Estimating development cost of an interactive website based cancer screening promotion program

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to estimate the initial development costs for an innovative talk show format tailored intervention delivered via the interactive web, for increasing cancer screening in women 50–75 who were non-adherent to screening guidelines for colorectal cancer and/or breast cancer.MethodsThe cost of the intervention development was estimated from a societal perspective. Micro costing methods plus vendor contract costs were used to estimate cost. Staff logs were used to track personnel time. Non-personnel costs include all additional resources used to produce the intervention.ResultsDevelopment cost of the interactive web based intervention was $.39 million, of which 77% was direct cost. About 98% of the cost was incurred in personnel time cost, contract cost and overhead cost.ConclusionsThe new web-based disease prevention medium required substantial investment in health promotion and media specialist time. The development cost was primarily driven by the high level of human capital required. The cost of intervention development is important information for assessing and planning future public and private investments in web-based health promotion interventions.     

Uncertainty as a common ground for a dialogue between economics and sociology

The article focuses on inter-firm relations, primarily seen as protective devises crafted for keeping at an arm's length various kinds of uncertainties involved in boundary transactions. Taking a holistic view, it proposes the notion of relational habitat, which refers to the relatively durable constellation of relations that connect a given firm to its main business partners. Performing a double-edged protective function, this constellation both stabilizes and simplifies the immediate operational domain of the firm and, thereby, diminishes to manageable levels the complexity of the relevant parts of the environment. By expanding the control of the firm beyond its organizational borders, relational habitat reduces the constraining impact of boundary uncertainty and enhances the action capacity of the firm – facilitating the materialization of its chosen line of action and its desired objectives. The article specifies this notion in detail and highlights some of its implications, both for the theoretical development of economic sociology and for its relation to economics.     

Lean healthcare: review,classification and analysis of literature

This study presents a literature review of 107 papers on lean healthcare to evaluate its evolution by updating previous literature reviews and to propose a classification and analysis of the papers reviewed. The literature classification was performed based on six parameters: research method, country, healthcare area, implementation, lean tools and methods and results. From the analysis performed, this paper presents a quantitative analysis of the state of the art concerning lean healthcare and indicates current research trends, based on the stage of evolution of the area, that may guide further studies on the subject. An example is lean healthcare expansion to other countries, such as Brazil and the Netherlands. Another aspect is the application of lean healthcare in hospital as a whole, not limited to a specific setting. Finally, a few studies detail the lean implementation process and use infrequently applied tools, present the barriers and main critical factors found in the lean implementation.     

试论辅助生产费用的分配方法-计划成本法

在采用计划成本法分配辅助生产费用的基础上,计算计划成本差异率,用计划成本差异率把实际成本与计划成本的差异额分配到各受益对象,克服将辅助生产费用的实际成本与计划成本之间的计划成本差异额全部计入管理费用的做法。使之符合收入和费用相配比的原则,提高企业成本计算的准确程度。     

交易费用的节约--社会关系网络维度的解释

交易费用是新制度经济学解释企业的产生及其边界的一个重要范畴。而交易费用是怎样被节约的呢?本文提供了一个研究交易费用的节约的维度:社会关系网络。社会关系网络在企业的成长和运行中,是获取短缺资源的重要渠道,是减少在内部建立与实施制度的成本并降低道德风险的重要途径。同时,社会关系网络在协调企业与其他组织之间的关系以及劳动力市场的运行中也发挥着重要作用。     

More Large Accidents Through Complexity

Many would tend to characterize modern society as steeped in complexity. This complexity is seen by a number of professional people to imply risk-taking--or risk-making--on a high level. "A single mistake may give consequences of quite different proportions from earlier times," as one critic puts it. This hypothesis of increasing risks on a high level--of worst things getting worse--has been tested on fires in Sweden. Fire has always been a powerfully upsetting agent to the social fabric. Today industrial fires dominate the picture economically. The cost of industrial fires is about three times the cost of residential fires in Sweden. It is of interest to note that the damage cost of the worst fires (as measured in insurance payments) does not form an increasing part of overall fire damage costs, as one would expect from the above hypothesis. Whether the hypothesis holds with regard to indirect costs due to production stand-still is more uncertain. We can conclude that the potential of complexity to create large abnormal occurrences may have been somewhat prematurely announced--at least with regard to fires in Sweden.     

