Background:Hospitals are the most costly operational and really important units of health system because they consume about 50%-89% of total health resources. Therefore efficient use of resources could help in saving and reallocating the financial and physical resources.Objectives:The aim of this study was to obtain an overview of hospitals' performance status by applying different techniques, to compare similarities and differences between these methods and suggest the most comprehensive and practical method of appraisal for managers and policy makers.Patients and Methods:This is a cross sectional study conducted in all hospitals of Ahvaz (eight hospitals affiliated with Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences and eight non-affiliated hospitals) during 2007 to 2011. Two kinds of data were collected through separate special checklists. Excel 2007 and Windeap 2.1 software were applied for data analysis.Results:The present findings show that the average of bed occupancy rate (BOR) in the studied hospitals was about 65.91 ± 1.16. The maximum number of inefficient hospitals in the present study happened in the years 2007, 2008 and 2010 (four hospitals) but there were two hospitals in the third part of the present graph which had maximum level of efficiency and optimal level of productivity in the years 2007 and 2009. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) showed that the mean score of technical efficiency for the studied hospitals is 0.924 ± 0.105 with the minimum of 0.585 ± 0.905 for hospital number 1. Furthermore It shows that only five hospitals (31.25%) reach complete technical efficiency (TE) scores across all five years of 2007-11 (TE = 1).Conclusions:Results of the present and similar studies should be considered for the future planning and resource allocation of Iranian public hospitals. At the same time it is very important to consider need assessment results for each region according to its potentials, population under the coverage and other geographical and cultural indices. Furthermore because of potential limitations of each of the above models it is highly recommended to apply different methods of performance evaluation to reach a complete and real status view of the hospitals for future planning.

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Introduction: Performance-based payment is a payment model that attempts to reward the measured dimensions of performance and encourages health service providers to achieve predetermined goals by financial incentives. This study aimed to identify executive challenges of performance-based payment from medical and educational hospitals managers’ perspective and offering solutions in Isfahan 2018. Methods: This study was a qualitative study. Semi structured interviews were used to collect data. The research population was 11 people (the managers of educational and medical hospitals in Isfahan) who were selected purposefully. All interviews were recorded and then written on a paper. The duration of the interviews varied between 45 to 60 minutes. The data were analyzed using MAXQDA120 software and based on thematic analysis. Results: In this study, , regarding executive challenges, seven themes and fifteen sub-themes were obtained, including the weakness of the performance-based payment project, weakness in education and educational support, low employee participation, weakness of information and communication technology, weakness of laws and regulations, unfavorable economic conditions of the public sector, and special conditions governing public hospitals.   Conclusion: performance-based payment, if implemented correctly, can lead to the improvement of quantitative and qualitative indicators related to employees’ performance. Correct implementation requires identifying challenges and obstacles and then corrective actions. This study was able to identify and present some of the operational challenges of the performance-based payment from the viewpoint of hospital managers.

Background and Aim: According to statistics, the world is rapidly moving towards aging. The aim of this study was to compare United States of America, Sweden and Iran in regard to population aging status, types of aged care services and types of aged care service providers. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted using a descriptive-comparative approach in 2019. Data were collected by reviewing the texts in the libraries and the websites of the relevant organizations of the selected countries. The references used were in Persian and English languages between 2000 and 2019. Results: The results showed that Sweden and the United States have faced the population aging phenomenon earlier (than Iran) and have more diverse services in regard to the various aspects of life for old people and also a wider population coverage. Conclusion:Based on the results of this study, we recommend the use of the experiences of successful countries that have faced the elderly crisis before Iran. Some of the issues that should be considered include: public coverage of social and health insurance for the old people, use of volunteers and private sector capacity, integrated care using an interdisciplinary team, use of modern technologies such as smart alarms and Eldercare Locator Software, needs assessment and capacity building for human resource training, and considering financial and non-financial support for the families which take care of their elderly members.