Psycho-social impacts of terrorism and organized crime: The counterfinality of the practico-inert

The phrase, the counterfinality of the practico-inert is from Sartre with reference to implications of modern technology as a shorthand for that enormous properly human and anti-natural power of dead human labor stored up in our machinery — an alienated power, which turns back on and against us in unrecognizable forms and can symbolize the massive dystopian horizon of organized crime as well as individual terrorist praxis (Jean-Paul Sartre (1948).Situations II. Paris: Gallimard).     

How to fire a physician

How does one fire a physician? In a word, carefully! Most of the legal protections for other employees apply just as well to physicians. And physicians have access to an expanded realm of protections because of the nature of their profession and because of its role in the health care delivery system. The ordinary employee cannot raise antitrust; the fired physician may very well raise just that issue. And yet the need to terminate a physician will sometimes, even though rarely, occur. How can the organization be certain that it has treated the physician fairly, has documented any and all offenses in a defensible fashion, and has generally followed accepted practices in all aspects of dealing with the physician? The author provides some guidelines for dealing with the problem or the incompetent physician.     

Keeping the "care" in managed care: the importance of the therapeutic relationship and psychosocial factors in the managed care setting

There is much truth in the adage that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Nowhere does this seem more apparent than in health care where, amidst monumental reconfiguration, basic foundations of physician-patient relationships and attention to the impact of psychosocial factors on health and health care delivery remain as critical influences. While the importance of the therapeutic relationship and the influence of psychosocial factors in medical care has been clear in traditional systems of delivery, these factors may be even more critical in managed care systems. These emphases must be incorporated by design, however, and not left to default.     

Bringing Business into Sociotechnical Theory and Practice

Current developments in the sociotechnical framework address a number of vital issues that failed to occupy the high ground in its formative years. These include: (i) the purpose of the systems, to create customer value under social and resource constraints, (ii) the context or external business environment, and (iii) the dynamics of the sociotechnical system. Due attention to the dominant issues of purpose, context, and their dynamics make it more meaningful to speak of sociotechnical business systems (STBS) and organizational learning instead of sociotechnical systems (STS) and individual learning. In STBS each unit in an organization has business responsibilities and goal-based couplings with its environment and focuses on the creation of customer value. The implications of this shift from STS to STBS are discussed and illustrated with current research and two summary case studies.     

Occupational status and mobility among undocumented immigrants by gender

Immigration has long been a national and state concern. The 1989 Legalized Population Survey (LPS-1) collected data on illegal immigrants to the US who subsequently became legalized aliens under the provisions of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. These data are used in a study assessing whether undocumented male and female immigrants improve their earnings and occupational status over time and the extent of variation in occupational status and mobility by gender and region. The data indicate that both undocumented men and women, on average, improved their earnings and occupational status between their first jobs in the US and their jobs just before applying for legalization under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. However, the earnings, occupational status, and occupational mobility of men were greater than for women.     

A tobacco and alcohol use profile of San Francisco's Chinese community

Relatively little is known about Asian American tobacco and alcohol use patterns. This is particularly true of Chinese living in the United States--either U.S.-born or non-U.S.-born Chinese. This article presents data from a research project studying tobacco and alcohol use patterns in San Francisco's Chinese community. Data were secured both from focus groups and a self-report telephone survey of a random sample of 1,808 Chinese residents in San Francisco. This results indicate that the prevalence of both tobacco and alcohol use is lower for San Francisco's Chinese population than for the general population. Moreover, those persons who report smoking tend to be different from those who report consuming alcohol. The study concludes that specific, culturally relevant tobacco and alcohol prevention programs should be designed to better reach this target population.     

Quality. A tightrope for the '90s

How accurately can you measure quality of care in health care? Recently, HMOs and other types of managed care organizations have been in the process of defining quality in quantitative terms. Physicians who utilize fewer resources and who care for more patients per-unit-of-time are valued as providing better care than colleagues who may work at a slower (more expensive?) pace. The pressure to evaluate or treat greater numbers of patients in shorter periods of time can produce adverse consequences. And numbers do not necessarily take into account the quality of the care delivered. There is clearly a middle road. Physicians must take care of a sufficient number of patients with a given problem to gain and maintain expertise and mastery. But they must also guard against the insidious pressure for the procedure to become the end in itself.     

The medical practice as business organization

Medical practices historically have not been examined in terms of their organizational structures and of the appropriateness of their structures for survival as business entities. In this paper, we propose a model for the typical medical practice and discuss its fit with current organizational theory. It is apparent that the medical practice organization does not fit with the demands of a rapidly changing and complex environment. To survive and grow, the medical practice organization must align itself with others that have an interest and stake in the health care system, develop teamwork among physicians, bridge the gap between physicians and others in the organization, and recognize that the work done in the organization depends on other components of the organization.     

Mandatory seat belt laws in the states. A study of fatal and severe occupant injuries

This study examines the impact of mandatory seat belt laws on fatal and incapacitating injury rates in the states. Annual data for all 50 states for the period 1975-1991 are used. Pooled time series analysis is employed. The general conclusion that emerges from this analysis is that seat belt laws significantly impact state fatal injury rates. Primary enforcement and all-seat coverage provisions appear to be particularly effective in reducing fatality rates.