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Discharge planning home visits (DPHVs) are a routine part of occupational therapy clinical practice. However, there is a dearth of evidence to support or refute their efficacy and limited policies or standards to guide clinical practice. This study aims to investigate current clinical practice during home visits and the value that occupational therapists’ attribute to home visits within an Irish context.

Data collection was carried out by using a survey questionnaire (postal and electronic options). The study population comprised occupational therapists across 52 sites including acute, rehabilitation and convalescence settings within the Republic of Ireland. In total, 122 occupational therapists that completed the survey questionnaire were recruited for the study.

Quantitative data identified time spent per visit, departmental size, hospital size, number of visits and report writing times. Information was gathered regarding clinical areas assessed during visits in a Likert scale format. Qualitative data identified benefits, risks, recommendations to improve home visit practice and clinical criteria for home visits. Findings conclude that DPHVs are routinely carried out by occupational therapists and that there is consistency in clinical practice within an Irish setting. Occupational therapists value home visits as clinical assessments and have identified risks during practice, benefits of visits and ways to improve practice.

This study has provided a reflection of clinical practice in the Republic of Ireland. It is the only study of its kind in an Irish setting, and it could be used as a knowledge base regarding current practice on DPHV and occupational therapists’ clinical reasoning regarding home visits. The information gathered in this study could influence policies regarding DPHV and could serve as a comparison to standardise practice and justify the need for DPHV.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the inbound and outbound medical tourism in the UK to determine if the UK can be considered as a net exporter of health services as well as the impact of the 2007 global economic crisis, diaspora populations and the number of UK expats on medical tourism figures.

Using microdata drawn from the International Passenger Survey (2000-2016), the authors estimate the flows, number of nights and expenditure of tourists looking for medical treatment who complete international visits of less than 12 months’ duration to and from the UK. The authors also analyse the main destinations of UK residents, the country of origin of overseas residents and the particular case of British expats.

The results show the upward trend of inbound and outbound patients, the strong seasonality in outbound patients, and the significant increase in the levels of expenditure of overseas residents since 2005. Poland, France, Hungary and India are the chosen countries by UK residents to be treated, whereas Irish Republic, Spain, France, Gibraltar and the United Arab Emirates are the main countries providing inbound health patients. However, the processes of migration explain full or partly the inbound and outbound flows found for some countries.

This study offers a critical insight into inbound and outbound medical flows, demonstrating both the scope for and limitations to market development in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the marketization of domiciliary care, its consequences for employment practice, specifically fragmented time, and the implications for care quality.

Focus groups and face-to-face or telephone interviews were conducted with care commissioners, service providers and care workers across Wales. There were 113 participants in total.

These demonstrate fragmented time’s negative consequences for service providers, care workers and, ultimately, care quality.

No care recipients were interviewed and care quality was explored through the perceptions of other stakeholders.

For policy makers, tensions are evidenced between aspirations for high-quality care and commissioning practice that mitigates against it. Current care commissioning practices need urgent review.

The research extends the definition of fragmented time and integrates with a model of care quality to demonstrate its negative consequences. Links between employment practice and care quality have only previously been hinted at.

The purpose of this paper is to detect the determinants of cruise tourists’ expenditure level during their visits to an emergent Mediterranean port city. The article also aims to discuss its findings and contrast them with previous similar studies in other territorial contexts.

The study is based on surveys conducted on 1,010 cruise tourists that visited the city of Tarragona (Catalonia) during 2017. An ordered logit model is implemented to measure the impact of different variables related to the tourists’ characteristics and their activities developed at the destination.

Results underline diverse significant influences of multiple factors on the expenditures, such as the travel party, the age of the visitors, the length of stay and the tourists’ activities in the city. Although no incidence has been detected of variables related to the satisfaction with the visit of the cruise passengers in general, a positive association has been identified for those cruise passengers travelling on super-sized ships.

This study tests the effect of different variables that the literature pinpointed as determinants of the cruise tourists’ expenditures as well as other variables that have been underexplored in existing studies. The findings of this article are of special value for public and private organisations to optimally manage and market cruise tourism and boost the local economic impact.

