Sunil Kant

Determining Organizational Learning Capability: A Study in Private Health Care Organizations

Introduction: Due to the fast-changing and developing business environment, knowledge has become a very important resource for organizations. However, reaching and obtaining knowledge is difficult, the level of organizational learning capability (OLC) perception within the organization is a key for this. This is also true for health organizations. If health care organizations can increase their OLC levels, they might achieve an increase in organizational performance, patient satisfaction, competitive advantage, and employee satisfaction. Objective: In this study, it is aimed to determine the level of OLC perception of employees working in private health care organizations. It is also aimed to examine whether this perception level shows variance according to demographic differences. Materials and methods: Research was done between January 2017 and March 2017 in private health care organizations operating in Turkey. The population of the study includes both administrative staff and health staff working in these organizations. Survey method was used to collect data, and 111 valid questionnaires were collected at the end of data collection period. Results and conclusion: According to the findings, employees perceive their organizations’ OLC level positively both for general OLC and for OLC subdimensions. However, it is also concluded that this perception level could be increased as well. In order to achieve this, health care organizations are required to encourage their employees toward learning, investigating, communication, risk taking, and participation.

Accreditation is not a One-time Process: Quality Assessment of Intensive Care Unit during Post-NABH Accreditation Period in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Accreditation is an integral part of quality and it is not a onetime process. This study was done to know the extent to which hospitals maintain the standards after obtaining accreditation. This study tries to find out the gaps in standards during the postaccreditation period. The objective of the study was to assess the policies of the intensive care unit (ICU) with reference to standard protocols of the National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Health Care Providers (NABH) and measures taken by the management to maintain the standards. Data was collected from a 285-bedded NABH-accredited hospital that had five ICUs and four recovery rooms by means of nonparticipant observation, semistructured interviews. Data on indicators was collected by using the hospital management information system; the questionnaire on satisfaction was filled by 30 patients/relatives who were admitted in the ICU for more than a week. Quality team was interviewed to know the perception of the management toward quality and accreditation. To know the compliance of the staff to the NABH standards, a surprise check was done in three ICUs of the hospital. Data analysis showed that the organization was not able to maintain the standards, as it had done at the time of accreditation. The quality team strongly accepted that accreditation helps in maintaining and improving quality, whereas the data from ICUs showed a wide variation in compliance. Three ICUs from the same hospital were having different compliance rates for standards, which shows that staff was not aware about the standard protocol to be followed. The patient-satisfaction questionnaire also showed that the patients were not satisfied with the services given.

Cross-sectional Study on Utilization of Radiology and Imaging Equipment in the District Hospitals of Bangladesh

A quality diagnosis mostly depends on the availability and proper utilization of radiology and imaging equipments in the modern medical technology. Every year, huge amount of revenue is spent to purchase costly and sophisticated radiology and imaging equipments for the district hospitals of Bangladesh. But radiology and imaging equipments are underutilized in most of the developing Asian and African countries, including Bangladesh. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to find the functional status, workload, utilization, and factors affecting the utilization of radiology and imaging equipments in the district hospitals of Bangladesh. Interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to take interview of relevant human resources. Work time study method was applied where multiple checklists were used to measure consumed time for each procedure and daily actual work time of radiology and imaging equipments. In this study, 46.9% radiology and imaging equipments were found functional, 40.6% radiology and imaging equipments nonfunctional, and 12.5% radiology and imaging equipments functional but not in use. This study revealed that 53% of total radiology and imaging equipments of district hospitals were nonfunctional, and functional but not in use, where 8 equipments became nonfunctional before 10 years due to unavailability of spare parts and inadequate maintenance fund. Work time in radiography identified 83.51% and in ultrasonography (USG) 71.08% among the respondents of radiology and imaging department in the district hospitals. Utilization rate of general radiography equipments was found to be 67.01%, portable radiography equipments 16.5%, and USG equipments 71.08%. Average utilization rate of radiology and imaging equipments was found to be 51.53% in the district hospitals of Bangladesh. Utilization rate of radiology and imaging equipments more than 50% is considered as standard utilization. Current status of utilization rate needs to accelerate to get maximum turnover of the equipments among the district hospitals of Bangladesh. Important factors affecting the utilization of radiology and imaging equipments were observed – shortage of manpower, inadequate physical infrastructure, and less incorporation of advanced technology with existing facility. ORiginAl ARticle 1Senior Medical Technologist, 2Lecturer, 3Professor 1Department of Radiology, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2Department of Public Health, State University of Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh 3Department of Public Health Administration & Hospital Management, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh Corresponding Author: Md Mofazzal Hossain, Senior Medical Technologist, Department of Radiology, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research of Bangladesh, Dhaka Bangladesh, Phone: 8801710960825, e-mail:mhrt@icddrb.org 10.5005/jp-journ ls-10035-1072 Cross-sectional Study on Utilization of Radiology and Imaging Equipment in the District Hospitals of Bangladesh 1Md Mofazzal Hossain, 2Papia Sultana, 3M Shahjahan

Community-oriented Primary Care Services Model: Can it improve Morbidity Status in India? An Impact Evaluation Study

8 ABSTRACT Introduction: The community-oriented primary care (COPC) services model is an approach prescribed by the Medical Council of India for existing medical colleges in India from their respective urban and rural health training centers (RHTCs). However, the evidence of whether it is better as compared with pure primary health care approach in the Indian context is lacking in the literature. Therefore, it becomes imperative to study this area for its further expansion.

An Assessment of Diagnostic Equipment Utilization in a Tertiary Healthcare Setup: A Key to Economical Patient Management

Equipment utilization management is the evaluation of the medical equipment necessity, appropriateness, and efficiency of the use in the healthcare services or procedures. The investment on an equipment is said to be a good one if it shows a utilization coefficient of 50% or above. The study was descriptive observational in nature and was conducted in the Histopathology Department, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The data for the entire year of 2012 was collected by studying various records of the department including purchase files, inventory registers, log books and service records of medical equipments. The results indicated that the Utilization Coefficients of various diagnostic equipments in the department of Histopathology, PGIMER, Chandigarh for the year 2012 were in the order of 58.1, 62.1 and 60.4% for high cost, medium cost and low cost equipments respectively. On an average, the utilization coefficient of medical equipments under study (Year 2012) of the Histopathology Department, PGIMER, Chandigarh, was found to be 60.2% (above 50%). This figure reflects that the budget spent on average medical diagnostic equipment in this department is very much justifiable. The study also showed that the cost incurred on various cost categories of diagnostic equipments, i.e. the low, medium and high cost equipments was also equally important.