Search results

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship among jurors’ attribution of responsibility of the error, patient styles and juror decisions (e.g. acquittal of the physician). Specifically, this research examines the influence of an individual’s approach to their healthcare (active vs. passive), and decisions to acquit in malpractice cases.

In total, 459 individuals were surveyed using a commercial call center for participation in a corresponding mail survey. Surveys were also distributed to undergraduate business students at a Midwestern university.

Cluster analysis revealed two categories of patient styles: “active patients” (39.4 per cent) and “passive patients” (60.6 per cent). Regardless of patient style, this research found all respondents viewed medical error disclosure as important. However, respondents in the passive group were more likely to acquit the physician and the hospital nursing staff as compared with those classified as active.

The safety of patients in the healthcare system and prevention of errors is a critical issue. However, when errors occur, medical providers should disclose information to the patient and take responsibility to attenuate their negative impact. Further, this research reveals that patients who rely more on their physicians, trust their recommendations and question physicians less are more likely to acquit. Medical providers can use this information as motivation to continue to build this type of trust with their patients.

Medical errors are costly for all parties involved. This research provides insight for not only members of the legal profession involved in medical malpractice cases, but also risk managers and hospital administrators and healthcare providers regarding the decision-making process used by individuals serving on a jury.

This article aims to highlight the importance of a complete and accurate medical record as it pertains to potential risk exposure in the outpatient physical therapy profession.

Basic charting rules, correction and alteration recommendations, documentation of telephone conversations, informed consent, exculpatory release forms and incident reports are discussed. Basic risk management strategies are reviewed that may reduce outpatient physical therapy practitioners' malpractice exposure.

The authors contend that quality and thorough documentation is as important as the quality of the care that is delivered to patients, since medical records are legal documents and serve as valuable evidence as to what transpired between patients and the healthcare providers.

Practical documentation strategies are described in a manner that will inform physical therapists of their legal obligations relating to patient care.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the possible money laundering threats in fair value accounting practices giving particular attention to the list of predicate offences under recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

This paper discusses case studies related to global accounting scandals and link outcomes of those scandals with the list of predicate offences given in FATF recommendations to build propositions.

The analysis reveals that legal proceedings on major accounting scandals show that legal proceedings have been restricted owing to a lack of evidence because of the technicality of frauds. Often the authorities have failed to prove cases under the list of current predicate offences which can be linked to accounting malpractices, i.e. fraud. Therefore, policymakers are required to revisit the list of predicate offences and the feasibility of considering accounting malpractices as a predicate offence to strengthen the corporate governance practices in regulated institutions. The adoption of fair value accounting practices provides opportunities to managers to adopt earnings management practices under a fair value accounting regime to maintain stable performance. The fair value practice recognizes unrealized gains which are not based on transactions giving bank managers an opportunity to repeat the outcomes of the discussed accounting scandals. Therefore, it is essential to criminalize accounting malpractices to strengthen the corporate governance practices in the banking industry and prevent possible accounting scandals.

This study was designed to discuss the implications of fair value accounting practices on possible opportunities of money laundering. This paper provides only a viewpoint based on the analysis. Therefore, an empirical analysis is required to establish the authors’ views in a fair value accounting regime.

This paper is an original work done by the authors which discuss the implications of fair value accounting practices on possible money laundering. The views are original ideas of the authors in this context.

Fruits and vegetables, being good source of energy, health promoting and protecting compounds with unique taste and flavor, are attracting consumers since ages. These horticultural produces start deterioration just after harvest; therefore, their proper storage is must during transportation and storage to retain maximum quality parameters and for good market value. Best storage conditions are required to prevent growth of micro flora and to maintain the nutritional values of harvested produce. Retailers and processors in every corner of world want to move toward the cheaper ways to increase the shelf life and texture of horticultural crops for better consumer preference. The purpose of this paper is to make consumers and researchers aware about different post harvest malpractices in fresh fruits and vegetables.

