristics of computer literacy and nurses’ experience (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that NIS had a positive influence on some of nursing services, however, it increased their workload. Hence, it is necessary that NIS is employed by more effective methods. This issue allows managers to distribute resources better, reduce misunderstandings, and increase nursing support for new technology.

Introduction: The medication prescription is one of the vital and important processes in each healthcare system and no modern society could live without regulated medicine prescription. Electronic prescribing has emerged as a viable and definitive solution to counter shortcomings of the current paper-based prescribing processes. This study aimed to present an overview of electronic prescription and familiarizes the key real and potential stakeholders with practical concepts and global experiences in the field of eprescribing. In this review study, PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE databases, Iranian National Library of Medicine (INLM) portal, and Google and Yahoo search engines were searched for relevant English publications concerning the problems of paper-based prescription, and concept, features, levels, benefits, stakeholders and standards of electronic prescription system. Electronic prescribing systems provide the potential to dramatically improve the outcome of prescribing processes, reduce adverse drug events, and save healthcare costs. Strengthening and supporting electronic prescription system requires the collaboration between all the system stakeholders and establishment of infrastructure for underlying healthcare information. Therefore, it is necessary to allocate a high priority to design and implement a national, unified and safe electronic prescription system by health care systems.

Introduction: Health information systems (HIS) have the potential to improve the quality of healthcare.Laboratory information systems (LIS) are of widely used ones among them. Despite many benefits of HISs, many studies have indicated problems in user interaction with these systems due to poor design of their interfaces. The present study aimed to evaluate the applicability and usability of LIS.Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study which employed heuristic evaluation method to evaluate the design of LIS used in 60 Iranian hospitals. This study was done from August to November 2012. The system was accessed in Bahonar University Hospital in Kerman. In this study, the identified applicability and usability problems concerning different parts of LISs (outpatient admission, inpatient admission, sample collection, and test result reporting) were discussed. Data were collected using a standard form designed based on heuristic method. The content validity was confirmed by three medical informatics specialists.Results: This evaluation identified 162 applicability and usability problems. The highest number of problems concerned "flexibility and efficiency of use" and the lowest number concerned heuristic "help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors". Based on different parts of the system, the highest number of problems (n=51) concerned "outpatient admission" and the lowest ones (n=29) concerned "sample collection" part.Conclusion: Despite wide usage throughout the country, the design of many existing HISs suffers from usability and applicability problems which diminish the quality of user interaction and subsequently the quality of health care. Consideration of standards and principles for user interface design such as those heuristics used in this study can reduce the number of applicability problems.

Introduction: Medicine is an inseparable link of health chain, a flaw in health process for high expenditures of the medicine or inappropriate access shall certainly bring higher costs in the mentioned procedure. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the households’ income, geographical access, patients’ direct payment, physician's visit and insured' inpatient rate on the amount of medicine utilization in the pharmacies contracted with the Social Security Organization (SSO).Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical study. The bank data in 1988-2009 from SSO's provincial branches were used to evaluate the impact of the above mentioned elements on drug utilization rate. The study subjects included 24 million individuals under coverage of the organization appearing before the direct and indirect health section to receive medicine during the mentioned years. We analyzed the data using linear fixed-effects models by EViews Software.Results: The findings of the study showed that the specialist's visit (b=0.37), inpatient rate in indirect health section (b=0.17), geographical access (b=0.17), GP's visit (b=0.16) and out of pocket (OOP) payment (b=-0.12) had the highest impact on drug utilization, respectively. The households’ income (P=0.927, b=-0.005), inpatient rate (P=0.076, b=0.033) and physician's visit in direct health section (P=0.577, b=0.026) had not significant effect on the medicine utilization in the contracted pharmacies.Conclusion: Drug provision is of high importance in away that any growth in the price does not play an avoiding role in its consumption, which may cause catastrophic costs for some households. The SSO's policy makers shall ponder about the upright distribution in order for better healthcare services utilization.

