Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management (ACHSM)
Not a member yet
640 research outputs found
Sort by
Provision of Emergency Medical Services in Rural and Urban Saudi Arabia: An overview of personnel experiences
No full textObjective: Pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) are a vital component of health management, however there are disparities in the provision of EMS between rural and urban locations. While rural people experience lower levels of pre-hospital care, there has been little examination of the reasons underpinning these differences through discussion with the providers of EMS, and particularly in countries other than the USA, UK and Australia. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the lived experience of EMS personnel in Saudi Arabia regarding the key issues they face in their work practice.
Design: This research focussed on frontline workers and middle-level station managers within the Saudi Arabian EMS system and adopted a hermeneutic phenomenology design to better understand the factors contributing to observed disparities between rural and urban areas in Riyadh region in Saudi Arabia. A semi-structured interview approach was used to collect data reflecting realistic experiences of EMS personnel in both urban and rural locations.
Results:20 interviews (10 each with rural and urban personnel) were undertaken. Data analyses identified three primary thematic categories impacting EMS delivery: EMS personnel factors; Patient factors; and Organisational factors. Underpinning each category were sub-themes, including working conditions, stress, education and training, and resources, amongst others.
Conclusions: The quality and efficiency of EMS services, in both rural and urban areas, was affected by a number of over-arching organizational factors. Implementing major policy shifts, such as recruitment of female EMS professionals, will be critical in addressing these challenges, but is acknowledged that this will take time. Quicker changes, such as improving the advanced training options for rural EMS staff, may help to remediate some of the issues. Public awareness campaigns may also be effective in addressing the identified misconceptions about the role of EMS in Saudi Arabia
Covid 19 Pandemic: Assessment of Knowledge and Attitudes in Biomedical Waste Management among Health Care Professionals in Tamil Nadu
No full textCoronavirus, which was started provincially at Wuhan of China, has become a worldwide pandemic by affecting individuals of almost all the world. The developing pandemic of COVID-19 disease requires social distancing and individual cleanliness measures to secure general wellbeing. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practice and awareness of biomedical waste management in this pandemic situation among healthcare workers and medical students across Tamil Nadu.
A cross sectional questionnaire survey was prepared to evaluate the knowledge regarding waste management and waste handling techniques. The survey found that most of the hospitals (50%) are using plastic containers for waste collection. Almost 79.7% of the respondents said they follow colour coding while disposing waste. When asked about exact category only few gave correct answers. Nearly 72.8% answered that they collect the Covid patient’s wastes separately. As coronavirus is a contagious disease, each healthcare worker should be trained in safe handling of wastes. From this survey, it is clear that training about safe handling of waste is needed among workers. This survey will help government and healthcare providers to handle this Covid pandemic successfully and more effectively
Preface: Special Issue of the 1st International Conference in Healthcare Management
No full textWe are very happy to present the special issue coming out of our 1st International Conference in Healthcare Management 2021in collaboration with Asia Pacific Journal of Healthcare Management. The theme of the conference was “Future of Healthcare Post COVID-19”. The conference intended to cover the challenges and issues posed by COVID 19 on economies, and particularly healthcare sector. It also focused on identifying and capturing the changes brought out by new technologies and new business models which emerged in post COVID scenario. The papers presented covered diverse topics such as digital healthcare, mental health, public health and health economics as well as healthcare marketing and health caregiving. Few selected papers are getting published in this special issue
Utilization of Healthcare Services & Healthcare Expenditure Patterns in the Rural Households of Nepal
No full textBackground: Healthcare financing as a lever to move closer to universal health coverage. Financing health care has been identified as a barrier to access to health care and increases the likelihood of impoverishment of households. There is still limited study and information on healthcare service utilization in the rural community of Nepal. Our study aims to assess utilization of healthcare services & patterns of healthcare expenditure in the rural households of Nepal.
Methods: A community-based research study was conducted among 341 rural households of Tanahun District, Nepal. A Chi-square test was used for assessing the associated factors with healthcare utilization.
