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The purpose of intercropping is to promote positive biological interactions between plants. The ecological principles that govern intercropping can be relevant across various species combinations and environments. However, it's important to assess each case individually, as the application of intercropping is context-dependent. Due to the lack of data and insufficient research on the oilseed intercropping system, this review article was conducted to identify new opportunities to strengthen oilseed intercropping with other companion plants. Three main sources were used to gather data from the research on oilseed cultivation in intercropping systems that were investigated in this review: 1) A search of 20 databases for agricultural science 2) a web search 3) a review of 100 journals in agricultural science. The total number of studies in Table 3 was 25, and in Table 4, there were 4 studies. Of the 29 studies, 9 were conducted in China, 3 in Iran, 3 in Canada, 2 in North America, 2 in the United States and 1 in India, Nigeria, Mexico, Australia, Turkey and 1 in Brazil (Table 3), 2 in Iran, 1 in Poland and 1 in China (Table 4). Intercropping systems are essential for reducing hunger since intercropping, particularly cereals and legume/oil seed blends, supply a significant share of the family's calorie needs. Oilseeds with other crops intercrops appear, especially legumes, may contribute to a sustainable food supply and lead to increased agricultural sustainability and resilience. This study has highlighted the performance, efficiency of resource use, and the importance of Land equivalent ratio as the most important indicator for evaluating intercropping, increasing the content and quality of oil and fatty acid in intercropping of oilseeds with legumes and other accompanying plants.

Objectives: In Iran’s accreditation program, the patient safety dimension is one of the main dimensions, holding the highest weight among the accreditation criteria. The purpose of this study was to identify the patient safety culture (PSC) in a tertiary referral hospital. Methods: The current study was conducted between March and April 2021 in a tertiary hospital in Iran. The sample size was 628 participants, selected through simple random sampling. The hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSC) was used to assess provider and staff perceptions about patient safety issues, medical errors, and event reporting. The survey included 32 items that measure 10 dimensions of PSC. Normality tests, along with non-parametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were used to examine the relationship between PSC and demographic variables using SPSS 22 software. Results: Based on current findings, among the 10 dimensions of PSC, teamwork and organizational learning-continuous improvement received the highest scores (83% positive response), which were higher than these variables in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) data. Conversely, staffing and work pace, as well as hospital management support for patient safety, received the lowest positive scores (43% and 55% positive response, respectively), which were lower than these variables in the AHRQ data. There was a significant positive relationship between dimensions of PSC and older age, female gender, staff with longer working experience, and longer work hours per week (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The majority of our participants felt that patient safety needs to be enhanced. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended to emphasize the dimensions of “staffing and work pace” and “hospital management support for patient safety” more in the accreditation criteria to strengthen these dimensions in hospitals. Additionally, we have introduced a comprehensive guide for using an international tool to measure PSC, which hospitals can use to succeed in annual accreditation.

Abstract Virtual power plants (VPP) with resources and storages are able to control the active power of the network. They are also connected to the network through an inverter, which is capable of controlling reactive power. Therefore, it is expected that the optimal use of inverter‐based VPP can play an effective role in improving the economic and technical status of the distribution network. So, the operation of a smart distribution system is presented in this paper by considering inverter‐based VPPs constrained to the operator's measures. The weighted sum of expected energy loss (EEL) and voltage security index (VSI) is minimized while considering AC optimal power flow equations, restrictions of network's security, and operating model of the inverter‐based VPPs. Uncertainties with an origin of the amount of demand, renewable energy, and parameters of mobile energy storage are also discussed. The uncertainties are modelled using a stochastic optimization approach relying on the unscented transformation (UT). Evaluating inverter‐based VPP performance, providing models of flexible resources such as responsive loads and mobile storages, checking network voltage security status, and modelling uncertainties using the UT method are among the innovations of this study. According to the results, it is demonstrated that the technical situation of the distribution system is improved with the help of optimal management of the VPP. With energy management of the inverter‐based VPP, the suggested design has succeeded to enhance the operating status (voltage security) of the system by approximately 33–73% (12%) in comparison to power flow studies.