Lot of chemicals like colors, artificial ripening agents, sweeteners and waxes are applied on surface of horticulture produce to siphon off money from consumers, and these have adverse health effects directly or indirectly. Various regulatory agencies have launched various programs, acts and laws for monitoring and avoiding such unhealthy ways. Regulatory bodies launched training programs also for the food handlers and consumers to ensure the food safety from farm to fork.

This paper will throw light on different malpractices followed by retailers to manipulate the quality which causes adverse health effects and to create consumer awareness regarding such malpractices.

The paper emphasizes on current malpractices followed by retailers to mislead the consumers about fruits’ and vegetable’ quality by using sweeteners, colors and other chemical. On prolonged consumption, such substances lead to major health issues such as attention disorder.

Many corporate scandals that occurred recently have indicated the importance of a whistle-blowing mechanism in preventing fraud and malpractices from damaging the organizations. By selecting one organization that has experienced a corporate scandal, this study aims to examine factors that influence employee’s intention to blow the whistle to prevent malpractices in the company. In addition, this study also examines the perceptions of employees regarding the business culture in their organization and how this culture impacts their intention to whistle-blow.

This study engages in a mixed method of data collection, namely, survey questionnaire and interviews to gather the data.

It is found that retaliation is the most important factor that influences the employee’s intention to whistle-blow, followed by the burden to prove the malpractices, cost implications as a result of the wrongdoing and the action taken by the authority as a result of the fraud reporting. In terms of business culture, a large number of employees are reluctant to become a whistle-blower, although a secured and safe whistle-blowing mechanism is in place, indicating that Asian customs of collectivism and assertiveness play a major part in shaping the whistle-blowing mechanism in Malaysian organizations.

The results provide further confirmation of the determinants that influence employees to report wrongdoings in the organizations. This study however may subject to self-reported data biasness because of sensitivity of the research that related to fraud and immoral behaviours that occur in the company. Owing to this sensitivity, the study only focuses on employees’ internal whistle-blowing intentions rather than their actual intentions.

This study helps the management to understand the working culture in the company so that they can identify the weak area of governance which needs improvement such as whistle-blower protection.

This study is original, as it focuses on the employees in a big organization such as government link companies that have experienced corporate scandals albeit having whistle-blowing mechanism in place. In addition, the finding of this study contributes to the theory and body of the literature on the whistle-blowing determinants, currently scarce in the context of a developing country like Malaysia.

This paper analyzes the perception by researchers, public policy makers, and physicians that the medical malpractice system is in disarray and in need of reform. The perception of a medical malpractice crisis arose because of what was viewed as sudden and dramatic increases in physician liability for malpractice. Contrary to the common perception, however, previous research has shown that historical growth rates in physician liability are similar in magnitude to current growth rates. This paper focuses on explaining the conditions under which increased physician liability would be optimal. According to the theoretical model, increased physician liability would be optimal when (1) physicians become more adept at curing patients, especially by increased technological ability, (2) the costs of physicians' time increases, or (3) the cost to physicians of defending against malpractice claims decreases. The paper carefully examines the available historical evidence that indicates that these three reasons account for much of the increased liability of physicians in the United States. The finding that much of the historical increases in physician liability are consistent with the model, further questions the existence of a medical malpractice crisis.

Public reports of provider-specific patient outcomes aim to help consumers select suppliers of medical services. Yet, in an environment of rapidly changing medical technology and increasingly heterogeneous patient populations, and because they necessarily reflect the experience of other patients who received care in the past, such reports may be of limited value in helping patients forecast the probability of an adverse outcome for each provider they are considering. I propose that providers underwrite insurance policies that promptly pay patients a predetermined sum after an adverse outcome. Patients can use such outcome warranties to infer quality differences among providers easily and reliably. In addition, outcome warranties efficiently reward both providers and patients for reducing the risk of adverse outcomes and thereby improve the safety and affordability of health care. As such, outcome warranties help advance four important goals of health care management: reduction of financial risk, recruitment and retention of physicians, remediation of adverse outcomes, and raising the provider's reputation.

