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Strategic orientation is one of the critical principles affecting the marketing and strategy selection of an organization’s activities, reflecting the strategic tendencies implemented by the organization to create behaviours, leading to organizational efficiency and better employee performance. Therefore, this paper aims to study the relationship between strategic orientation and performance in Qazvin teaching hospitals through green supply chain management (SCM) to improve employees' performance.

This was a descriptive– analytical and cross-sectional study. The total number of employees in medical centres was 2,256 people. According to Morgan’s table, the required number of samples was 328, including 10% of the sample loss. The questionnaire was given to 365 staff in different hospitals in proportion to the number of staff. Two statistical software, SPSS24 and AMOS23, were used to evaluate the results.

All three variables were relatively moderate in the hospitals. The results of evaluating the structural model of the research showed that all the studied hypotheses were significant, except for the relationship between organizational performance and strategic orientation hypothesis. The results also show that this model had a good fit.

The findings can lead to saving the environment, creating a better social image and reducing costs and profitability, allowing managers to know the strategic orientations rather than depending on institutional pressure issues and monitoring guidelines.

Considering the significant relationship between the dimensions of green SCM and the hospitals’ performance, the authors suggest: establishing multilateral co-operation in environmental issues, improving the environmental status of hospitals, reducing waste rates and paying attention to social responsibility of hospitals. In addition, the findings help hospital management to comprehensively understand the strategies for implementing green SCM procedures.

This study aimed to compare mortality rate, length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization costs at different priority levels for a patient admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) at a public tertiary hospital in Qazvin, Iran. This study also aimed to predict influencing factors on patients’ mortality, ICU LOS and hospitalization costs in different admission groups.

The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study among patients who mainly suffered from internal diseases admitted to an ICU of a public hospital. This study was conducted among 127 patients admitted to ICU from July to September 2019. The authors categorized patients into four groups based on two crucial hemodynamic and respiratory status criteria. The authors used a logistic regression model to predict the likelihood of mortality in ICU admitted patients during hospitalizations for the four prioritization groups. Furthermore, the authors conducted a multivariate analysis using the “enter” method to identify risk factors for LOS.

Results showed a statistically significant relationship between the priority of being admitted to ICU and hospitalization costs. The authors’ findings revealed that age, LOS and levels of consciousness had a predictability role in determining in-hospital mortality. Besides, age, gender, consciousness level of patients and type of the disease were mentioned as affecting factors of LOS.

This study’s findings emphasize the necessity of categorizing patients according to specific criteria to efficiently use available resources to help health-care authorities reduce the costs and allocate the budget to different health sectors.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of perceived need, seeking behavior and utilization of health services in the elderly population of Sanandaj (west of Iran).

This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 800 elderly people in Sanandaj. Subjects were selected using multistage sampling and data were collected using self-report questionnaires. A multivariate logistic model with odds ratios (ORs) was used to determine the relationship of independent variables with seeking perceived need. Also, the concentration index was used to measure the inequality in using health services.

The perceived need for outpatient (during the last 30 days) and inpatient health-care services (during the past 12 months) was 69.7% and 29.7%, respectively. Among them, the unmet need for outpatient and inpatient health-care services was 46.6% and 17%, respectively. Having health insurance (adjusted OR 12.08; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–140.11), middle economic status (adjusted OR 5.18; 95% CI 1.30–20.51) and being in an age group of 65–70 years (adjusted OR 7.60; CI 1.42–40.61) increased the chance of seeking inpatient care. Also, being in an age group of 60–65 years (adjusted OR 0.41; 95% CI 0.18–0.95) reduced the chance of seeking outpatient care. There was also a pro-rich inequality in using outpatient health services.

The elderly population suffers from unmet health-care needs, especially in outpatient services. The most important reason for not seeking outpatient and inpatient services was financial barriers and self-medication, respectively. So, designing targeted policies and interventions to address barriers in the conversion of need to demand in the elderly population is essential.

The provision of private health-care services by public hospitals is common in Iran. Examining factors associated with patients’ preferences to use private health services and using this knowledge in health planning and policymaking can help expand the use of such services. Thus, this study aims to investigate patients’ preferences for private health services delivered in public hospitals.

Based on a discrete choice experiment from a sample of 375 patients in a public training hospital in Qazvin, northwest city of Iran, the authors evaluated participants’ preference over the health-care attributes affecting their choice to use private health-care services delivered in the hospital. The authors also estimated the marginal willingness to pay to determine the maximum amount a patient was willing to pay for the improvement in the level of each health-care attributes.

The findings revealed that patients were 2.7 times more likely to choose private hospital services when the waiting time was reduced to less than a week. Furthermore, as patients had complimentary insurance coverage, they were over 60% more likely to receive such services from training hospitals. Finally, continuity of care and reduced health-care tariffs were significant factors that increased patients’ preference to choose private services by 52 and 37%, respectively.

