1,720,956 research outputs found
Performance development of a university operating room after implementation of a central operating room management
No full textThe difficult financial situation in German hospitals requires measures for improvement in process quality. Associated increases in revenues in the high income field "operating room (OR) area" are increasingly the responsibility of OR management but it has not been shown that the introduction of an efficiency-oriented management leads to an increase in process quality and revenues in the operating theatre. Therefore the performance in the operating theatre of the University Medical Center Gottingen was analyzed for working days in the core operating time from 7.45 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. from 2009 to 2014. The achievement of process target times for the morning surgery start time and the turnover times of anesthesia and OR-nurses were calculated as indicators of process quality. The number of operations and cumulative incision-suture time were also analyzed as aggregated performance indicators. In order to assess the development of revenues in the operating theatre, the revenues from diagnosis-related groups (DRG) in all inpatient and occupational accident cases, adjusted for the regional basic case value from 2009, were calculated for each year. The development of revenues was also analyzed after deduction of revenues resulting from altered economic case weighting. It could be shown that the achievement of process target values for the morning surgery start time could be improved by 40 %, the turnover times for anesthesia reduced by 50 % and for the OR-nurses by 36 %. Together with the introduction of central planning for reallocation, an increase in operation numbers of 21 % and cumulative incision-suture times of 12% could be realized. Due to these additional operations the DRG revenues in 2014 could be increased to 132 % compared to 2009 or 127 % if the revenues caused by economic case weighting were excluded. The personnel complement in anesthesia (-1.7 %) and OR-nurses (+2.6 %) as well as anesthetists (+6.7 %) increased less compared to the revenues or were slightly reduced. This improvement in process quality and cumulative incision-suture times as well as the increase in revenues, reflect the positive impact of an efficiency-oriented central OR management. The OR management releases due to measures of process optimization the necessary personnel and time resources and therefore achieves the basic prerequisites for increased revenues of surgical disciplines. The method presented can be used by other hospitals as a guideline to analyze performance development
Quality assurance at the interface between anesthesia and transfusion medicine
No full textThe current situation in hospitals is characterized by financial limitations and simultaneously by increasing demands on quality and safety. The operative interface between anesthesia and transfusion medicine affects both factors. A detailed analysis was performed to evaluate the process quality at this operative interface at the University Hospital of Gottingen. The aim of the project was to revise und develop the structures and responsibilities at this interface, to dispose of weak points and to realize the optimization potential in the supply of blood products. A databank-based electronic data processing solution was established with the clear definition of responsibilities for the various workflow procedures and the written documentation of these definitions in standard operating protocols. In order to guarantee the necessary transparency a routine reporting system to the department of surgery was established. In addition, a continuous further development of the blood supply standard based on electronic report data was implemented. By implementing the above named measures the rate of supplied to transfused blood products could be increased from 43.1 % to 55.7 %. The compliance with the blood supply standard improved continually over the first 18 months from 60.3 % to 92.3 %. The rate of supplied blood product deliveries without subsequent operation could be reduced from 9.0 % to 4.6 %. As a result of this optimization the supply costs in the internal cost allocation were reduced from 9,406 a,not sign to 3,544 a,not sign. The measures described are appropriate to cost-effectively improve quality and patient safety. The optimization measures presented in this article can be implemented in other hospitals to increase quality and safety after individual adjustment to the local circumstances
Magnetic resonance imaging study of the in vivo position of the extraglottic airway devices i-gel and LMA-Supreme in anaesthetized human volunteers
No full textExact information on the anatomical in situ position of extraglottic airway (EGA) devices is lacking. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize the positions of the i-gel and the LMA-Supreme (LMA-S) relative to skeletal and soft-tissue structures. Twelve volunteers participated in this randomized, prospective, cross-over study. Native MRI scans were performed before induction of anaesthesia. Anaesthesia was induced, and the two EGAs were inserted in a randomized sequence. Their positions were assessed functionally, optically by fibrescope, and with MRI scans of the head and neck. The LMA-S protruded deeper into the upper oesophageal sphincter than the i-gel (P0.001). Both devices reduced the area of the glottic aperture (P0.001), and the LMA-S had the largest effect (P0.049). The i-gel significantly compressed the tongue (P0.001). Both devices displaced the hyoid bone ventrally (P0.001); the i-gel to a greater degree (P0.029). The fibreoptically determined position of the bowl of the devices was identical. The LMA-S and i-gel differ significantly with regard to in situ position and spatial relationship with adjacent structures assessed by MRI, despite similar clinical and fibreoptical findings. This could be relevant with regard to risk of aspiration, glottic narrowing, and airway resistance and soft-tissue morbidity
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Intensified thermal management for patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)
No full textBackground: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation via the transapical approach (TAVI-TA) without cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a minimally invasive alternative to open-heart valve replacement. Despite minimal exposure and extensive draping perioperative hypothermia still remains a problem. Methods: In this observational study, we compared the effects of two methods of thermal management on the perioperative course of core temperature. The methods were standard thermal management (STM) with a circulating hot water blanket under the patient, forced-air warming with a lower body blanket and warmed infused fluids, and an intensified thermal management (ITM) with additional prewarming using forced-air in the pre- operative holding area on the awake patient. Results: Nineteen patients received STM and 20 were treated with ITM. On ICU admission, ITM-patients had a higher core temperature (36.4 +/- 0.7 degrees C vs. 35.5 +/- 0.9 degrees C, p = 0.001), required less time to achieve normothermia (median (IQR) in min: 0 (0-15) vs. 150 (0-300), p = 0.003) and a shorter period of ventilatory support (median (IQR) in min: 0 (0-0) vs. 246 (0-451), p = 0.001). Conclusion: ITM during TAVI-TA reduces the incidence of hypothermia and allows for faster recovery with less need of ventilatory support
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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