No abstract

Background: Pre-hospital emergency service is an important part of any health care system. The present study was conducted to evaluate the pre-hospital Emergency Services 115 of Mashhad City, Iran with emphasis on response to traffic accidents during 2012-2013. Materials and Methods:In this descriptive cross-sectional and applied study, 53685 files of traffic accident victims related to 42240 missions accomplished during 2012-2013 were evaluated. The study data were collected by referring to the statistics unit of the Center for Medical Emergencies and Accidents. To determine the services performed for the victims, a researcher-designed checklist was used. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the raw data. All analyses were done by Excel 2013. Results:The average (SD) age of traffic accident victims was 29.5(15.69) years. The frequency of accidents was more in September, on Thursdays, and between 6 and 9 PM. About 70% of missions ended with the transfer the injured to hospitals and average (SD) response times were 8:24 (2:35) minutes in 2012 and 9:01 (2:46) minutes in 2013. The frequency of treatment and dispatch to hospitals by the resident physician were reported as 70.51% in 2012 and 69.7% in 2013. The most frequent action taken were injections (96%) and then stabilizing body limbs (60%). Conclusion:Considering the findings of this research, the response time was longer than the standard time. Regarding the performed services, shortcomings in manpower and ambulance equipment can reduce the effectiveness of missions. Therefore, Emergency Center 115 of Mashhad should carry out some interventions to resolve shortages in manpower and equipment to reach standard conditions and provide better services.

Background The number of deaths among people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) does not show the true impact of the disease on communities. Therefore, this study aimed to calculate years of life lost (YLL) due to premature death in patients with COVID-19. Methods We performed a descriptive cross-sectional study based on data from one of the largest provinces of Iran, in the period 13 February 2020 to 17 May 2021. We used WHO proposed guidelines for the calculation of the burden of diseases to calculate the YLL among patients with COVID-19, taking into consideration gender in different age groups. Results Findings showed that 13 628 deaths were due to COVID-19 with associated 249 309 YLL. The study reported higher mortality among men (1222 cases) in the age group over 85 years than in women (840) of the same age group. The minimum number of YLL for men was 1749 in the 5–9 years age group and that for women was 1551 years in the 14–10 years age group. Conclusion The high number of deaths due to COVID-19 has led to high YLL due to premature death. The provision of adequate health care and appropriate policies will bring about a decrease in YLL due to COVID-19.

No abstract

Responsiveness introduced by WHO as a key indicator to assess the performance of health systems and measures by common set of domains that are categorized in to two main categories “Respect for persons” and “client orientation”. This study measured importance of client orientation domains in high and low income districts of Mashhad. In this cross-sectional and explanatory study, Sample of 923 households were selected randomly from two high and low income districts of Mashhad. World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire was used for data collection. Standard frequency analyses and Ordinal logistic regression (OLR) was employed for data analysis. In general, respondents selected quality of basic amenities as the most important domain and access to social support networks was identified as the least important domain. Households in high income area scored higher domains of prompt attentions and choice Compared to low income. There was a significant relationship between variables of ages, having member that need to care and self-assessed health with the ranking of client orientation domains.Study of households’ view on ranking of non-clinical aspects of quality of care, especially when faced with limited resources, can help to conduct efforts towards subjects that are more important, and lead to improve the health system performance and productivity.