Examining factors associated with patients’ preferences to use private health services and using this knowledge in policymaking can help expand such services. The findings affirmed that various incentives, including service quality factors, are required to increase the likelihood of patients choosing private services.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of medication errors (MEs) and the factors affecting them among nurses of hospitals affiliated to Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) in 2016.

This is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study. In total, 503 nurses were selected using census method from six hospitals affiliated to KUMS. A self-constructed questionnaire was employed to collect information on nurses’ socio-demographic characteristics (6 items), the prevalence and type of MEs (21 items) and their perceptions about the main causes of MEs (40 items). Data were collected from August 15 to October 15, 2016. In addition, nonparametric and linear regression tests were used to describe the descriptive statistics and analyze the data.

The response rate was 73 percent and the monthly reported MEs per nurse was 6.27±11.95. Giving medication at non-scheduled time (28.4 percent), giving multiple oral medications together (22.4 percent) and giving painkillers after operation without physician’s prescription (15.3 percent) were three types of repetitive MEs, respectively. Gender, work experience, and having a second job affected the total number of MEs. “Long and unconventional nursing shifts,” “changing the dosage of medications for patients under observation due to multiple consultations and different doctors’ orders” as well as “failure to give feedback about the causes of errors to nurses by supervisors” were the three prioritized factors for MEs.

There is a need to reduce MEs in order to improve patient safety. It seems that in order to reduce MEs, systemic and managerial reforms such as reducing the working hours and workload of nurses, giving feedback about the causes of MEs to nurses, and using initiatives to reduce the stress in nurses are necessary.

Health-care workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus, which necessitates implementing transmission prevention measures in health-care delivery facilities, particularly hospitals. This study aims to assess COVID-19 risk in a health-care setting and recommend managerial strategies to cope with existing risk procedures.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs working in a general hospital in Qazvin, northwest of the country. A total of 310 employees working at different clinical and non-clinical occupational levels participated in the study. The WHO COVID-19 risk assessment tool categorised HCWs in high- or low-risk groups exposed to COVID-19 infection.

Findings revealed statistically significant relationships between workplace exposure to the COVID-19 virus and variables, including job type, performing the aerosol-generating procedure, access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and being trained on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidelines (p < 0.05). HCWs older than 36 years were at 8% more risk of COVID-19 virus. Being a medical doctor or delivering health-care services as a nurse were relatively 28% and 32% times more likely to be at high risk of infection than other hospital staff categories. Having inadequate access to PPE and lack of training on IPC guidelines were also key determinants of high-risk infection.

As most cases at risk of COVID-19 infection belonged to frontline health-care staff in older age groups, this study recommend limiting the exposure of vulnerable staff to COVID-19 patients, increasing protective measures for HCWs and providing essential information about infection control procedures.

Prediction of future changes and making appropriate strategic decisions require strategic thinking in any organization. It helps managers to create new opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to measure strategic thinking and its affecting factors at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.

This is a descriptive-analytic as well as a cross-sectional study which was conducted in 2016. Its statistical community included 300 managers and personnel of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. The sample size was equal to statistical community. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire. Data were then entered into SPSS20 and were analyzed using statistical tests such as Freedman, Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis.

Overall, strategic thinking was evaluated “good” and “somewhat good” among managers (5.0±72.28) and personnel (6.0±25.48), respectively. Moreover, among the elements of strategic thinking, conceptual thinking obtained the highest score among both managers (6.0±06.32) and personnel (5.0±53.52), which was evaluated in a “good” level. There was a significant difference between managers’ and personnel’s strategic thinking score (p=0.001). Different education groups of managers and personnel were different in terms of strategic thinking (p<0.05), but strategic thinking score of managers and personnel were not significant based on the work experience and type of employment.

Although both managers and personnel received a good score in terms of strategic thinking, improving the level of strategic thinking especially for future trends and opportunities can lead to enhanced strategic thinking among managers and personnel of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.

The construction industry contributes to economic development by providing physical equipment and infrastructures. However, it also generates some undesirable outputs such as waste and environmental pollution, especially in developing countries. Due to the importance of the green supply chain management (GSCM) philosophy, for solving these problems, the current study aims to evaluate the drivers of GSCM adoption in the construction industry of Iran.

This research uses a descriptive and practical methodology. The participated experts in the study include senior managers of the construction department in Rasht municipality who had relevant academic education and suitable experiences in urban and industrial construction. The experts took part in both qualitative and quantitative phases of the research, namely verification of the drivers extracted from literature and ranking them in ascending order. In the quantitative phase, Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) as a new multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) method is used to evaluate the drivers of GSCM adoption using MATLAB software.

The results show that environmental management systems, green product design and innovational capability with weights of 0.347, 0.218 and 0.143 are the most significant sub-drivers, respectively. The less important factor is an investment in environmental technology.

This study evaluated the motivational factors of GSCM in the construction industry. The findings help governments, companies and green supply chain (GSC) managers to improve their knowledge about GSCM and make the best decisions to decrease environmental pollution.