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1 – 10 of over 2000Alexandra Khoury, Mark Jones, Christopher Buckle, Mark Williamson and Guy Slater
Weekend surgery carries higher mortality than weekday surgery, with complications most commonly arising within the first 48 hours. There is a reduced ability to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
Weekend surgery carries higher mortality than weekday surgery, with complications most commonly arising within the first 48 hours. There is a reduced ability to identify complications at the weekend, with early signs going undetected in the absence of thorough early patient review, particularly in the elderly with multiple co-morbidities. Weekend working practices vary amongst UK hospitals and specialties. The weekend effect has been a prominent feature in the literature over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the number of patients undergoing weekend surgery who receive a Day 1 post-operative review and improve this outcome by implementing an effective change.
Design/methodology/approach
It was observed that not all patients undergoing surgery on a Friday or Saturday at the authors’ District General Hospital were receiving Day 1 post-operative review by a clinician. A retrospective audit was carried out to identify percentage of patients reviewed on post-operative Day 1 at the weekend. A change in handover practice was implemented before re-audit.
Findings
In Phase 1, 54 per cent of patients received Day 1 post-operative reviews at the weekend against a set standard of 100 per cent. A simple change to handover practice was implemented to improve patient safety in the immediate post-operative period resulting in 96 per cent of patients reviewed on Day 1 post-operatively at re-audit.
Originality/value
This study confirms that simple changes in handover practices can produce effective and translatable improvements to weekend working. This further contributes to the body of literature that acknowledges the existence of a weekend effect, but aims to evolve weekend working practices to accommodate improvement within current staffing and resource availability by maximising efficiency and communication.
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The purpose of this paper is to integrate mobile supply and demand on an economic basis and to model the economic value of additional data capacity, spectrum demand and data…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to integrate mobile supply and demand on an economic basis and to model the economic value of additional data capacity, spectrum demand and data growth under a range of parameter and policy assumptions.
Design/methodology/approach
The modelling requires an iterative solution to find an equilibrium between supply and demand, which allows data demand to be bootstrapped, i.e. determined endogenously within the model.
Findings
The sensitivity of the model to input parameter changes differs from a modelling approach where data demand is assumed to be exogenous, whilst in some instances, the sign of the relationship is reversed, e.g. the response of economic value to mobile site cost changes.
Research limitations/implications
The approach suggests a research agenda to estimate willingness to pay for data and the price elasticity of data demand, and may also suggest new explanatory variables to test econometrically in relation to spectrum value.
Practical implications
The approach provides a different route to spectrum valuation and allows estimation of the economic impacts of a range of policy questions.
Originality/value
This paper provides the integration of supply and demand and endogenous estimation of data demand and economic value, coupled with quantitative assessment of a range of policy questions.
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Summarises the presentations made at the UK Industrial Vision Association’s annual general meeting in September 1999, Nottiungham, UK, entitled “Innovations in illumination for…
Abstract
Summarises the presentations made at the UK Industrial Vision Association’s annual general meeting in September 1999, Nottiungham, UK, entitled “Innovations in illumination for machine vision”.
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David Lewin, Brian Williamson and Martin Cave
What rules, if any, should regulators put in place to provide incentives for timely and efficient investment in next generation fibre access networks (NGA) while, at the same…
Abstract
Purpose
What rules, if any, should regulators put in place to provide incentives for timely and efficient investment in next generation fibre access networks (NGA) while, at the same time, preventing monopoly abuse, either by taking monopoly rents from end users or harming downstream competition? This paper aims to focus on these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings in this paper are based on review of existing work in the area and on interviews with 25 operators and regulators across the European Union.
Findings
Active (bitstream) remedies will be important for preserving competition in the supply of retail, NGA‐based, products. Regulators should specify the price regulation principles, which would apply to operators found to have significant market power (SMP) in NGA supply in advance of any market definition and SMP assessment. Regulators should allow access providers to provide distinct NGA‐based bitstream products to meet the needs of different segments of the end‐user market and to then charge for these products at the wholesale level so as to reflect their value to end users rather than their costs.
Originality/value
This paper is designed to simulate general debate on the best way to regulate NGA
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Mark Toncar and Marc Fetscherin
This paper aims to investigate visual exaggerations of fragrance advertisements by comparing subjects' expectations resulting from print ads to their subsequent product…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate visual exaggerations of fragrance advertisements by comparing subjects' expectations resulting from print ads to their subsequent product evaluations. It then considers whether the actual scents fall short, meet or exceed these expectations.
Design/methodology/approach
By means of a semiotic analysis the authors capture the corresponding literary attributes of the ads to develop adjective pairs describing the meaning of the ads. Interviews are conducted to assess the meaning that consumers draw from the fragrance ads and the authors supplement these findings by performing a blind olfactory product evaluation of the fragrances. Paired sample t‐tests are used to compare subjects' ad expectations to their subsequent product evaluation of the actual scent.
Findings
These results show that the visual cues and imagery in the fragrance ads appear, under certain conditions, to result in product expectations that exceed actual product evaluations, suggesting the existence of visual puffery. The authors also found that the more abstract descriptors of the ad resulted in significantly higher expectations, while the more concrete descriptors resulted in significantly lower expectations than the actual product evaluation.
Research limitations/implications
A small sample size of homogenous consumers limits the generalizability of the results. No measures of attitude effectiveness were taken.
Practical implications
Visual puffery may be effective and help marketers, even in countries where verbal puffery is illegal, to use another means to reach consumers.
Originality/value
This paper investigates an under‐researched area in advertising. A multi‐method approach and primary data are used to assess subjects' ad expectations of a fragrance and the actual product evaluation and demonstrate the existence of visual puffery.
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Charles S. Englehardt and Peter R. Simmons
Strategic flexibility is an increasingly sought‐after competitive element in today’s fast‐paced and changing world. Theoretical discussion on how to achieve flexibility includes…
Abstract
Strategic flexibility is an increasingly sought‐after competitive element in today’s fast‐paced and changing world. Theoretical discussion on how to achieve flexibility includes, among other things, building dynamic capabilities, maintaining multiple options, and supporting horizontal communication and teamwork among employees. These and other aspects of flexibility can, in part, be supported through the organizational structure. Organizational theory offers a number of combinations of options for the designer. With a variety of choices, and a need to have both control of execution and flexibility for change, a two‐level structure may support the combination of benefits that is a source of advantage. Proposes that organizations can maintain their operational structure at one level, while experimenting with a loosely bounded developmental organizational layer. Suggests that this complementary organizational tier provides space and support for a combination of self‐development and self‐organized efforts consistent with established incentives and values.
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In this chapter, an overview of the trauma-informed approach is described. The background and context to trauma, its impact on the person, and organisational responses are…
Abstract
In this chapter, an overview of the trauma-informed approach is described. The background and context to trauma, its impact on the person, and organisational responses are considered. More specifically, I distinguish between trauma specific and non-specific organisations by defining the characteristic of each. This chapter sets the tone for the remainder of the book by introducing a conceptual model for both specific and non-specific trauma organisations. In order to do this, I outline the differential components that are deemed necessary for organisations to be trauma-responsive; in doing so, I introduce the Trauma Ecology Model to the literature, outlining its various components.
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