The availability of soil water content and nutrition in the maternal plant environment plays pivotal roles in shaping the performance, physio-biochemical properties, and chemical composition of the produced seed. This study aimed to investigate the effects of water and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) of maternal plant environment on performance, physio-biochemical properties, and chemical compositions of Lallemantia species offspring. A split-factorial experiment was performed using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The main plot consisted of three drought stress (30 %, 60 % and 90 % of soil available water depletion). The subplots were the factorial combination of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF− and AMF+) and Lallemantia species (L. iberica and L. royleana). The offspring of both Lallemantia species experienced a decrease in seed performance, superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase enzyme activities, proline, and chemical composition as well as a rise in hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation due to the limited availability of water in the maternal plant environment. On the other hand, providing adequate nutrition in the maternal plant environment resulted in improved germination index, increased starch, and oil content, as well as higher levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the offspring of both Lallemantia species. Compared to the offspring of L. royleana, the offspring of L. iberica had a higher number of achenes, seeds, seed weight, larger seed size, greater germination index, and higher levels of starch, oil, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium. In contrast, the offspring of L. royleana exhibited higher longevity, enhanced germination under osmotic and salinity stress, increased proline levels, and higher activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbic peroxidase as well as sucrose and total soluble sugar. The study concludes that the best seed performance, antioxidant enzyme activities, and carbohydrate levels were observed in the offspring of both Lallemantia species produced under 60 % soil available water depletion with AMF inoculation in the maternal plant environment. These findings highlight the significant impact of the soil available water depletion and AMF inoculation on the seed performance, physio-biochemical properties, and chemical composition of the offspring, providing valuable insights for optimizing seed production and performance.

IntroductionWater deficit is as one of the most ominous abiotic factors that limits the growth and yield of crops and reduced photosynthesis content (Askary et al., 2017). The common symptoms determined in plants after encountering water deficit include a hindrance to growth, a reduction in the rate of photosynthesis, an acceleration oxidative stress (Aalipour et al., 2020). A balanced nutrient concentration in the soil is known as another essential element for plant growth regulation (Taghizadeh et al. 2019). This can be supplied by the application of chemical fertilizers (nano iron chelate). Nano iron chelate fertilizer can also protect plants against water deficit stresses and improves photosynthesis and assimilates transportation to sinks and eventually amends grain yield and oil content (Moradbeygi et al., 2020). The aim of this study was to investigate the response of Dragon head (Lalelemantia iberica) and Lady's mantle (Lalelemantia royleana) to the application of nano-chelate fertilizer in different irrigation regimes.Materials and methodsThe field trial was conducted at the Research Farm of the Agricultural Faculty of Shahed University, Tehran, during the cropping season of 2018 and 2019. A split-factorial experiment was employed in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The main plot consisted of three-level of irrigation regime (30% (I30; without stress), 60% (I60; mild stress), and 90% (I90; sever stress) depletion of available water resource). The sub plots were factorial combination nano-iron chelate (without fertilizer and nano-iron chelate) and plant species of Lallemantia (L.iberica and L. royleana).Results and discussionBy increasing water deficit reduced, chlorophyll a and b, CAT and APXs enzyme activity, plant height, root length, seed yield, content of mucilage and oil. The reduction of plant growth parameters and seed yield of both species Lallemantia may be due to extended irrigation intervals which caused decline in Chl concentration, stomata closure, and decreased CO2 uptake for photosynthesis (Paravar et al., 2021). Our results showed that the highest chlorophyll a and b, CAT and APXs enzyme activity, plant height, root length, seed yield, content of mucilage and oil was obtained at 60% available water soil of depletion (moderate drought stress). The application nano-iron chelate in all cases mitigated the negative effects of water deficit stress on chlorophyll a and b, CAT and APXs enzyme activity, plant height, root length, seed yield, content of mucilage and oil. Increasing in growth parameters and seed yield under drought stress of Lallemantia species under application of nano-iron chelate condition in drought stress may be due to the role of iron the chlorophyll structure and plant photosynthesis system (Moradbeygi et al., 2020). Indeed application of nano-iron chelate by photosynthesis improvement and material production in the plant causes the increasing growth and yield. (Iqbal and Umar, 2019). In addition, in this study observed nano-iron chalet application played the important role on the increasing of CAT and APXs enzyme activity under drought stress. It has been reported that micronutrients such as iron has a structural role in some enzyme such as CAT and APXs (Moradbeygi et al., 2020). Higher seed yield and seed oil L.iberica than L.royleana under application nano-iron chelate and different levels of irrigation regimes may be due to the increasing chlorophyll a and b (Paravar et al., 2022). Compared with L.iberica, the greater CAT and APXs enzyme activity in L.royleana is probably due to the mucilage around roots of L.royleana that has caused the reduction of oxidative stress (Paravar et al., 2021).ConclusionTherefore, in general in this research, it can be concluded that under water deficit stress conditions, we can reduce damages from water deficit stress in both species of Lallemantia with careful irrigation management (using an irrigation regime of 60% available water soil of depletion) and application nano-iro chelate.AcknowledgmentsWe kindly acknowledge the Shahed University of Tehran for their support of this research.