Results: The utilization of in-patient and out-patient health services was 89.9 % and 10.1 % respectively. The majority of households (88%) had in USD less than 279. Nearly three-fourths (71.4%) of households had annual expenditure on medicine more than $40 with mostly on allopathic medicine (93.4%). The majority of participants (70%) mentioned that the healthcare expenditure was a burden to their household.
Conclusion: Despite the higher knowledge of health insurance, the involvement was found to be very low & poor. Educational status, knowledge about insurance, privileged ethnicity, religion, income source were the major factors associated with the utilization of healthcare services. Awareness & promotion programs focusing on rural communities should be implemented with affordable health services
Assessing Quality of Healthcare Delivery When Making Choices: National Survey on Health Consumers’ Decision Making Practices
No full textObjective: Choices and quality decisions made by consumers in relation to their healthcare have been associated with personal experience of those services, interpersonal engagement and reliance on third-party information, as well as the subsequent satisfaction with the service. The purpose of this research was to understand current information sources, determinants of quality discernment and decision-making factors by consumers in the Australian community in relation to healthcare.
Method: Conventional content analysis research was undertaken in the form of a national telephone survey of 200 consumers. Open-ended questions were used to elicit information from the general community.
Results: Reputation and other key interpersonal and structural elements are utilised in determining quality of healthcare services as well as in deployment as key factors in decision-making regarding use of healthcare services. While most respondents valued and used key information about provider relationships, outcomes performance and performance rankings, up to 20% of respondents did not know or could not identify ways in which they would assess and evaluate the quality of healthcare services.
Conclusion: This research identifies that consumers use a range of information and advice relating to experience, interpersonal engagement and information from third-party sources. If healthcare providers develop clearer communications around their technical, procedural and conduct principles, consumers will be in a better position to evaluate reputation and make decisions about their healthcare needs and the health system
Strategic Analysis of Community Participation in Primary Health Care in Iran and Presentation of Promotion Strategies Using Internal and External Environment Assessment Techniques
No full textIntroduction: Community participation in health affairs and especially in the field of primary health care is one of the requirements for achieving the goals defined in this field. Accordingly, the present study was designed and implemented with the aim of strategic analysis of the internal and external environment in the field of primary health care in Iran and presentation of the promotion strategies to attract community participation.
Methods: This is a qualitative study that was conducted using the internal and external environment assessment technique called SWOT. The data used were obtained through a semi-structured quality questionnaire and a survey on strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as proposed promotion strategies to improve community participation in the field of primary health care.
Results: Analysis of external environment of the field of primary health care in Iran regarding community participation led to the identification of the opportunities such as increasing community literacy, the possibility of using public spaces and media as well as influential people to attract community participation; and threats such as financial and employment constraints of families, citizens' unfamiliarity with their effective role in health, and inadequate intersectoral participation. The evaluation of the internal environment led to the identification of strengths in such as native selection policy for health workers; and weaknesses such as lack of attention to evidence-based performance and poor time access to health activities.
Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicate that there are internal weaknesses and external threats to community participation in the field of primary health care
COVID-19 and Working Within Health Care Systems: the future is flexible
No full textCOVID-19 and subsequent lockdown of affected countries has changed the way Australia and the rest of the world do business, with online working, video/teleconferences and independent working becoming increasingly normal. Those working in primary care or in allied professions however such as administration, public health, management, human resources, radiology and mental health, have found themselves unexpectedly moving their work into their homes.
There has been much discourse surrounding the consequences and benefits of the recent work from home (WFH) mass-movement. The leading benefits of working from home are increased productivity, cost and time-savings for employers and opportunities for disabled people to work. However, there a number of emerging unintended adverse consequences of WFH, including overworking, stress and fatigue.
Employee personality traits are linked with the individual’s response to WFH. It is the role of a good leader to play to an employee’s strengths and individual circumstances. WFH initiatives can provide huge economic savings for organisations. The future beyond COVID-19 must allow for flexibility in both workers’ hours and location as far as possible, with investment in telehealth and teleworking and allowance for face-to-face meetings in accommodating office-spaces
Systematic Literature Review of The Effects Of Clinical Mentoring On New Graduate Registered Nurses’ Clinical Performance, Job Satisfaction And Job Retention
No full textObjective: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to appraise contemporary research literature examining the effects of mentoring on graduate registered nurses’ transition to practice objectively and systematically. These areas, specifically examined, are competence, job satisfaction, and retention. Three themes emerged from the research in this area. The themes are informal mentoring effectiveness, the extent of mentoring, and mentoring efficacy.
