Shiraz Emedical Journal
Volume:17 Issue: 4, Apr 2016

Tracking turnaround times (TATs) can improve the quality of care and decrease the economic burden of patient care..
The aim of this study was to measure current TATs in a hospital emergency department (ED) and to analyze the contribution of prelaboratory and laboratory phases to the total TAT..
This cross-sectional study was performed during November and December 2014 and included all patients admitted to the ED and for whom the physician had ordered routine hematology and chemistry tests. The total TAT comprised seven time points and six time intervals. The start point was when the test was ordered by the physician, and the end point was when the results were verified and reported. The data were analyzed with SPSS software (version 11.5). A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant..
During the study period, time data were provided for 1400 ED tests. The mean total TAT for all tests ranged from 1.3 to 3.1 hour. On weekdays, the longest TAT (2.5 ± 0.9 hours) was on Sundays, and the shortest TAT (1.9 ± 0.7 hours) was on Fridays (P This study suggests that the mean TAT in this teaching hospital is longer than the benchmark. Further research is needed to determine the causes of delays and develop interventions to solve this problem..

Context: In many healthcare systems, the quality of the healthcare delivered is monitored using a number of “indicators.” In the present review, we investigate studies that address issues with the care delivered by healthcare providers. To do this, we employ indicators of the quality of those healthcare services..
Evidence Acquisition: The studies for the review were identified by searching a number of electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid (Medline), the Social Sciences Citation Index, SID (Scientific Information Database, or Persian database), and Iran Medex (Persian database). Of 8,850 studies published between January 1971 and May 2015, 53 met the study criteria and were reviewed. In this study, the following key words were searched, both alone and in combination: health, healthcare, health care, provider*, effectiveness, quality, clinical outcome, patient satisfaction, and quality of life. We also considered healthcare quality indicators such as “clinical outcome,” “patient satisfaction,” and “quality of life” for our assessment of the quality of healthcare providers..
Of the 53 papers selected, 18 assessed the quality of care provided for cardiovascular disorders, 12 studied cancer conditions, eight dealt with metabolic disorders and diabetes, six focused on acute infection, three assessed orthopedics and trauma conditions, two studied pediatric conditions, two assessed obstetrics and gynecology conditions, one dealt with asthma and allergic disease conditions, and one assessed geriatric conditions. In our assessment of improvements in healthcare providers’ performance based on healthcare quality indicators, improvements in clinical outcomes ranged from 26.6% for cancer conditions to 98.8% for pediatric and gynecological conditions. An acceptable level of patient satisfaction was achieved in the range of 30.2% for cancer conditions to 96.0% for pediatric conditions, while improvements to quality of life ranged from 12.5% for cancer conditions to 88.7% for acute infection..
Taking account of three indicators for assessing the quality of healthcare providers (clinical outcome, patient satisfaction, and quality of life), the highest improvement levels among providers were observed for pediatric and gynecological conditions, and the lowest improvement levels were found for cancer conditions..

Several studies conducted around the world have reported a high prevalence of mental disorders among prisoners and suggest that some mental disorders are more prevalent among female prisoners compared to their male counterparts. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to examine mental disorders among Iranian female prisoners and to compare their results with those of male prisoners..
The main focus of this study was to compare mental disorder symptoms among male and female prisoners..
The statistical population of the current study included all male and female prisoners in Zahedan central prison. The sampling method was conducted such that a number of variables were evaluated, including prisoners’ citizenship, marital status, home address, high level of supervision, and the type of crime committed. Among all prisoners, 275 individuals met the inclusion criteria to participate in this study. Therefore, to determine the sample size, Cochran’s formula was used. Then, after applying a simple random method (i.e., sortation), 160 questionnaires were distributed to male and female prisoners. To collect data, the symptom checklist-90 was used..
The results of the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that symptoms of somatic complaints, depression, anxiety, aggression, and phobia were more prevalent among female prisoners compared to their male counterparts, and only symptoms of paranoid thoughts and psychosis were more prevalent among male prisoners compared to female prisoners (P ≤ 0.01). However, no significant difference was found among male and female prisoners with regard to obsession and interpersonal sensitivity (P ≥ 0.05)..
Although the number of female prisoners is far less than that of male prisoners, the results of this study revealed that female prisoners suffer from more mental problems compared to male prisoners. Therefore, providing mental health services for this vulnerable population appears essential..

Context: Anemia is a common, global health problem that has short-term and long-term effects during pregnancy. Several studies have been conducted on the prevalence of anemia among pregnant Iranian women in the last 10 years (2005-2015). The current study evaluated the prevalence of anemia among pregnant Iranian women in this time period..
Evidence Acquisition: The current study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist. Searches for relevant literature were conducted on scientific databases such as the Iranian journal database (Magiran), Iranian biomedical journal database (IranMedex), the scientific information database (SID), global medical article Limberly (Medlib), IranDoc, Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Springer, Web of Science, Wiley online library, and Google Scholar. All population-based studies and national surveys that reported on the prevalence of anemia among pregnant Iranian women published between January 1st, 2005 and December 31st, 2015 were included. All related articles were considered based on inclusion criteria. Using a random effects model, data were analyzed through STATA software (ver.11.1)..
Eighteen articles with a combined sample size of 51,521 were investigated. The prevalence of anemia in pregnant Iranian women was estimated at 17.9% (CI: 95%; 14.7 - 21.1). The highest and lowest percentages were reported in Iran’s central (24.9%) and western (6.3%) parts, respectively. The prevalence of anemia among rural (17.6%) and urban (22.1%) pregnant Iranian women was also determined..
The prevalence of anemia among pregnant Iranian women has increased in the last 10 years. Therefore, appropriate intervention plans, including training in proper nutrition during pregnancy and training in the correct use of iron, vitamins, and folic acid supplements, should be arranged and performed in prenatal clinics or before marriage..

Violent behavior in the workplace, or workplace violence (WPV), is considered a serious threat to the mental and physical health of employees. WPV ranges from verbal abuse to physical assaults and even sexual harassment..
Every medical student may be repeatedly exposed to violence in hospitals due to direct contact with the public and patients. This study investigates the prevalence of all types of WPV against medical students..
Patients and A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted on 275 medical students in the educational hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The survey questionnaire used was a modified version of a WPV questionnaire translated into Farsi. The questionnaire included demographic information and types of violence experienced including physical violence, verbal violence and sexual harassment. Standard descriptive statistics were used to report the frequency of events. The associations between categorical variables were analyzed using the Chi-square test..
Of 193 respondents, 24.9% reported experiencing physical violence, 85.5% reported being verbally threatened and 26.1% reported being sexually harassed. Males were more likely to be exposed to physical violence and females to sexual harassment. Patients’ relatives were the most frequent perpetrators of physical and verbal violence while physician colleagues were the main source of sexual harassment.
As the emotionally stimulated companions of patients were found to be the most frequent perpetrators of physical and verbal violence, providing special training for medical students on how to deal with such incidents, increasing the number of nursery personnel and increasing the quantity and quality of hospital guards is necessary to minimize the prevalence of violence against medical students..