本文的主要目的是研究游轮游客在地中海某新兴港口城市旅游期间支出水平的决定因素。同时, 本文也对研究结果进行了探讨, 并将其与以往在其他区域背景下的类似研究进行对比。

本研究对1010名游轮游客进行了调查, 这些游客在2017年访问了塔拉戈纳（加泰罗尼亚）。随后, 通过运用有序逻辑模型, 对涉及旅游目的地的游客特征及其旅游活动的不同变量的影响进行了衡量。

研究结果表明, 旅行团体规模、游客年龄、停留时间和游客的城市活动等多种因素对旅游支出有着不同程度的显著影响。尽管本研究未检测到与游轮游客的总体访问满意度相关的变量, 但在大型游船上的游轮游客中, 检测出了积极的相关关系。

本研究检验了现有文献提出的不同变量, 以及文献中尚未充分探讨的其他变量对游轮游客支出的影响。本研究的成果对公共和私人组织进行游轮旅游的优化管理和市场营销, 以及提高地方的经济影响力的实践具有特殊的价值。

邮轮旅游，巡洋舰，塔拉戈纳，游客的支出

研究论文

El objetivo principal de este artículo es detectar los determinantes del nivel de gasto económico de los turistas de cruceros durante sus visitas en una ciudad portuaria emergente y mediterránea. El artículo también pretende discutir sus hallazgos y contrastarlos con estudios similares realizados previamente enotros contextos territoriales.

El estudio se basa en encuestas realizadas a 1.010 turistas de cruceros que visitaron la ciudad de Tarragona (Catalunya) durante 2017. Se ha implementado un modelo logit ordenado, para medir el impacto de diferentes variables relacionadas con las características de los turistas y sus actividades desarrolladas en el destino.

Los resultados subrayan diversas influencias significativas de múltiples factores sobre los gastos económicos de los turistas de cruceros, como el tamaño del grupo de viaje, la edad de los visitantes, la duración de la estancia y las actividades desarrolladas en la ciudad. Aunque en general no se ha detectado ninguna incidencia de variables relacionadas con la satisfacción con la visita a la ciudad, se ha identificado una asociación positiva para los pasajeros de cruceros que viajan en barcos de gran tamaño.

Este estudio prueba el efecto de diferentes variables que la literatura existente ha identificado como determinantes del gasto económico de los turistas de cruceros, así como otras variables no exploradas previamente. Los hallazgos de este trabajo son de especial valor para las organizaciones públicas y privadas para administrar y comercializar de manera óptima el turismo de cruceros e impulsar el impacto económico local.

Turismo de cruceros, cruceros, Tarragona, gasto turístico

In Kenya, gaps exist in health service provision to slum residents, especially service availability and access to quality care. There is also little information on the health status of people living in slums other than in Nairobi. The purpose of this paper is to generate evidence for use in designing interventions to improve health services in four mid-sized slums in Embu, Nyeri and Thika, Kenya.

A cross-sectional survey of clients receiving services in health facilities was conducted in the targeted slums. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. Factor scores were generated using the Rasch model; simple and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done using the R statistical software.

Overall, 81 per cent of the 203 participants reported being satisfied with health services. Most clients (89 per cent) reported that health facility staff greeted them warmly; 82 per cent said their consultation was private. The facility type, waiting time and client experience with service providers determined their satisfaction (p < 0.05).

Healthcare managers can improve client satisfaction levels by understanding the client flow in their facilities and addressing causes of client dissatisfaction, such as long waiting times, while at the same time promoting facilitating factors.

The authors use latent variable modelling to compute client satisfaction scores, which were dichotomised into two categories and fitted into a logistic regression model to identify factors that influence client satisfaction. Health facility clients in the four slums are satisfied with services and have confidence the providers will serve them in a friendly and professional manner that promotes respect and quality care. The paper recommend healthcare managers in similar settings carry out client flow analysis and institute remedial measures to address long waiting times. Qualitative studies are recommended to determine the reasons behind the high satisfaction levels reported in this study.

Over the past two decades, online booking has become a predominant distribution channel of tourism products. As online sales have become more important, understanding booking conversion behavior remains a critical topic in the tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to model airline search and booking activities of anonymous visitors.

This study proposes a stochastic approach to explicitly model dynamics of airline customers’ search, revisit and booking activities. A Markov chain model simultaneously captures transition probabilities and the timing of search, revisit and booking decisions. The suggested model is demonstrated on clickstream data from an airline booking website.

Empirical results show that low prices (captured as discount rates) lead to not only booking propensities but also overall stickiness to a website, increasing search and revisit probabilities. From the decision timing of search and revisit activities, the author observes customers’ learning effect on browsing time and heterogeneous intentions of website visits.

