Hospital Practices and Research

Abstract Background: Kidney stones significantly raise healthcare expenses due to the requirement for specialized treatments and frequent hospital visits. Kidney stones lower workforce productivity because affected individuals frequently miss work or are less efficient due to pain and the necessity of treatment. In society, kidney stones lead to reduced productivity and quality of life, affecting both individuals and the broader economy.
Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to analyze the influence of urine-based biochemical and physical parameters on kidney stone formation and to develop a high-accuracy machine learning model for early kidney stone prediction.
Methods: In this paper, data analytics methods are used to investigate kidney stones based on urea analysis and uncover valuable insights from the relationship between various factors. Additionally, a predictive model is developed by integrating deep learning with Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, where PSO is utilized to tune the model hyperparameters.
Results: This model boasts an impressive 98.1% accuracy in predicting kidney stones. Such a proactive approach can significantly enhance patient outcomes by preventing the onset of painful and debilitating kidney stones.
Conclusion: In this research, it was shown that early prediction allows for timely medical intervention, reducing symptom severity and preventing complications like urinary tract infections or kidney damage. Consequently, the need for emergency treatments and hospitalizations is minimized, lowering healthcare costs.

Abstract Background: Healthcare workers are in close contact with patients and have serious responsibilities for the health and life of people. Moreover, dissatisfaction of employees with their jobs has a negative impact on the quality of services and ultimately leads to dissatisfaction of patients.
Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between work engagement and professional ethics with organizational intelligence in healthcare workers through the mediating role of organizational support.
Methods: The statistical population included all healthcare workers of Ahvaz (Iran) in 2022, 137 of whom were selected through convenience sampling. In this descriptive-correlational study, the Pearson correlation coefficient and mean structural equation modeling were employed for data analysis. The research instruments included the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Professional Ethics Questionnaire, the Organizational Intelligence Questionnaire, and the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support.
Results: According to the findings, there was a positive relationship between professional ethics and organizational support (β = 0.27, P = 0001). There was a positive relationship between organizational intelligence and work engagement in healthcare workers (β = 0.22, P = 0.003).  There was also a direct relationship between organizational intelligence and organizational support (β = 0.51, P = 0.001), and a direct relationship between organizational support and work engagement (β = 0.35, P = 0.001). There was an indirect relationship between professional ethics and work engagement (β = 0.05, P = 0.002) as well as organizational intelligence and work engagement (β = 0.10, P = 0.001) mediated by organizational support.
Conclusion: The final model had a good fit. The present study's results should be considered an essential step toward identifying the factors affecting the job performance of healthcare workers.

Abstract Background: As shown by Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs), ethnic minorities show weaker than expected effects of education level on health outcomes. However, this pattern is better demonstrated for health behaviors and health care utilization than satisfaction with care. Additionally, more is known about MDRs in African Americans than the Latino population. Thus, there is a need to study MDRs of education on healthcare satisfaction in highly educated African American and Latino individuals.
Objectives: We tested ethnic differences in the association between education level and satisfaction with healthcare among American adults.
Methods: The National Health Interview Survey (2015) included 24,835 adults who were Latino, non-Latino, African American, or White. The independent variable was education level. The dependent variable was satisfaction with healthcare. Age, gender, marital status, employment, region, physical health (self-rated health, and chronic diseases, body mass index), and mental health (psychological distress) were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderator. Logistic regression was used for data analysis.
Results: Higher education level was associated with higher satisfaction with healthcare in White but not African Americans. In the pooled sample, African American ethnicity showed a significant statistical interaction with education level suggesting a significantly smaller effect of high educational attainment on satisfaction with healthcare for African Americans than White adults. A similar interaction could not be found for Latino ethnicity, suggesting that education similarly enhances healthcare satisfaction for Latino and non-Latino adults.
Conclusion: High education level boosts satisfaction with healthcare for Whites but not African Americans.

Abstract Background: Patient safety culture in healthcare organizations has become an important issue globally for improving medical services. In 2016, Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) system covered 99.6% of Taiwan’s population. With the enhancement of medical quality, patients expect medical service providers to care more about safety and medical service. Understanding physicians and registered nurses’ attitudes toward patient safety is a critical issue for healthcare organizations wanting to improve the quality of the medical care they provide.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to discern physicians and registered nurses’ attitudes toward patient safety using Sexton and colleagues’ Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) in order to develop strategies for improving the quality of medical services.
Methods: Pearson correlation analyses were conducted to demonstrate the relationships among six patient safety culture dimensions. Physicians and registered nurses were asked to complete the questionnaire in a case hospital in Taiwan in 2016.
Results: The results of Pearson correlation analyses demonstrated a strong and positive relationship between perceptions of management and working conditions. Additionally, teamwork climate was highly correlated to safety climate. The results also illustrated that teamwork climate and job satisfaction were significantly related.
Conclusion: The assessment of patient safety culture can provide a basis for hospital managers to monitor the quality of the medical care provided at their organizations. Hospital managers should put more efforts into the essentially important elements of patient safety culture, such as teamwork climate, safety climate, perceptions of management, and working conditions, so as to continuously improve the quality of medical care.

Abstract

Abstract Background: For over 2 decades, Ghana’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has been resolved to continuously improve the quality of healthcare in a cost-effective manner. Strategies have been adopted to enhance client satisfaction with healthcare services and delivery.
Objective: The current study examined patient satisfaction with the quality of healthcare in Ghana by comparing healthcare services at the University of Ghana Hospital (UGH) and the University of Cape Coast Hospital (UCH).
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014-2015 with primary data collected from patients at UGH and UCH. Structured questionnaires were administered based on the stratified and convenience sampling methods to select patients receiving healthcare at the outpatients departments of the 2 hospitals. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data with the help of SPSS version 20.
Results: The findings indicated that empathy (β=0.14, P=0.003), communication (β=0.26, P=0.00), culture (β=0.17, P=0.008), tangibles (β=0.12, P=0.040), and priority (β=0.18, P=0.002) are significant predictors of patient satisfaction.
Conclusion: Management at the 2 studied hospitals should streamline their quality healthcare policies based on the dimensions of effective communication, empathy, culture, tangibles, and priority to enhance patient satisfaction.

Abstract International experience has shown that the increasing diversity in healthcare services precludes the integration of all services under a government health insurance plan in terms of performance and economy; no institution receiving a fixed amount of money per capita is able to provide all services. Supplementary insurance is used in many countries.¹ In Iran, comprehensive coverage of medical costs through a basic government medical insurance program is not possible because of the rising costs of diagnosis, use of more up-to-date and expensive medical technologies, and the development of new treatment methods. The number of people deprived of the right to healthcare is increasing daily. The structure of complementary insurance is based on participation and provides three types of coverage: completion of services, completion of costs, and integration of costs and services. In many leading countries, insurance is provided to a group with the participation of the insured and the insured’s employer who pays the employee’s premiums.

Abstract