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This paper seeks to explore the development of a discharge programme in one learning disability hospital in Scotland. The study aims to concentrate on organisational developmental changes in that institution. The model of the management during the discharge programme was investigated. The aim of the study is to explore how the discharge programme developed, as seen under the lens of organisational change, in order to find out what kind of model of management is more suitable in similar programmes.

A case study was employed. Data were collected by means of interviews. The interviews followed a structured format. The sample of the study had to be a purposive sample and the method of snowball sampling was used; finally, 28 interviews were conducted. A grounded approach was adopted for the data analysis. The software program QSR “NUD*IST” (version “N6”) was used as a technical tool, in order to facilitate the data analysis.

The findings of this study show that various management models were adopted in the four phases of the discharge programme. These different models represent a “quest” by the institution's management regarding the most appropriate model for managing the discharge programme. This study shows that this goes on continuously in organisations under transition until they settle down to a more permanent state.

It was concluded that management models, which are composed of characteristics from the organic theory of organisational management, could apply in discharge programmes. The data gathered enabled the researcher to arrive at a model of management which is suitable for managing organisational changes in discharge programmes, the named “stakeholder management model”.

During the past few years a movement has begun in the USA towards passing laws that would require the discharge of employees only for just cause. Erosion of the employment‐at‐will doctrine has begun. This will continue, given social and judicial trends. This has significant implications for managers. Managers can influence this trend by adopting formal policies on employee discipline and discharge. They must be familiar with the employment‐at‐will issue and organisational procedures for preventing its growth. A management development programme is discussed that covers employee discipline. It has been implemented and used successfully by many organisations. A key to its success lies in the variety of topics covered, its appropriateness to all managers and the efficiency with which the material can be covered. Its aim is to prevent future employee charges of unjust discipline and discharge, while fostering an organisational environment based on high employee morale and productivity. The concept of employment‐at‐will and its impact on managers is reviewed.

We examine the evolution of labor arbitration decisions between 1988 and 2018 in which a union-represented employee was alleged to have committed sexual harassment. We find that management punished sexual harassment more stringently over time and that arbitrators became more sensitive to whether or not good procedure was followed by management over time. Distributive justice was also a major concern for arbitrators. The results suggest that it is essential for management to exercise procedural justice in disciplining employees, but that it is just as important for management to consider distributive justice when it comes to imposing discipline for inappropriate behavior.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the nexus between environmental taxes and other environmental management systems (EMSs) and to propose an alternative framework for implementing environmental protection tax (EPT) in China.

The study uses a multimethod approach encompassing document analysis and comparative analysis. The archival data covers laws, reports, regulations, guidelines and standards related to the EPT and EMS sub-systems in China.

The study identifies several institutional features of environmental taxes that have not been fully explored in past tax research. In addition, the study reveals that information-sharing mechanisms are key to addressing the risks and uncertainties associated with the implementation of an environmental tax and that the mechanisms are grounded in the nexus among EPT and two EMS sub-systems.

The findings of this study have implications for the understanding of China’s environmental tax system, the Environmental Impact Assessment system and the pollutants discharge permit (PDP) system. The construction of an alternative framework provides insights for approaches to environmental taxation. A limitation of this study is that the application of the framework might be undermined by the inaccurate manual sampling, as some pollutants may be non-replicable.

The findings of this study are relevant to policymakers who are designing, improving or abandoning environmental taxes for alternate solutions to environmental issues.

The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to lower the risks and uncertainties associated with the implementation of an environmental tax.

The study contributes to approaches to environmental taxes by constructing an alternative framework that connects an environmental tax system with two EMSs. The framework lays the groundwork for some promising research opportunities. Additionally, the study extends the tax accounting literature (Hanlon and Heitzman, 2010) by connecting accounting and environmental knowledge and developing a transdisciplinary approach. The study also contributes to the emerging body of literature that addresses the challenges in implementing environmental taxes in China.

Building the Right Support, a national plan for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in England aims to avoid lengthy stays in hospital for such people. Discharge planning is understood to be helpful in facilitating successful transition from hospital to community services, however, there is little guidance available to help those working with detained patients with ID and offending histories to consider how to affect safe and effective discharges. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the development and implementation of a multi-faceted and systemic approach to discharge preparation and planning is described. The impact of this intervention on a range of outcomes was assessed and the views of stakeholders on the process were sought.

Initial outcome data provide support for the effectiveness of this intervention in terms of increased rates of discharge, reduced lengths of stay and low readmission rates. Stakeholders viewed the intervention as positive and beneficial in achieving timely discharge and effective post-discharge support.

People with ID are more likely to be detained in hospital and spend more time in hospital following admission. A planned, coordinated and well managed approach to discharge planning can be helpful in facilitating timely and successful discharges with low risks of readmission.

This is the first attempt to describe and evaluate a discharge planning intervention for detained offenders with ID. The intervention described appears to be a promising approach but further evaluation across a range of service settings is required.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how and why theory of constraints based time buffer management has contributed to improved patient flow in health and social care applications.

The focus of the research is on the application and implementation of time buffer management by QFI Consulting. Four UK hospital implementations of the QFI Jonah software and methodology were investigated to establish how buffer management was being applied and why the reported benefits were being achieved. This involved collecting service delivery data together with semi‐structured interviews. To support this evaluation, four control functions of time buffer management have been identified as a basis for evaluation of the application designs and their implementation.