Seed weight, storability, and germinability can depend on maternal plant's environment. However, there is slight information about the effect of light and temperature on seed quality of Lallemantia species. The purpose of this research was to determine the properties of physio-biochemical of maternal plant, seed quality, and seed chemical composition of Lallemantia species (Lallemantia iberica and Lallemantia royleana) under temperature (15 °C, 25 °C, and 35 °C) and photoperiod (8 hd-1, 16 hd-1, and 24 hd-1) maternal plants environment. Increasing temperature and photoperiod caused a reduction in leaf chlorophyll, stomatal movement, total soluble sugar, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) enzymes activities, and an increment in malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content of seeds. However, the highest weight, germination, vigor index, and longevity, seed chemical compositions were obtained in offspring which matured under 25 °C for 16 hd-1. The highest germination, oil, and relative percentage of fatty acids (oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), and linolenic acid (LNA)) were obtained in L. iberica seeds. On the contrary, longevity, mucilage, and sucrose were more abundant in L. royleana seeds. Overall, this research has clearly shown that temperature and light quality and quantity of maternal plant's environment have an immensely effect on producing of seeds with high-quality. However, it is necessary to investigate the impact of the epigenetic mechanisms of the maternal plant on the offspring in future studies.

Image classification is widely used to build predictive models for breast cancer diagnosis. Most existing approaches overwhelmingly rely on deep convolutional networks to build such diagnosis pipelines. These model architectures, although remarkable in performance, are black-box systems that provide minimal insight into the inner logic behind their predictions. This is a major drawback as the explainability of prediction is vital for applications such as cancer diagnosis. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing an explainable machine learning pipeline for breast cancer diagnosis based on ultrasound images. We extract first- and second-order texture features of the ultrasound images and use them to build a probabilistic ensemble of decision tree classifiers. Each decision tree learns to classify the input ultrasound image by learning a set of robust decision thresholds for texture features of the image. The decision path of the model predictions can then be interpreted by decomposing the learned decision trees. Our results show that our proposed framework achieves high predictive performance while being explainable.

Background: This descriptive, analytic study aimed to compare the costs of 10 types of Global Budget Payment System (GBPS) surgery in Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad City, Iran, in 2016 with the prices in the GBPS. Methods: From hospital-discharge data and patients’ bills, we identified 10 types of GBPS surgeries performed in Imam Reza hospital. The patients were grouped according to the surgical procedures performed in the 10 GBPS category. Data on hospital charges and cost-to-charge ratios were used to assess charges and costs for specific resources, as well as for the hospitalization overall. The researcher received training from the experts in the field of hospital accounting to learn how to determine the charge of GBPS surgeries. Results: The results showed that in some surgeries such as hysterectomy, natural delivery, C-section, tonsillectomy, hernia repair, and appendectomy, charges of services were higher than their average prices GBPS and in arteriovenous anastomosis surgery, cholecystectomy, tympanoplasty, and thyroidectomy were lower than average prices GBPS. One of the main goals of Iran’s Ministry of Health in developing GBPS was to provide a unified framework for managing admission and treatment costs in state-owned hospitals. The obtained data were analyzed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the independent samples t test with 0.05 statistical significance. The results of this study and similar works show that most hospitals have completely neglected this aspect of GBPS. Conclusion: A fact that is reflected in the wide-ranging variations in the charge of GBPS surgeries in different hospitals despite their being paid based on the same rates and guidelines.

