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To present the process of creating the quality management system of the Kuopio University Library (Finland) and its auditing.

Case study of the Library's quality management system's building process, with some survey‐based material.

The European Union has decided that some kind of quality management system should be established in its higher education institutions. This sets new challenges for the university libraries. The paper presents the fact that quality management can be used as a tool for leadership within the Library, improving the Library's processes and marketing the Library within the University.

The paper is based on conditions in Finland.

The paper gives an example of what implications national and international higher‐education policies have on a university library.

The paper provides a model for quality management and quality system documentation.

This paper sets out to describe the building of the quality management system in one library and especially how different types of quality measurement systems – statistical analyses, benchmarking, surveys – are used in order to improve the quality of the library services. A major emphasis is placed on the involvement of management at both the strategic and everyday levels.

This paper takes the form of a case study approach.

It was found that a multi‐faceted measuring approach helps in the management, planning and public relations of a library.

The paper is based on the experiences of one library.

The paper gives examples of the implementation of the quality management system's customer feedback and process performance evaluation inside an academic library

The paper provides a model for a basket of indicators for a library's core processes and results.

This study aims to explore the perceptions of quality of life among older Thai adults with hypertension.

A descriptive qualitative design was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 40 older adults. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

The analyses were divided into six major themes: happiness in life; health and functionality; activity in social relationships; religion anchor; autonomy to manage their own life; and security in finances and environment.

The findings can guide health care professionals and policymakers when planning and implementing interventions and policies for improving the quality of life of older adults, particularly that of rural older adults with low incomes.

The findings showed minor differences between urban and rural older adults in financial security, where the rural participants expressed greater financial insecurity than the urban counterparts. However, no other major differences emerged.

The aim of this study was to investigate the acceptability of 14 prioritisation criteria from nurses’, doctors’, local politicians’ and the general public's perspective. Respondents (nurses, n=682, doctors, n=837 politicians, n=1,133 and the general public, n=1,178) received a questionnaire with 16 imaginary patient cases, each containing 2‐3 different prioritisation criteria. The subjects were asked to indicate how important it was for them that the treatments in the presented patient cases be subsidised by the community. All respondents preferred treatments for poor people and children. With the exception of the doctors, the three other study groups also prioritised elderly patients. Treatment for institutionalised patients, those with self‐induced disease, diseases with both poor and good prognosis, and mild disease were given low priorities. Priority setting in health care should be regarded as a continuous process because of changes in attitudes. However, the best method for surveying opinions and ethical principles concerning prioritisation has not yet been discovered.

Kuopio University Hospital, situated within middle‐east Finland, adopted the ISO 9002 standard as its quality system and gained formal certification in March 1999. The rationale behind the decision to adopt ISO 9002 is given, along with the main elements of the journey. The experiences of the hospital, including the advantages and disadvantages, are explained. In particular, issues regarding the documentation process, control and calibration of 4,000 pieces of medical equipment and the impact on staffing levels for in‐house trained personnel to undertake the audits are described. The impact on the service to date, including benefits and drawbacks, is covered, along with aspirations for the future. Kuopio Hospitals adopted some techniques during the implementation process which did not work as successfully as others. The article therefore includes these in an effort to pass on the learning acquired from implementing ISO 9002 within such a large hospital as Kuopio University Hospital.

Inpatient violence is a substantial problem in psychiatric wards and de-escalation is difficult. When managing instances of violence through verbal techniques fail, mental health-care staff may use restrictive practices. The Six Core Strategies and debriefing exist for managing violence and restrictive practices in different mental health settings. Debriefing is used to get patients’ views on restrictive practices, ensure proper patient care and strengthen the role of patients as experts. This study aims to provide new information on debriefing implementation and how debriefing was used among different patient groups in a forensic hospital.

Quantitative seclusion time and debriefing reports (n = 524) were examined with Poisson regression analysis. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine the associations between debriefing and seclusion/restraint.