This study presents both theoretical and managerial implications of online search and booking behavior for airline and tourism marketing. The dynamic Markov chain model provides a systematic framework to predict online search, revisit and booking conversion and the time of the online activities.

A wetland is a place of tourist attraction, and tourism values play a key role in economic development. Among various services provided by a wetland, recreational services are increasingly valuable in the tourism sector. This paper aims to unfold the potential recreational values of the Dal Lake in Jammu and Kashmir, India.

The study uses individual travel cost methods (TCMs) and assesses its impact on regional development in terms of income and employment generation. A sample of 200 tourists is selected through an on-site survey on Dal Lake, and the demand for recreational visits and its value is estimated by employing the truncated Poisson regression model (TPRM) and un-truncated Poisson regression model (UTPRM). The consumers' surplus is estimated and tourists' benefit to visiting the wetland is explored.

On average, estimated consumers' surplus per visitor is Rs 6,250 (US$96.15) and Rs 25,000 (US$384.61) from respective models. The annual total recreational value of the lake is accounted for Rs 1713m (US$ 26m). This high consumer surplus (CS) and recreational values of the lake indicate large demand for its recreational facilities.

The study is based on primary data and thus, is original. The paper has implications for the policymakers to formulate sustainable management plans for the proper use of Dal Lake and tourism development.

The purpose of the study is to dive into various binge-watching habits of Netflix users amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers find themselves amidst the COVID-19 lockdown with more free time to indulge in these viewing habits. This study investigates motivational factors, amount of media consumption and negative attributes associated with binge-watching on Netflix during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study has employed an exploratory research design and obtained primary data via an online survey using a semistructured questionnaire. Convenience sampling has been used to choose a sample (n = 105) of Netflix binge-watchers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both sample selection and survey administration have been done through social media messaging services owing to the COVID-19 lockdown measures.

The results indicate that most of the respondents use smartphones for binge-watching on Netflix. Moreover, they have expressed that a wide range of shows available on Netflix incline them to engage in marathon viewing. However, the respondents spend just over 70 h per month binge-watching on Netflix. Finally, the majority of respondents have flagged “one more episode” syndrome as the most challenging aspect of being marathon viewers on Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is one of the few papers to exclusively focus on the impacts of binge-watching on Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings will originate the value with novelty and important implications to the Netflix consumers, telecom service providers and payment gateways.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how inspection team members work together to conduct surveys of hospitals, the challenges teams may face and how these might be addressed.

Data were gathered through an evaluation of a new regulatory model for acute hospitals in England, implemented by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during 2013-2014. The authors interviewed key stakeholders, observed inspections and surveyed and interviewed inspection team members and hospital staff. Common characteristics of temporary teams provided an analytical framework.

The temporary nature of the inspection teams hindered the conduct of some inspection activities, despite the presence of organisational citizenship behaviours. In a minority of sub-teams, there were tensions between CQC employed inspectors, healthcare professionals, lay people and CQC data analysts. Membership changes were infrequent and did not appear to inhibit team functioning, with members displaying high commitment. Although there were leadership authority ambiguities, these were not problematic. Existing processes of recruitment and selection, training and preparation and to some extent leadership, did not particularly lend themselves to addressing the challenges arising from the temporary nature of the teams.

Conducting the research during the piloting of the new regulatory approach may have accentuated some challenges. There is scope for further research on inspection team leadership.

Issues may arise if inspection and accreditation agencies deploy temporary, heterogeneous survey teams.

This research is the first to illuminate the functioning of inspection survey teams by applying a temporary teams perspective.

Over 8 per cent of the Dutch nursing home population is bedfast, and this number is slowly increasing. The quality of life (QoL) of this population is lower than that of residents who are still mobile. Little research has been conducted on how to improve the QoL of this bedfast population, particularly through making technological adjustments to the bed and the direct surroundings. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the QoL of bedfast residents and how to improve this through technology.

A mixed-method multi-case study with thematic analysis was conducted in two nursing homes with seven participants based on semi-structured interviews and Short Form-12 questionnaire.

The major causes of the experienced low QoL were the limited opportunities for engaging in social contacts with others, and coping with the dependency on other people and having limited control. Participants suggested improvements of QoL through the application of modern communication technologies to engage in social contacts and to control the bed itself and environment around the bed.

The results may help improve the design of the bed and the direct environment in order to improve the QoL of bedfast nursing home residents.

The QoL of bedfast nursing home residents has not been studied before in relation to the bed itself and technological solutions that may help improve the QoL and level of control.