Predicting the outcome of sales opportunities is a core part of successful business management. Conventionally, undertaking this prediction has relied mostly on subjective human evaluations in the process of sales decision-making. In this paper, we addressed the problem of forecasting the outcome of Business to Business (B2B) sales by proposing a thorough data-driven Machine-Learning (ML) workflow on a cloud-based computing platform: Microsoft Azure Machine-Learning Service (Azure ML). This workflow consists of two pipelines: (1) An ML pipeline to train probabilistic predictive models on the historical sales opportunities data. In this pipeline, data is enriched with an extensive feature enhancement step and then used to train an ensemble of ML classification models in parallel. (2) A prediction pipeline to use the trained ML model and infer the likelihood of winning new sales opportunities along with calculating optimal decision boundaries. The effectiveness of the proposed workflow was evaluated on a real sales dataset of a major global B2B consulting firm. Our results implied that decision-making based on the ML predictions is more accurate and brings a higher monetary value.

Introduction: Cumin, due to its food and medicinal properties, is one of the important plant species in the world. Moreover, water and nutrition deficiencies are serious abiotic stress factors. So, this experiment was conducted with the aim of investigating the effects of sulfur and foliar application of Fe and Zn on yield and biochemical characteristics of cumin under irrigation regimes. Methods: The experiment was conducted as a split plot on the basis of a completely randomized block design during the 2016-2017 growing seasons with three replications. Experimental factors were arranged in irrigation regimes as main plots at three levels (I1: No stress (control), I2: irrigation based on 40% available water discharge, I3: 80% available water discharge) and foliar application of Zinc (Zn) and Iron (Fe) as subplots [F1: control (water-soluble), F2: Iron, F3: Zinc, F4: Zinc and Iron chelate] and sub-sub plots including sulfur fertilizer [S1: control (no use of sulfur), S2: sulfur fertilizer with Thiobacillus]. Results: Analyzed data showed that total phenol content and flavonoids were enhanced with the increase of drought intensity and the maximum amount was recorded under I3, while I3 caused a substantial reduction in grain yield. Flavonoid and grain yield significantly increased in F4. Total phenol content was the highest in F2 and F3 treatments. Application of sulfur fertilizer resulted in a significant increase in peroxidase, phenol and flavonoids. The highest amount of peroxidase was obtained in I3F4 and I3F3. The largest total soluble sugar (TSS) was resulted by I3S2 and the least by I1S1. Foliar application of Zn and Fe with sulfur fertilizer increased TSS. Conclusion: The present study suggests that foliar application of Fe and Zn and sulfur fertilizer can improve the injurious effects of water deficiency on cumin plant through alteration in yield and biochemical characteristics.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225002.].

Background: Medical diagnostic laboratories and accuracy and precision of laboratory test results play a decisive role in improving services delivery to patients. Therefore, special attention to the quality of medical health services activities appears to be essential. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of laboratory of Isa ibn Maryam hospital of Esfahan due to the concept of quality management and carried out by using a 360 degree feedback approach. Methods: The current paper is a cross-sectional study which was conducted in Isa ibn Maryam hospital in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Simple random sampling is used and totally 42 patients and hospital staff (laboratory customers) were selected. The data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire and data were analyzed using Microsoft Excell 2010. Results: Based on the findings, the highest mean score of evaluating performance was related to pediatric department with a score of 5/50 and the lowest mean was related to hygiene and the infection control unit was with a score of 5/42. Conclusion: The most important flaws in each performance evaluation system are personal taste orientation and applying personal views. Thus, it may be possible to minimize the deployment of personal opinion in evaluations by using a 360 degree feedback approach.

