Implementing a knowledge management system within an NHS hospital:a case study exploring the roll-out of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR)

This research aims to contribute to understanding the implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) in the field of health through a case study, leading to theory building and theory extension. We use the concept of the business process approach to knowledge management as a theoretical lens to analyse and explore how a large teaching hospital developed, executed and practically implemented a KMS. A qualitative study was conducted over a 2.5 year period with data collected from semi-structured interviews with eight members of the strategic management team, 12 clinical users and 20 patients in addition to non-participant observation of meetings and documents. The theoretical propositions strategy was used as the overarching approach for data analysis. Our case study provides evidence that true patient centred approaches to supporting care delivery with a KMS benefit from process thinking at both the planning and implementation stages, and an emphasis on the knowledge demands resulting from: the activities along the care pathways; where cross-overs in care occur; and knowledge sharing for the integration of care. The findings also suggest that despite the theoretical awareness of KMS implementation methodologies, the actual execution of such systems requires practice and learning. Flexible, fluid approaches through rehearsal are important and communications strategies should focus heavily on transparency incorporating both structured and unstructured communication methods.

Mitől zöld egy vállalat - avagy mit is jelent a jó környezeti teljesítmény? (What makes a company green – or what does good environmental performance mean?)

A vállalati teljesítmény megítélésénél egyre nagyobb hangsúlyt kap a környezeti teljesítmény vizsgálata. Nem egyértelmű ugyanakkor, mit is jelent a jó környezeti teljesítmény: egyesek például a szennyezőanyagkibocsátás csökkentését, míg mások egy környezetirányítási rendszer bevezetését értik alatta. Az eltérések miatt sokszor nem kapunk hiteles információt arról, vajon a környezetileg jól teljesítő vállalatok versenytársaiknál sikeresebbek-e vagy se m. A szerző a cikkben kísérletet tesz egy a környezeti teljesítmény átfogó értelmezésére szolgáló modell felállítására, amely lehetőséget biztosít a vállalati és a környezeti teljesítmény kapcsolatának pontosabb megismerésére és így jobb vállalati döntések meghozatalára. _________ When evaluating corporate performance, more and more emphasis is put on the assessment of environmental performance as well. It is not obvious however, what good environmental performance means: some researchers interpret it for example as decreasing environmental load while others as introducing an environmental management system. These differences in many cases lead to contradictory conclusions, whether environmentally good companies would outperform their competitors in other fields as well. In the article the author attempts to build a model for interpreting the concept of environmental performance, enabling more exact analysis of the relationship between company and environmental performance, and so making better company decisions.

Evaluation of corporate environmental management approaches: A framework and application

This article proposes a framework to evaluate corporate environmental strategies. In the proposed framework, a company's environmental risks are analyzed on two dimensions, One dimension, the endogenous environmental risks, arises from the internal operations of the company. The other dimension, the exogenous environmental risks, are determined by the company's external world: its location, its ecological setting, and the demographic characteristics of the physical environment in which it operates. Four environmental management approaches are defined as a function of endogenous and exogenous environmental risks: reactive, proactive, strategic, and crisis preventive. The framework was applied in a survey of 141 company representatives in Hungary. A relationship was sought between the a priori defined environmental management approaches based on technology and location and the companies' environmental management characteristics defined by senior managers. Variables that differentiated among the four environmental management approaches were identified and ranked. The study concludes that there is a relatively well-defined relationship between the environmental risks of companies and the nature of their environmental management approaches, Implementing a strategic environmental management approach may not be the best option for all companies - although there is a growing pressure to do so.

Sustainable Development: The Search for the Tipping Point

The United Nations recently launched the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Literature indicates the need for an authoritative definition of sustainable development. Sustainable Human Development is analyzed through the lens of Gladwell’s The Tipping Point as a framework for guiding ethical development practice and instigating changes in human behavior.

