Iranian household financial protection against catastrophic health care expenditures

Protecting households against financial risks is one of objectives of any health system. In this regard, Iran's fourth five year developmental plan act in its 90th article, articulated decreasing household's exposure to catastrophic health expenditure to one percent. Hence, this study aimed to measure percentage of Iranian households exposed to catastrophic health expenditures and to explore its determinants. The present descriptive- analytical study was carried out retrospectively. Households whose financial contributions to the health system exceeded 40% of disposable income were considered as exposed to catastrophic healthcare expenditures. Influential factors on catastrophic healthcare expenditures were examined by logistic regression and chi-square test. Of 39,088 households, 80 were excluded due to absence of food expenditures. 2.8% of households were exposed to catastrophic health expenditures. Influential factors on catastrophic healthcare were utilizing ambulatory, hospital, and drug addiction cessation services as well as consuming pharmaceuticals. Socioeconomics characteristics such as health insurance coverage, household size, and economic status were other determinants of exposure to catastrophic healthcare expenditures. Iranian health system has not achieved the objective of reducing catastrophic healthcare expenditure to one percent. Inefficient health insurance coverage, different fee schedules practiced by private and public providers, failure of referral system are considered as probable barriers toward decreasing households' exposure to catastrophic healthcare expenditures

[Study of productivity status and related factors and determining at selected hospitals of Mazandaran province- 2010]

Optimum resource utilization is one of the primary objectives of any organization. Hospitals as one of the most important elements of health systems, facing escalating costs and resource scarcity, are concerned with this issue as well. Productivity improvements can help hospitals to achieve this objective. If hospitals are planning to improve productivity, at first, they have to identify factors influencing productivity. This study aims to identify factors affecting productivity and measuring their status quo at selected hospitals of Mazandaran province. The present descriptive study was carried out cross sectionally. The research population, comprised of hospitals presidents, managers, nursing managers and supervisors [N=250], were all studied with no sampling technique. We used a questionnaire for data collection, its validity and reliability of which was verified. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, chi square and T test through SPSS 16. The mean score of influential factors and their status quo was measured as followed respectively: managerial factors [3.95 +/- 0.82; 2.55 +/- 0.86], employees job satisfaction and motivation factors [3.03 +/- 1.05; 2.4 +/- 0.92], customer orientation factors [3.28 +/- 0.7; 2.86 +/- 0.86], human resources development and training factors [3.15 +/- 0.92; 2.59 +/- 0.89], organizational culture factors [3.23 +/- 0.86; 2.6 +/- 0.84], hospitals technology and equipment factors [3.34 +/- 0.73; 2.61 +/- 0.79]. Although the research population believed these factors have a great impact on hospitals productivity, but their current situation was not ideal in the hospitals. If these hospitals are determined on their way to improve productivity, designing interventions targeting these factors seems useful