Document Type : Research Articles
Authors
1
Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Research Institute for Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.
2
Department of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
3
Department of Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
4
Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
5
Health Products Safety Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.
6
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
7
Student Research Committee, (Department and Faculty of Health), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Objective: The length of stay is an important indicator of hospital performance and efficiency. Regarding the importance of the length of stay, this study aimed to design a structural model of the inpatients’ length of stay in the educational and therapeutic health care facilities of Iran in order to identify the influencing dimensions. Methods: The present study was an analytical and applied study. The face validity of the data gathering tool was investigated by the expert judgment and the construct validity was examined by using the exploratory factor analysis. In order to verify the reliability of the tool, the internal consistency was also trialed by using the Cronbach’s alpha. For ranking the influencing dimensions and factors and also in order to examine the causal relationships between the variables in a coherent manner and presenting the final model, the structural equation modeling technique was used in AMOS software at a significant level of 0.05. Results: The mentioned structural model consists of 4 dimensions and 29 factors influencing the length of stay of hospitalized patients. The independent variables are based on priority and importance as follows: patients’ conditions, the underlying factors, the clinical staff performance, and hospitals’ service delivery, which were examined by second-order factor analysis in order to study the relationship between them and the inpatients’ length of stay. Conclusion: Considering the importance of each one of the proposed dimensions from the point of view of service providers in some therapeutic centers of the country by paying attention to the role of each one of them in preventing prolonged hospitalization can be essential in the effectiveness of the treatment and cost reduction.
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