1,720,958 research outputs found
POLICY DEPLOYMENT FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS. From Kaizen Initiatives to a Kaizen Initiative Program: an action research
Get PDFPurpose. Although kaizen methodology is increasingly applied and investigated in healthcare, most of the current literature describes successful kaizen initiatives and report their technical outcomes (e.g. Dickson et al., 2009; Laganga, 2011). Aspects related to the deployment of the kaizen approach across healthcare organizations are often neglected by the scholars. Thus, this thesis aims at filling this gap by developing and testing a theoretical framework to understand how the continuous improvement approach could be adopted and adapted to a public hospital and what features should be considered as key drivers of a successful implementation. In particular, this study uses a policy deployment perspective to investigate the linkage between decisions at the strategic level within healthcare organizations and those regarding the implementation of a set of kaizen initiatives over time (Kaizen Initiative Program – KIP).
Design/Methodology/Approach. This study uses the action research methodology to develop theoretical and practical insights from a complex endeavour as kaizen implementation in public hospitals. The research is divided in four main cycles: Design; Training; Kaizen (Implementation and Monitoring) and Evaluation. Each cycle includes: a pre-step for understanding context and purpose; a six main-step stage (to gather, feedback and analyse data, to plan, implement and evaluate actions) and a meta-step (to monitor) (Coughlan and Coghlan, 2002). The researcher played an active role and adopted the process consultation model to support the healthcare professionals engaged. Thus, the researcher could investigate in real time what characterized a continuous improvement program and how it has been deployed across the hospitals involved.
Findings. By investigating how the continuous improvement approach is implemented in public hospitals this study describes and discusses the practical problems addressed and difficulties emerging over time at both strategical and operational level, and at team and organisational level during the action research. In particular, this study provides: 1) a tested framework for applying a KI Program at both organisational and system level (e.g., regional/healthcare district); 2) the key features/practices of the KI Program (what) and their sequence for a successful implementation (when); 3) the successful deployment modalities of the KI Program (how) to properly select the kaizen teams and initiatives (e.g., the periodic briefings between the managers from the strategic level and the kaizen teams).
Practical implications. Results provide a structured framework for healthcare practitioners and managers who are interested in successfully launching and sustaining a KI Program. This framework could help hospital managers to link the strategic level decisions with continuous improvement actions at the operational level, avoiding the only use of bottom-up and pop-corn initiatives.
Originality. The research proposes a tested framework emerging from the action research for successfully selecting kaizen initiatives that are linked to the strategic objectives of healthcare organizations. Differently from the existing kaizen literature, this research engaged seven different and independent hospitals that have been performing their first kaizen experience simultaneously and which belong to the same regional healthcare system and are led by a unique regional administration office.
Keywords: continuous improvement, kaizen, hospital, kaizen programPurpose. Although kaizen methodology is increasingly applied and investigated in healthcare, most of the current literature describes successful kaizen initiatives and report their technical outcomes (e.g. Dickson et al., 2009; Laganga, 2011). Aspects related to the deployment of the kaizen approach across healthcare organizations are often neglected by the scholars. Thus, this thesis aims at filling this gap by developing and testing a theoretical framework to understand how the continuous improvement approach could be adopted and adapted to a public hospital and what features should be considered as key drivers of a successful implementation. In particular, this study uses a policy deployment perspective to investigate the linkage between decisions at the strategic level within healthcare organizations and those regarding the implementation of a set of kaizen initiatives over time (Kaizen Initiative Program – KIP).
Design/Methodology/Approach. This study uses the action research methodology to develop theoretical and practical insights from a complex endeavour as kaizen implementation in public hospitals. The research is divided in four main cycles: Design; Training; Kaizen (Implementation and Monitoring) and Evaluation. Each cycle includes: a pre-step for understanding context and purpose; a six main-step stage (to gather, feedback and analyse data, to plan, implement and evaluate actions) and a meta-step (to monitor) (Coughlan and Coghlan, 2002). The researcher played an active role and adopted the process consultation model to support the healthcare professionals engaged. Thus, the researcher could investigate in real time what characterized a continuous improvement program and how it has been deployed across the hospitals involved.
Findings. By investigating how the continuous improvement approach is implemented in public hospitals this study describes and discusses the practical problems addressed and difficulties emerging over time at both strategical and operational level, and at team and organisational level during the action research. In particular, this study provides: 1) a tested framework for applying a KI Program at both organisational and system level (e.g., regional/healthcare district); 2) the key features/practices of the KI Program (what) and their sequence for a successful implementation (when); 3) the successful deployment modalities of the KI Program (how) to properly select the kaizen teams and initiatives (e.g., the periodic briefings between the managers from the strategic level and the kaizen teams).
Practical implications. Results provide a structured framework for healthcare practitioners and managers who are interested in successfully launching and sustaining a KI Program. This framework could help hospital managers to link the strategic level decisions with continuous improvement actions at the operational level, avoiding the only use of bottom-up and pop-corn initiatives.
Originality. The research proposes a tested framework emerging from the action research for successfully selecting kaizen initiatives that are linked to the strategic objectives of healthcare organizations. Differently from the existing kaizen literature, this research engaged seven different and independent hospitals that have been performing their first kaizen experience simultaneously and which belong to the same regional healthcare system and are led by a unique regional administration office.
Keywords: continuous improvement, kaizen, hospital, kaizen progra
LEAN MANAGEMENT La formula del successo. Casi e testimonianze dei protagonisti del cambiamento
No full textQual è la formula del successo per competere in un mercato sempre più rapido e mutevole? Secondo il Lean Thinking, per ottenere risultati sostenibili nel tempo il segreto è creare un sistema capace di integrare l’efficienza nei processi e il coinvolgimento attivo delle risorse umane. A tal fine i cosiddetti Agenti del Cambiamento giocano un ruolo insostituibile. Il libro raccoglie casi e testimonianze dei protagonisti del cambiamento che hanno frequentato il Master in Lean Management presso il Lean Enterprise Center di CUOA Business School.
L’obiettivo è da un lato quello di celebrare i dieci anni del CUOA Lean Enterprise Center (2006-2016), dall' altro quello di condividere le storie di imprenditori e manager che, basandosi sulla formula del successo attraverso la trasformazione snella, sono riusciti ad affrontare e superare il recente periodo di forte turbolenza economica e finanziaria
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Clinical signs, telemedicine and online consultations in head and neck diseases during the SARS CoV-2 pandemic: an Italian experience
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to describe the application of a telemedicine (TM) synchronous model designed to deliver care during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to patients with head and neck disease. METHODS: The first step was to identify the classes of patients eligible for tele-examination. Mild, flu-like symptomatology represents the characteristics of the typical patient who is a candidate for tele-examination. The standard requirements for TM include a computer associated with a digital camera, alternatively a smartphone or tablet. The TM platform is based on the Lifesize™ software, which can be freely downloaded. RESULTS: The overall number of teleconsultations was 178, of which 163 (91.5%) were managed at home, while 15 (8.5%) were invited for in-presence examination. The number of patients coming from general practitioners was 98 (55.1%), from spoke units 52 (29.2%), patients needing prompt stabilisation and transfer to the hub centre were 20 (11.2%,) while 8 (4.5%) were immediately fast-tracked in the spoke unit after multi-professional tele-consultation. CONCLUSIONS: Telemedicine improves organisational models, and provides a scalable solution to overcome problems of overcrowding, resources and time. Should these developments continue, we could face to a gradual transition to a more digital and efficient healthcare system
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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