Introduction: Health system evolution plan has been of main corrections in in Iran's health system in the last previous years. Due to the importance of these interventions on the economic and performance of the hospital, this study was performed with aim to determine the effect of health system evolution plan and Tariff change based on relative values book on the performance of obstetrics and gynecology department in Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted by Activity Based Costing in obstetrics and gynecology department of Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad in 2013-2015. For economic-performance analysis of obstetrics and gynecology department, three categories were used including: data related to cost, data related to income, and performance indexes. Data were extracted by data gathering forms and were analyzed using descriptive statistics by Excel Software and statistical descriptive methods (mean, standard deviation, percentage, …). Results: Total income of this department has increased respectively by 54% and 75% after health system evolution and tariff change. The highest increase of income has related to operating room after tariff change (128%). After both health system evolution and tariff change, total expenditure of this department has increased respectively by 3% and 79%. Cesarean section rate has decreased about 2/3% after evolution. Conclusion: Evolution plan has positive effect on the performance and financial indicators of obstetrics and gynecology department of Imam Reza hospital. This effect was not equal among revenue and expenditure items.

Background: Pre hospital emergency medical service (EMS) as the first line of emergency care and treatment in the out- of -hospital has a considerable importance in the health care system. Planning on finding about strengths and weaknesses and improve the quality of EMS by exploring the problems of this section has considerable important.This study aimed to explore the challenges of pre hospital emergency medical service in Mashhad. Materials and methods: A qualitative study was done with 14 personnel working in EMS sites in Mashhad using purposeful sampling. Data was collected by semi structured interview and analyzed using conventional content analysis approach according to Graneheim and Lund man 2004 with ATLAS.ti software. Results: Three general themes were identified including 1) "challenges in Human resources"( Individual characteristics of human resources and personnelchr('39')s dissatisfaction 2) "challenges in organization" (Structural challenges, lake of equipment and human resource limitation 3) "socio-cultural challenges"(Environmental-social challenges and cultural challenges) were determined. Conclusion: personnelchr('39')s dissatisfaction, structural challenges, human resource limitation, lake of equipment and Environmental-social challenges were the most important challenges in pre-hospital emergency system. Organizational independence , create organizational rows, regulation of laws and administrative regulations reform in relation to the range of services offered by emergency personnel, attention to the facilities and cooperation And the participation of other organizations, such as media and traffic to enhance pre-hospital emergency services at the community level can be effective in reducing the challenges in hospital emergency system.

Introduction: One of the main determinants of hospital costs is the efficiency of operating rooms, and substantial resources are allocated to the management and timely performance of surgical operations. Cancelling surgical operations is one of the main causes of healthcare inefficiency and resources waste. The present study aimed to evaluate the rate and influential factors in cancelling surgical operations in Shahid Kamyab Hospital of Mashhad, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, data were collected from the hospital information system of Shahid Kamyab Hospital and classified into five surgical services, including orthopedics, neurosurgery, general surgery, facial surgeries, and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery. Causes of cancelling surgical operations were divided into six categories, including patient-related problems, surgeon-related problems, paraclinical test results, operating rooms problems, anesthesia, and hospital-related issues. Results:Among 13,674 preplanned surgical operations, 8% were orthopedic surgical operations, 4.2% were ENT operations, 3.5% were facial surgeries, and 1.1% were neurosurgeries. The most frequent causes of surgery cancellation were due to clinical problems (2.21%), refusal of the patient to pay the costs (19.1%), and surgeon-related problems (11.4%), while paraclinical test results accounted for the lowest frequency in this regard (1.1%). Conclusion: According to the results, most of the causes of surgery cancellation were patient-related. Therefore, it is suggested that patient evaluation be performed by surgeons and anesthesiologists prior to the surgical operation in order to prevent clinical problems during the surgery, offer insurance strategies, and solve the problems relating to the healthcare costs for the less privileged patients, especially those requiring surgery after accidents.