Evaluating and Selecting a Property Management System

In his study - Evaluating and Selecting a Property Management System - by Galen Collins, Assistant Professor, School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Northern Arizona University, Assistant Professor Collins states briefly at the outset: “Computerizing a property requires a game plan. Many have selected a Property Management System without much forethought and have been unhappy with the final results. The author discusses the major factors that must be taken into consideration in the selection of a PMS, based on his personal experience.” Although, this article was written in the year 1988 and some information contained may be dated, there are many salient points to consider. “Technological advances have encouraged many hospitality operators to rethink how information should be processed, stored, retrieved, and analyzed,” offers Collins. “Research has led to the implementation of various cost-effective applications addressing almost every phase of operations,” he says in introducing the computer technology germane to many PMS functions. Professor Collins talks about the Request for Proposal, its conditions and its relevance in negotiating a PMS system. The author also wants the system buyer to be aware [not necessarily beware] of vendor recommendations, and not to rely solely on them. Exercising forethought will help in avoiding the drawback of purchasing an inadequate PMS system. Remember, the vendor is there first and foremost to sell you a system. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the adjectives unreliable and unethical are on the table, but do be advised. Professor Collins presents a graphic outline for the Weighted Average Approach to Scoring Vendor Evaluations. Among the elements to be considered in evaluating a PMS system, and there are several analyzed in this essay, Professor Collins advises that a perspective buyer not overlook the service factor when choosing a PMS system. Service is an important element to contemplate. “In a hotel environment, the special emphasis should be on service. System downtime can be costly and aggravating and will happen periodically,” Collins warns. Professor Collins also examines the topic of PMS system environment; of which the importance of such a factor should not be underestimated. “The design of the computer system should be based on the physical layout of the property and the projected workloads. The heart of the system, housed in a protected, isolated area, can support work stations strategically located throughout the property,” Professor Collins provides. A Property Profile Description is outlined in Table 1. The author would also point out that ease-of-operation is another significant factor to think about. “A user-friendly software package allows the user to easily move through the program without encountering frustrating obstacles,” says Collins. “Programs that require users to memorize abstract abbreviations, codes, and information to carry out standard routines should be avoided,” he counsels.

Gestão e gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos: diretrizes jurídico-ambientais para a sustentabilidade

rates in the Brazilian cities, which time there is an inexistent theoretical reflection about public policy statement adding the way of Urban Solid Waste (USW) and tailing integrated management plans in the majorly Brazilian cities. The unappropriated solid waste disposal and final pollution result in a strong socioenvironmental problems and material extravagancies that should be used to recycling and reusing waste material, besides bringing immense challenges for the thematic Strategy Urban and Environmental Management it considers the Sustainable City Model. Moreover, this labor projects a discussion about USW problematic through legally and environmentally point of view, including the public environmental policy and the social technologies as resolution tactics. At that time, it reports rights, scientific articles, documents and Environmental Law Doctrine on findings thematic studies, also the propose displays an interdisciplinary research methodology which combines bibliographic method - focusing theory aspects of the legally environmentally guiding principle, public policy and social technologies. Those are theorist features very important to create a Municipal Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (PMGIRS) - modus operandi of the Federal Law n. 12.305/2010 (National Solid Waste Policy - PNRS). That policy is interesting to receive financial resources from federal government (Cities Ministry; idem, Federal Decree n. 7.404/2010 and Federal Law n. 10.257/2001) helping the preservation of the environment, regional development, generation of jobs and income (art. 6º), in addition broadening spreading’s private companies dedicated to waste management. Consequently, the PNRS contains a set of guidelines and general procedures; it should be an operation of this legal policy contextualized by Social Technologies theory (TS) into social issues, legal, economic and environmental aspects. Therefore, this research notes the possibility of public policy statement implementation over and done with the PNRS by the terms of development and sustainability in the urban space.

The Influence of Creative Tourism on Sustainable Development of Tourism and Reduction of Seasonality – Case Study of Óbidos

Tourism remains one of the most fast growing and important industries in the world. It is hard to underestimate the importance and the spectrum of the benefits that tourism provides. On the other hand, nowadays, the increasing growth of tourism poses a range of challenges and problems that need to be solved. These challenges resonate in the emergence of the so called 'alternative' or sustainable forms of tourism, which deem to be an antidote against the harms the traditional forms of tourism cause to the environment and local communities. These new forms of tourism, among which is creative tourism, are reinforced by the new breed of tourists, who are no longer satisfied with the static offer of tourism but rather prefer the dynamic one. The present research shows on the case of Óbidos the potential of creative tourism to meet these new needs of modern tourists while also solving number of problems that many destinations face, namely seasonality in tourism, as well as how creative tourism contributes to the sustainable development of tourism.