Information is a critical factor in information societies. By its very nature, it plays a key role as a valuable commodity in economic interactions. Libraries and information centers are the main centers for information exchange in order to sustain life in the information era. They are required to continuously assess information services economically based on standard indicators. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a user-centered, systematic and quantifiable economic evaluation method which compares the benefits with costs a particular product or service. In libraries, CBA is a way to compare the positive outcomes with the expenditures. Besides, it is a method to evaluate relative advantages of different projects serving users in terms of allocating resources. And its results can lead to making the best decision for the optimal use of resources and reforming the library function. In this paper, regarding the features and capabilities of this evaluation method, the concepts, procedures, implementation, applications, components and major indices of cost-benefit analysis in libraries and information centers were explained and its advantages, limitations and procedures were discussed.

Introduction: The main source of hospital income is through selling health care services provided to the insured. Thus, the quality of services and facilities to the insured population and other individuals can be improved by controlling these sources to make correct and efficient use of them and to avoid wasting. Therefore, the aim of the preset study was to analyze the deduction rate by medical services and social security insurance organizations with accounts and bills sent to university hospitals.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive applied study. The study documents included all bills sent by university hospitals of Khorramabad to medical services and social security organizations. The tool for data collection was a check list.Results: The mean deductions of hospitalization and outpatient accounts sent by medical services insurance was 4.22%, and the highest and lowest deductions accounts were related to Shohadaye Ashayer with 5.46 % and psychiatric hospital with 0.18%, respectively. Besides, the anesthesia cost had the highest percentage of bills deductions (18.46%). The mean of hospitalization and outpatient deduction's accounts sent with social security insurance was 4.22%. Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital with 6.24 % had the highest deduction and Psychiatric Hospital with 0.19 % had the lowest deduction.Conclusion: Although deduction was applied to a small percentage of accounts, a significant financial burden was imposed to the hospitals. The major causes of deduction included incomplete documentation records, lack of familiarity with hospital information systems, incomplete and incorrect registration insurance code, up coding, incorrect calculations, lack of adequate training and other factors. Universities are recommended to reduce the amount of deductions to adopt appropriate policy.

The relationship between the cyberspace and human brain gives the technology a unique and sometimes irresistible attraction. The aspect, along with the numerous advantages of modern information technologies (IT), makes users have a wide approach toward ICT throughout the world. The present study attempted to review the literature on undesirable psychological, ethical and social effects of the internet and computer games in order to highlight the serious need for training users, taking preventive measures and also making educational and legal policies. In spite of all their constructive impacts on psychological health, social relations, cognitive skills and learning, technologies have such wide detriments that could override their advantages. Among the consequences of uninformed usage of the technologies, one may notice addiction and pathological dependency, sexual abuse, disruption of family and social relations, non-responsibility, violence and aggression, depression, isolation and introversion, low self-esteem, school and job failure, anxiety, and finally mental and emotional disorders. The wide range of undesirable consequences, as well as an increasing body of researches on the matter, implies the seriousness of the dangers all over the world and the requirement of an increasing awareness, sensibility and attention. Given the high context-dependency of technologies, it is necessary to conduct a wide range of studies in order to get to suitable and effective and well-proportioned solutions to specific social, cultural, and religious conditions.

Introduction: Nowadays, without utilization of information technology, it is impossible to have effective access to required information. Inappropriate use of new technology for professional knowledge transmission leads to inadequacy of technology as well as cost wasting. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance general understandings about information technology (IT) abilities and also End-User Needs. This article reviewed the usage of IT by residents of Urmia university hospitals during 2012.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done using Tamjid-Rezaie developed questionnaire. The questionnaire validated by expert's direct interview and also verified by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (82). Data were collected by sampling method among 157 members of a target group.Results: Following items have been found to be used as “many” and “too many”: Personal digital assistant (88.9%), e-mail (54%), pod cast (34.2%), alert (27.8%), RSS (15.1%), SMS (15.1%), Athens (11.9%), weblog (11.9%), and chat (3.2%).Conclusion: Following improvements were strongly recommend in order to establish reasonable usage of IT advantages: good education of residents to empower them about information acquisition from electronic sources, preparation of user friendly hard copy manuals, employment of IT experts in health research centers, practical representation of IT advantages via correct utilization of IT-health related sources.