Methods: The PRISMA method was implemented. Articles reviewed were written in English and published between December 2015 and December 2020 and obtained from the Griffith University Library electronic catalogue. A quality assessment of each record not excluded in the title and abstract analysis was undertaken using the method described by Kmet.[1] Those with a quality rating of 16 as a minimum are included in this systematic literature review.
Results: Three quantitative, two qualitative and two - method research studies emerged after applying inclusion criteria, selection, and quality assessment. The analysis demonstrated the positive effects of mentoring on all three avenues with one mixed-method study that documented a downward trend in job satisfaction at six months.
Conclusions: Mentoring is an effective transition to practice strategy for novice nurses. It affects competence, job satisfaction and retention positively. Retention and resignation rates worsen following 12 months of employment. Robust and rigorous studies are essential to justify long-term mentoring programs’ cost-effectiveness
Community Engagement in The Telehealth Service for Aged People with Diabetes: COVID-19 response in Bangladesh
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this study is to present a better understanding of the specialized telehealth service in Bangladesh from the service provider and service recipients by aged people
Method: Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data from Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients. Data were collected by online telephone interviewing with an interview schedule. A total of 100 aged people with diabetes were selected purposively for a quantitative interview and 10 In-depth Interviews (IDIs) & Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted.
Result: The majority of patients aged was between 61 to 68 years with a mean age of 63.6 ± 7.01years. The difference of age of DM patients by sex was found statistically significant (x2 = 39.49, df = 31; Cramer’s V = .032; P=<.003). The main source of information about digital health was: relatives (55%), neighbors (31%), television (12%), newspaper (10%), social media (9%), and healthcare providers (6%). Strong relationship was found between age of respondents and sources of information (x2= 77.08; Cramer’s V= .032, df = 13; Sig; P= < .009). About 59% of DM patients were benefited from telehealth services during COVID-19, however; they encountered some difficulties like effective access to digital technology, cost, and diagnosis facilities. About 83% of respondents suggest formalizing community engagement programs to extend the digital health services during a health emergency. The common barriers to the engagement of community people in digital health care are lack of social awareness, lack of peer group support, and gender disparities. Poor counseling, language barrier, bad internet signal, and lack of family members' support were the key barriers during teleconsultation services.
Conclusion: Telehealth has the potential to address critical health issues of aged people and effective community engagement may be the best option to reach older people with diabetes in Bangladesh during any health emergency
Virtual Fracture Clinic: A pandemic-ready tool for improving the efficiency of fracture clinic
No full textBackground: The traditional model of care of the Orthopaedic Fracture Clinic (OFC) is labour intensive, expensive, has poor satisfaction rates, and often has minimal impact on management and outcomes of patients with minor injuries. Our aim was to implement a Virtual Fracture Clinic (VFC) for the management of minor injuries that is safe, reduces OFC clinic workload and reduces the OFC failure to attend (FTA) rate.
Methods: This study was a retrospective longitudinal audit of OFC workload before (January 2012 -February 2017) and after (March 2017 – December 2019) implementation of the VFC. It was performed in an urban district general hospital in South East Queensland, Australia. The primary outcome measures included attendances per timepoint (month).
Results: Overall, we observed a significant reduction in total number of patients from 1,055 (IQR 104.5) to 831 (IQR: 103) per month) coming through the OFC following the introduction of the VFC (F = 21.9; df=1; p <0.0001). The failure to attend rate was reduced by 44% from 271 (IQR: 127.3) to 151 (IQR: 72.8) (F=4.0; df=1; p = 0.047).
Conclusion: The VFC implementation was successful in improving efficiency and reducing the current OFC workload, as well as reducing FTA rate. Reduction in clinic workload allows more time to be spent with complex patients, prevents clinic backlogs and overbooking, and crowding of waiting rooms. In the midst of a global pandemic that is spread by close contact, virtual clinics seem the way of the future to treat patients whilst minimising risk of COVID-19 spread