Costs and Financing of Maritime Education and Training in Europe: Analysis and Policy Implications

The paper reports some findings of an extensive European research project carried out on costs and funds of MET (maritime education and training) systems. The need to improve the quality of the European MET systems is a relevant political and scientific issue which strongly impacts the competitiveness of the shipping sector in Europe. However, MET is quite an expensive ET system since it requires high investments and incurs in high running costs. The situation is also acerbated by the decreasing number of students at MET institutions. There is then the need of having a closer look at the financial aspects of MET so as to come up with some policy recommendations for improving the current situation in terms of optimal use of resources. In the paper a questionnaire-based methodology is employed aiming at identifying and analyzing different cost and funds structures of MET institutions in Europe (cost models). Then, by considering some policy-sensitive variables of the cost models, some policy recommendations are drawn up to improve the efficiency of current systems. They basically refer to the need to concentrate and integrate resources in order to exploit some degree of economies of scale, on top of achieving some economies of scope and pursuing quality in MET. Finally, further lines of research are indicated.     

石油天然气生产企业DR＆A成本的会计核算

2001年6月,美国财务会计准则委员会(FASB)发布了SFAS NO.143———资产报废债务会计。该准则的发布与实施将对石油天然气生产企业油气资产报废所涉及的拆卸、恢复和废弃成本(DR&A成本)的会计处理实务产生重大影响,将导致其会计核算方法的重大变革。SFAS NO.143的实施将消除因采用SFAS NO.19而造成的资产报废债务在财务报告中披露不一现象,为财务报告使用人提供更为客观而且可比的财务信息。     

产品质量信号与企业融资成本的相关性研究

以“中国企业-雇员匹配调查”（CEES）数据库中2014年的数据为样本,利用多元线性回归方法,研究我国制造业企业的产品质量信号,是否与其融资成本存在相关关系。研究以通过问卷调查所获得的企业融资成本数据作为因变量,以企业通过质量管理体系认证、是否获得国际市场准入和自有品牌数量作为自变量,来反映企业的产品质量信号传递状态。研究发现,在控制抵押物规模、杠杆率、固定资产周转率、董事会治理结构等因素的条件下,品牌信号与企业融资成本间存在显著的正相关关系,原因在于产品质量信号传递的低效,以及信号传递机制的失灵。     

A Hybrid Methodology for Modeling Risk of Adverse Events in Complex Health‐Care Settings

In spite of increased attention to quality and efforts to provide safe medical care, adverse events (AEs) are still frequent in clinical practice. Reports from various sources indicate that a substantial number of hospitalized patients suffer treatment‐caused injuries while in the hospital. While risk cannot be entirely eliminated from health‐care activities, an important goal is to develop effective and durable mitigation strategies to render the system “safer.” In order to do this, though, we must develop models that comprehensively and realistically characterize the risk. In the health‐care domain, this can be extremely challenging due to the wide variability in the way that health‐care processes and interventions are executed and also due to the dynamic nature of risk in this particular domain. In this study, we have developed a generic methodology for evaluating dynamic changes in AE risk in acute care hospitals as a function of organizational and nonorganizational factors, using a combination of modeling formalisms. First, a system dynamics (SD) framework is used to demonstrate how organizational‐level and policy‐level contributions to risk evolve over time, and how policies and decisions may affect the general system‐level contribution to AE risk. It also captures the feedback of organizational factors and decisions over time and the nonlinearities in these feedback effects. SD is a popular approach to understanding the behavior of complex social and economic systems. It is a simulation‐based, differential equation modeling tool that is widely used in situations where the formal model is complex and an analytical solution is very difficult to obtain. Second, a Bayesian belief network (BBN) framework is used to represent patient‐level factors and also physician‐level decisions and factors in the management of an individual patient, which contribute to the risk of hospital‐acquired AE. BBNs are networks of probabilities that can capture probabilistic relations between variables and contain historical information about their relationship, and are powerful tools for modeling causes and effects in many domains. The model is intended to support hospital decisions with regard to staffing, length of stay, and investments in safety, which evolve dynamically over time. The methodology has been applied in modeling the two types of common AEs: pressure ulcers and vascular‐catheter‐associated infection, and the models have been validated with eight years of clinical data and use of expert opinion.