Debriefing (n = 524) was provided in 93% of violent episodes, which is an excellent result on an international level. There was significant variation in how often debriefing was used (p < 0.001) among different patient groups, i.e. dangerous, difficult-to-treat patients and criminal offenders whose sentences have been waived. Previous debriefing research has rarely specified what types of psychiatric patients have been subjected to seclusion or restraint.

The implementation of debriefing requires multiprofessional work within the organization and wards.

Debriefing seems to stimulate reflection at every level of a health-care organization, which fosters learning and can ultimately change clinical practices. The use of debriefing can strengthen the role of patients as well as professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate innovation resistance among mature consumers in the mobile banking context. The reasons inhibiting mature consumers' mobile banking adoption were compared to those of younger consumers.

Following Ram and Sheth, resistance was measured with five barriers namely Usage, Value, Risk, Tradition and Image barriers. An extensive internet survey was implemented and 1,525 usable responses were collected, of which 370 respondents (24.3 percent) represented the mature consumer segment (age over 55) and 1,155 respondents (75.7 percent) represented the younger consumers.

The empirical findings indicate that the value barrier is the most intense barrier to mobile banking adoption among both mature and younger consumers. However, aging appears to be related especially to the risk and image barriers; the most significant differences between mature and younger consumers' perceptions of mobile banking were related to input and output mechanisms of information, the battery life of a mobile phone, a fear that the list of PIN codes would be lost and end up in the wrong hands and the usefulness of new technology in general.

The study has practical implications to marketers in different fields in that strategies to overcome resistance to innovations like mobile banking are discussed.

Innovation resistance can be seen as a less developed concept in adoption research. While the majority of studies have focused on the success of innovations and reasons to adopt, this study empirically investigates the reasons preventing innovation adoption.

Libraries have changed due to many things, one of them being the shift from printed to electronic resources. Libraries become learning centres, providing more space for customers and less for stacks. Though information seeking habits have changed, especially students need places for studying and group work. In the case of Kuopio University Hospital Medical Library the shift has been influenced by space requirements for other hospital functions. The reduction of current physical space has led to revised collection policy that is now taking its final steps when the library is preparing to move to a new space. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

First, a 650 m2 library space was remodelled to a 450 m2 without major negative effects on services. Second, the hospital has assigned the medical library a new location where a new library space and learning centre will be renovated. Less space for print collections means that reliable delivery from print resources is crucial.

Due to the merger of two universities’ collections to one multi-campus collection and to quick delivery service from the National Repository Library as well as good logistic services the authors are able to provide the customers with a possibility to use wide collections even if the own print-collections are small.

The paper describes the collection policy and the service model of one library.

Small visible collections can be a challenge as the shelves are few. Creating awareness through marketing is essential. Campaigns, QR codes, big screens, user education, social media and everyday individual guidance are among the tools of creating wider awareness.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide a tool to map the critical roles of intermediate organizations. To clarify the concept of intermediate organizations in a regional context, especially from the network dynamics point‐of‐view. Design/methodology/approach – Regional dynamics are presented as networks of production, development and innovation in the regional cluster. The intermediaries are divided into national, regional and local level actors. The roles of the intermediaries from the network dynamics point‐of‐view are then illustrated with examples from a case study in a medical technology cluster located in a sparsely inhabited area in Finland. Findings – According to the results of the case study, the regional intermediaries have the most important role in the creation and supporting of the network dynamics. The most critical roles include forming shared innovation strategies between the actors and attracting anchor tenants to the region. Research limitations/implications – The characteristics of the case region are discussed in a generic sense with the concepts of social capital and communities of practice. Practical implications – Conceptually, the article provides an approach to reducing the complexity of the regional networks to a more understandable level. The model provides a tool for the decision makers in a region to define the critical roles of the intermediaries from the network dynamics point‐of‐view. Originality/value – The novel approach introduced in this paper addresses three gaps in existing research: it helps to define the concept of an intermediary in a regional context; it shows that the intermediaries have a much broader role in a region than just knowledge transfer and that the roles of the intermediaries differ on national, regional and local levels.