Case research evidence shows significant and rapid improvement in length of stay (LOS) following implementation of the approach, amounting to a reduction in LOS of over 20 per cent and significantly improved accident and emergency performance. Sustainability issues were evident however and were traced, at least in part, to lack of adherence to one or more of the functional elements of the system.

This case research has considered four applications that represent some of the more successful implementations. This research is, therefore, limited by the range of applications considered and is also limited in its ability to evaluate the sustainability of the implementations in the longer term.

This paper provides clearer theoretical understanding of the improvements experienced by these hospitals, which is critical to expanding the use of traditional manufacturing approaches into complex service environments.

This research has helped conceptualise how time buffer management control functions can be structured to evaluate the design and implementation of novel applications.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how top management is constructed as a good steward of its company at the annual general meeting (AGM) and how accounting is used in the course of this process.

To meet these aims the authors attended 36 AGMs of Swedish listed companies. The interactions that occurred at the AGMs were analysed, using the theory of translation.

One‐third of all questions dealt with financial accounting issues, while the majority of the questions concerned non‐financial aspects of stewardship, i.e. company's efforts regarding environmental, equality and ethical issues.

There is some concern that the complexity of accounting information may make shareholders feel remote from the company. However, AGMs provide a setting where the financial accounts can be complemented with verbal explanations and visual aids. This contextualizes the financial accounts and makes them understandable to an audience that includes many private investors. This contributed to the fact that accounting was discussed, questioned and referred to. Hence, accounting enables the stewardship function of the AGM.

Although AGMs have been the subject of criticism, they are still an important part of the corporate governance system. Since AGMs are live events, shareholders are able to pursue a topic with further questions, an option that is not available to other modes of corporate communication.

Whereas the AGM has been in the foreground in government inquiries and codes of conduct, it has been largely neglected in accounting research.

The paper problematizes previous research on accountingisation, where the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work is understood in relation to a professional/economic dichotomy and a model of episodic change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate everyday professional work in established new public management (NPM) settings, and proposes a new conceptual framework to analyze the role of accounting therein. The aim is to enable future investigations into how, when and where a situated “bottom line” emerges, by conceptualizing professional work as a process of calculation.

Qualitative data from case studies of two tertiary level geriatric organizations using observations of 33 employees and four interviews. Data related to patient discharge, and the management of the discharge processes, were analyzed.

Few visible trade-offs between distinctly professional or economic considerations were observed. Rather, the qualification of patients’ status and evaluation of their dischargeability centered on debates over treatment time. Time therefore operated as a situated “bottom line,” to which various other concerns were emergently linked in a process of calculation. Professional practitioners seldom explicitly evoke accounting concepts and technologies, but these were implicated in the ongoing translation of each patient into something temporarily stable, calculable and thus actionable for the professionals involved in their care. The study’s findings have implications for the conceptual understanding of professional work in established NPM settings.

Case study research is context-specific and the role of accounting in professional work will vary due to the professional groups and accounting technologies involved.

The study’s findings have implications for how to influence professional behavior through interventions in the existing landscape of accounting technologies. The possibility to change behavior through the introduction or removal of individual accounting technologies is questioned.

To date, research on the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work has assumed a professional/economic dichotomy and studied episodic change linked to accounting-oriented reforms. This paper analyses the role of accounting as an on-going process with emergent boundaries between professional and economic considerations.

Describes a way of characterizing the progress of a patient into and out of acute care. Presents a model of the process which resulted from a study of the interface between tertiary care and resettlement in the home community in a single health district. After discussion of the problems relating to patient discharge as described in the literature, briefly describes the origins of and setting for the study. The method of data collection (through documentary analysis, individual and group interview and case study) involved over 100 staff and patients on both sides of the interface. Does not present the substantive findings in detail, as these remain confidential to the organizations involved. However, outlines the process whereby the data gave rise to a model of patient progress and discusses in detail the essential feature of that model – the care frame – both as a theoretical entity and as a basis for practical action. Concludes with a demonstration of how the care‐frame model can be used to manage the interface between successive phases in the provision of care and, especially, how it helps to define and manage the interface between acute care and care in the home community.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the readmission risk prediction tools reported in the literature and their benefits when it comes to healthcare organisations and management.

Readmission risk prediction is a growing topic of interest with the aim of identifying patients in particular those suffering from chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes, who are at risk of readmission. Several models have been developed with different levels of predictive ability. A structured and extensive literature search of several databases was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis strategy, and this yielded a total of 48,984 records.

Forty-three articles were selected for full-text and extensive review after following the screening process and according to the eligibility criteria. About 34 unique readmission risk prediction models were identified, in which their predictive ability ranged from poor to good (c statistic 0.5–0.86). Readmission rates ranged between 3.1 and 74.1% depending on the risk category. This review shows that readmission risk prediction is a complex process and is still relatively new as a concept and poorly understood. It confirms that readmission prediction models hold significant accuracy at identifying patients at higher risk for such an event within specific context.

Since most prediction models were developed for specific populations, conditions or hospital settings, the generalisability and transferability of the predictions across wider or other contexts may be difficult to achieve. Therefore, the value of prediction models remains limited to hospital management. Future research is indicated in this regard.

This review is the first to cover readmission risk prediction tools that have been published in the literature since 2011, thereby providing an assessment of the relevance of this crucial KPI to health organisations and managers.