Objective (s): A major share of health system financial resources are dedicated to hospitals and any reform in the health system can affect the performance of them. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Iranchr('39')s health system reform and tariff change on income and expenditure of cardiovascular ward of a big tertiary Hospital in Iran in 2015. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in cardiovascular department of a big tertiary hospital in Mashhad, Iran, using activity based costing. Data relating to performance, revenue and expenditure of the cardiovascular department were collected using a designed form. Results: After both health system evolution and tariff change, total health service related income of cardiovascular department has increased respectively by 31% (real value = 29% increase). The governmental funds which dedicated to this department has also increased by 104% (real value =10% increase). Total income of this department has increased respectively by 39% 26% after health system evolution and tariff change. The highest increase of income has related to operating room after tariff change (203%). After both health system evolution and tariff change, total expenditure of this department has increased respectively by 21% and 31%. The highest increase of expenditure has related to physician wage (97%) after tariff change. Totally, before health system evolution, profit of cardiovascular ward was 135 million rail while has changed after health system evolution and tariff change respectively by 3/452 and 3/257 million rail. Conclusion: Performance and financial indicators of Imam Reza cardiovascular ward have been effected substantially by health system reform; however, has not equally effected all revenue and expenditure items.

When learning a new motor behavior, e.g. reaching in a force field, the nervous system builds an internal representation. Examining how subsequent reaches in unpracticed directions generalize reveals this representation. Although often studied, it is not known how this representation changes across training directions, or how changes in reach direction and the corresponding changes in limb impedance, influence these measurements. We ran a force field adaptation experiment using eight groups of subjects each trained on one of eight standard directions and then tested for generalization in the remaining seven directions. Generalization in all directions was local and asymmetric, providing limited and unequal transfer to the left and right side of the trained target. These asymmetries were not consistent in either magnitude or direction, even after correcting for changes in limb impedance. Relying on a standard model for generalization the inferred representations inconsistently shifted to one side or the other of their respective training direction. A second model that accounted for limb impedance and variations in baseline trajectories explained more data and the inferred representations were centered on their respective training directions. Our results highlight the influence of limb mechanics and impedance on psychophysical measurements and their interpretations for motor learning.

In order to investigate the effect of an electromagnetic field and ultrasonic waves on the seed germination of Cuminum cyminum that two separate experiments using a completely randomized design with four replications was conducted at Seed Science and Technology Laboratory of Faculty Agricultural Sciences, the Shahed University of Tehran in 2012. In the first experiment, for the seeds of zero, 10 and 30 min exposure to electromagnetic field intensity was 88 microTesla. In the second test (ultrasonic waves), seeds for zero, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 min exposure ultrasonic waves’ intensity were 40 and 59 kHz. The interaction between the electromagnetic field and the length had a significant effect on the traits of length, fresh weight and dry weight of root and shoot, length and weight of root to shoot ratio, percent and rate germination and mean germination time. In most of the studied traits showed that electromagnetic field causes a significant decrease in the number of traits so that the control (zero M.T) had the highest value. The interaction of Ultrasonic waves at the time had a significant effect of on the most traits. Maximum germination percentage (100%) for the treatment of 40 kHz with duration of 4 and 6 minutes and mean germination time was highest in control (10.76 days) and 59 kHz treatment duration of 2 and 4 min (respectively 11.01 and 10.75 days). Generally, Cuminum cyminum seeds responded positively to the use of ultrasonic waves (In contrast field) and germination index was significantly increased in this case.

Background Considering patients’ needs and expectations in the process of healthcare delivery improves the quality of services. This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness of general public and private hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional and explanatory study, hospitalized patients (with at least 2 days of stay) in general private and public hospitals in Mashhad were investigated. In total 425 patients (259 from private and 166 from public hospitals) were selected using a stratified and simple random sampling. Standard responsiveness questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and ANOVA by SPSS 16 at a significance level of 0.05. Results Access to the social support during hospitalization as well as confidentiality of the patient’s information achieved the highest score (3.21±0.73) while the patient participation in decision-making process of treatment received the least score (2.34±1.24). Among the research population 1.6%, 4.1%, 17.6%, 63.3% and 13.2% commented on the responsiveness level as very low, low, moderate, good, and excellent, respectively. There was no significant difference between the overall responsiveness scores of public and private hospitals ( P-Value ≥0.05). Conclusion The hospitals have enough potential to improve various aspects of their responsiveness. We suggest a number of measures can help improve the non-clinical aspects of care. These include: using educational courses to improve the knowledge and attitudes of medical and nonmedical staff, changing the resource allocation method, and using quality tools such as reengineering to modify the healthcare delivery processes.