Search results
1 – 10 of over 83000Nikolaos Efstathiou, Anna Lock, Suha Ahmed, Linda Parkes, Tammy Davies and Susan Law
Following the development of a service that consisted of a “single point of contact” to coordinate end-of-life care (EoLC), including EoLC facilitators and an urgent response…
Abstract
Purpose
Following the development of a service that consisted of a “single point of contact” to coordinate end-of-life care (EoLC), including EoLC facilitators and an urgent response team, we aimed to explore whether the provision of coordinated EoLC would support patients being cared or dying in their preferred place and avoid unwanted hospital admissions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a realist evaluation approach, the authors examined “what worked for whom, how, in what circumstances and why”. Multiple data were collected, including activity/performance indicators, observations of management meetings, documents, satisfaction survey and 30 interviews with service providers and users.
Findings
Advance care planning (ACP) increased through the first three years of the service (from 45% to 83%) and on average 74% of patients achieved preferred place of death. More than 70% of patients avoided an emergency or unplanned hospital admission in their last month of life. The mechanisms and context identified as driving forces of the service included: 7/7 single point of contact; coordinating services across providers; recruiting and developing the workforce; understanding and clarifying new roles; and managing expectations.
Research limitations/implications
This was a service evaluation and the outcomes are related to the specific context and mechanisms. However, findings can be transferable to similar settings.
Practical implications
“Single point of contact” services that offer coordinated EoLC can contribute in supporting people to be cared and die in their preferred place.
Originality/value
This paper provides an evaluation of a novel approach to EoLC and creates a set of hypotheses that could be further tested in similar services in the future.
Details
Keywords
The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the…
Abstract
The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that revisions occur to the research question, method, theory, and context as an integral part of the research process.
Changes within networks receive less research attention, although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions. This study analyzes changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The study develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalization for comparing perceptions of change, where the study introduces a template model of dottograms to systematically analyze differences in perceptions. The study then applies the model to analyze findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the chapter provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.
The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and across-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is the suggestion that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position to gain access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and the network change that has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.
Another major contribution of the study is the analysis of the role that network pictures play in actors' efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far, the relevant literature discusses network pictures mainly as a theoretical concept. Finally, the chapter concludes with important implications for management practice.
Details
Keywords
When simulating the behaviour of granular assemblies and multi‐body systems using a discrete element analysis, the shape representation of the bodies and the contact detection…
Abstract
When simulating the behaviour of granular assemblies and multi‐body systems using a discrete element analysis, the shape representation of the bodies and the contact detection algorithm greatly influence the flexibility, accuracy and efficiency of the simulation. Several geometrical shape descriptors of two and three dimensional arbitrary rigid bodies are reviewed and a flexible 3‐D descriptor introduced. The aim is to identify appropriate shape descriptors which allow a variety of types of bodies to be investigated while ensuring accurate and efficient detection of inter‐particle contacts. Polygons/polyhedrons, and continuous and discrete function representations are examined. The investigation favours discrete representations due to their efficiency and flexibility, but illustrates the elegance and efficiency of using a continuous function representation, e.g. a superquadric, to generate the discrete representation and simplify the contact detection process.
Details
Keywords
Nick Antonopoulos and James Salter
Presents a new model for resource discovery in grids and peer‐to‐peer networks designed to utilise efficiently small numbers of messages for query processing and building of the…
Abstract
Presents a new model for resource discovery in grids and peer‐to‐peer networks designed to utilise efficiently small numbers of messages for query processing and building of the network. Outlines and evaluates the model through a theoretical comparison with other resource discovery systems and a mathematical analysis of the number of messages utilised in contrast with Chord, a distributed hash table. Shows that through careful setting of parameter values the model is able to provide responses to queries and node addition in fewer messages than Chord. The model is shown to have significant benefits over other peer‐to‐peer networks reviewed. Uses a case study to show the applicability of the model as a methodology for building resource discovery systems in peer‐to‐peer networks using different underlying structures. Shows a promising new method of creating a resource discovery system by building a timeline structure on demand, which will be of interest to both researchers and system implementers in the fields of grid computing, peer‐to‐peer networks and distributed resource discovery in general.
Details
Keywords
Melanie Crass and Martin Munro
Explains that considerable recent publicity has been given to the claim that around 70 per cent of business process re‐engineering exercises are unsuccessful, mainly because of…
Abstract
Explains that considerable recent publicity has been given to the claim that around 70 per cent of business process re‐engineering exercises are unsuccessful, mainly because of failure to take human factors into account. Outlines the work undertaken in a single specialist surgical service, within an acute services National Health Service Trust, and the outcomes achieved. Suggests that there are points arising from the project to be learned both by the Trust and by other health‐care employers contemplating similar exercises: in particular, deciding objectives; the preparation undertaken prior to the project; and detailed post‐implementation benefit analysis.
Details
Keywords
The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities…
Abstract
The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.
Walfried M. Lassar, Chris Manolis and Robert D. Winsor
Examines the effects of service quality on customer satisfaction from two distinct methodological perspectives. Specifically, a study utilizing a sample of international private…
Abstract
Examines the effects of service quality on customer satisfaction from two distinct methodological perspectives. Specifically, a study utilizing a sample of international private banking customers is conducted wherein service quality is operationalized via two distinct and well‐known measures – SERVQUAL and Technical/Functional Quality. These two service quality measures are subsequently compared and contrasted as to their ability to predict customer satisfaction. To further assess the validity of these findings, two moderators of the service‐quality/customer‐satisfaction relationship are introduced and evaluated. Finally, this research examines the potential utility of employing separate measures for customer satisfaction from the perspectives of both technical and functional aspects of the service delivery process. Overall, our findings are of importance to service managers as they strive to identify efficient and effective approaches for improving quality. The paper explores the theoretical and practical insights of the findings, including potential strengths and limitations of current service quality models with regard to their ability to define and explain the quality/satisfaction relationship.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to identify the value and benefits from newly developed relationships between the University of Alberta Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Department and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the value and benefits from newly developed relationships between the University of Alberta Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Department and other institutions through the delivery of new services.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a descriptive review of the new services provided, including a centralized interlibrary loan service for members of the NEOS Consortium and an article delivery service for Can Tho University Library (Vietnam), an overview of the implementation of the services and a discussion of the value and benefits created.
Findings
A single-point of intake for interlibrary loan requests for a group of academic libraries can be implemented successfully with few drawbacks, providing benefits to all the participants. An article delivery service to an institution that provides no interlibrary loan services provides value through access to new resources and demonstrates not to be a burden on the provider; yet, this paper demonstrates that the primary value is in learning about their patrons’ needs.
Practical implications
Other institutions could replicate these services and relationships.
Originality/value
Single-point of intake for interlibrary loan in academic consortial environments has neither been demonstrated in the literature nor has any component of interlibrary loan been described to support international initiatives to assist libraries in disadvantaged countries.
Details
Keywords
This paper reviews, rethinks, expands and applies the author's ‘laws’ of integration, which were first published six years ago. This approach both introduces the laws to readers…
Abstract
This paper reviews, rethinks, expands and applies the author's ‘laws’ of integration, which were first published six years ago. This approach both introduces the laws to readers who don't know them, and tests their utility for those who do. In retrospect, real‐world integration efforts mix and match the original components of linkage, co‐ordination and full integration. But the message remains to work at all levels, keep it simple, make finances supportive and empower social care.
Details