Given the popularity of online video recipes, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential communication of food safety malpractices in YouTube video recipes.

Content analysis of purposively sampled, high-risk chicken salad video recipes (n = 38) using an observational checklist was undertaken. The checklist was based upon the requirements of the Partnership for Food Safety Education “Safe Recipe Style Guide”, which was annotated with visual and verbal communication of food safety practices being “best practice”, “inadequate” or “absent”.

None of the observed video recipes showed visual handwashing at the start of the recipe. Furthermore, there was a distinct lack of visual communication of handwashing during the video recipes.

The lack of visual and verbal food safety communications within video recipes indicates a failure to adequately inform consumers of risks and safeguarding practices.

Previous research has focussed on communication of food safety practices in broadcasted television cookery programmes and published recipe books; this research extends consumer foods safety research to include resources commonly used by consumers to obtain meal inspiration. To date, this is the first study that has utilised the “Safe recipe style guide” as a tool to assess inclusion of food safety messages.

In line with the current literature, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of whistleblowing procedures and their influence on overall organisational quality. To this end, institutional, organisational, and cultural barriers to whistleblowing implementation have been investigated.

A qualitative analysis based on three explorative case studies investigates and compares different whistleblowing practices implemented in health care organisations, operating within the Italian National Health Service (INHS).

INHS organisations have implemented whistleblowing procedures in different ways, despite the fact that the procedures are laid down by law. These differences are mainly due to cultural, administrative, organisational, and process barriers, which have a deep impact on whistleblowing integration in managerial practices and their influence on the overall quality of health processes and services.

This research paper was limited by the analysis of three Italian public health care organisations, which did not allow the generalisability of findings. Therefore, the study offers interesting insights on the way effective whistleblowing systems should be implemented in order to support managers to improve organisation’s management and service quality.

The paper represents one of the first attempts to structurally analyse the practice of whistleblowing in an Italian healthcare system. Therefore the study has mainly focussed not only on the analysis of whistleblowing practices, but also on their impacts on the improvement of organisational processes’ quality and, subsequently, on social well-being.

Whilst the criminal justice system has evolved over the last seven years, it can be argued that the ability of the current criminal justice system in England and Wales to deal with the investigation, prosecution and trial of serious and complex fraud can still be challenged. Using material gathered whilst undertaking research for the Diploma in Compliance Studies at Exeter University, this paper makes a number of recommendations in this context. The existence of civil remedies and the regulatory structure created under the Financial Services Act 1986 may offer a limited opportunity to deal with some categories of commercial malpractice in an expedient and cost‐effective manner, outside the scope of the criminal justice system. This paper derives from research carried out with the purpose of reviewing the investigation, prosecution and trial of serious fraud in England and Wales in order to assess whether commercial malpractice is in fact a proper subject for ‘public law’, or whether it could be more effectively and expediently dealt with through civil law remedies, or by the self‐regulatory agencies created under the Financial Services Act 1986. This paper represents a summary of the main findings and interpretations of that research, which included interviews with three experts in the field. In considering this issue, one is bound in two ways. If one concludes that the criminal justice system can offer an effective and efficient method of the disposal of commercial fraud, the arguments for and against the use of the regulatory system become commensurably less significant. If, however, the conclusions suggest that major legislative and procedural changes are required to facilitate the effective and efficient prosecution of commercial fraud, the scope for use of regulatory sanctions where appropriate takes on a greater significance. Thus there are two elements in the writer's conclusion. First, there was concern to assess the veracity of the conclusions drawn by the Fraud Trials Committee in 1986 to the present, and other problems faced by the criminal justice system in the investigation, prosecution and trial of commercial fraud. Secondly, it was important to consider arguments for and against the use of regulatory sanctions for the disposal of commercial crime. The conclusions drawn from a review of the problems faced by the criminal justice system are, it is suggested, fundamental to the question of whether the increased use of regulatory sanctions is necessary, or desirable.