Non-Pharmacological Approaches for Pain Management in Sickle Cell Disease: Development of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention

Background: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic hematological disorder that affects more than 7 million people globally (NHLBI, 2009). It is estimated that 50% of adults with SCD experience pain on most days, with 1/3 experiencing chronic pain daily (Smith et al., 2008). Persons with SCD also experience higher levels of pain catastrophizing (feelings of helplessness, pain rumination and magnification) than other chronic pain conditions, which is associated with increases in pain intensity, pain behavior, analgesic consumption, frequency and duration of hospital visits, and with reduced daily activities (Sullivan, Bishop, & Pivik, 1995; Keefe et al., 2000; Gil et al., 1992 & 1993). Therefore effective interventions are needed that can successfully be used manage pain and pain-related outcomes (e.g., pain catastrophizing) in persons with SCD. A review of the literature demonstrated limited information regarding the feasibility and efficacy of non-pharmacological approaches for pain in persons with SCD, finding an average effect size of .33 on pain reduction across measurable non-pharmacological studies. Second, a prospective study on persons with SCD that received care for a vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC; N = 95) found: (1) high levels of patient reported depression (29%) and anxiety (34%), and (2) that unemployment was significantly associated with increased frequency of acute care encounters and hospital admissions per person. Research suggests that one promising category of non-pharmacological interventions for managing both physical and affective components of pain are Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs; Thompson et al., 2010; Cox et al., 2013). The primary goal of this dissertation was thus to develop and test the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a telephonic MBI for pain catastrophizing in persons with SCD and chronic pain.

Methods: First, a telephonic MBI was developed through an informal process that involved iterative feedback from patients, clinical experts in SCD and pain management, social workers, psychologists, and mindfulness clinicians. Through this process, relevant topics and skills were selected to adapt in each MBI session. Second, a pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of the telephonic MBI for pain catastrophizing in persons with SCD and chronic pain. Acceptability and feasibility were determined by assessment of recruitment, attrition, dropout, and refusal rates (including refusal reasons), along with semi-structured interviews with nine randomly selected patients at the end of study. Participants completed assessments at baseline, Week 1, 3, and 6 to assess efficacy of the intervention on decreasing pain catastrophizing and other pain-related outcomes.

Results: A telephonic MBI is feasible and acceptable for persons with SCD and chronic pain. Seventy-eight patients with SCD and chronic pain were approached, and 76% (N = 60) were enrolled and randomized. The MBI attendance rate, approximately 57% of participants completing at least four mindfulness sessions, was deemed acceptable, and participants that received the telephonic MBI described it as acceptable, easy to access, and consume in post-intervention interviews. The amount of missing data was undesirable (MBI condition, 40%; control condition, 25%), but fell within the range of expected missing outcome data for a RCT with multiple follow-up assessments. Efficacy of the MBI on pain catastrophizing could not be determined due to small sample size and degree of missing data, but trajectory analyses conducted for the MBI condition only trended in the right direction and pain catastrophizing approached statistically significance.

Conclusion: Overall results showed that at telephonic group-based MBI is acceptable and feasible for persons with SCD and chronic pain. Though the study was not able to determine treatment efficacy nor powered to detect a statistically significant difference between conditions, participants (1) described the intervention as acceptable, and (2) the observed effect sizes for the MBI condition demonstrated large effects of the MBI on pain catastrophizing, mental health, and physical health. Replication of this MBI study with a larger sample size, active control group, and additional assessments at the end of each week (e.g., Week 1 through Week 6) is needed to determine treatment efficacy. Many lessons were learned that will guide the development of future studies including which MBI strategies were most helpful, methods to encourage continued participation, and how to improve data capture.

Housing and Planning in London under the Conservative Government: Spatial impacts, social polarisation, sustainable development and social justice

This paper will be based on my continuing research on planning and housing development in London. It will focus on the proposals in the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill, which are likely to be enacted in Spring 2016. It will review the evidence of potential spatial impacts in terms of the supply of existing affordable homes and the location and affordability of new supply. This will be related to a review of the alternative development options for London’s growth in the context of the Mayor of London’s draft 2050 Infrastructure Plan. The paper will analyse the potential impact of new Government policy and legislation on whether London’s housing requirements can be delivered in accordance with the objectives of sustainable planning and social justice, and will also consider the constraints on the ability of the new Mayor of London, to be elected in May 2016 to achieve manifesto commitments.

Islamic Infrastructure Finance and Sustainable Development Goals

This was a very interesting discussion with the pioneers of Islamic finance regarding infrastructure finance and the sustainable development goals.

Band manager - Ett Content Management System för musikbranchaktörer

Summit Music Management är ett managementföretag som arbetar med en rad svenska artister. I deras arbetsuppgifter ingår även hantering av artisternas webbplatser, ett arbete som visat sig vara säkerhetskänsligt och svårt att få klart. Målet med projektet har varit att utveckla ett Content Management System för aktörer inom musikbranschen, vars syfte det är att förenkla det dagliga arbetet av dessa webbplatser. Systemet ska innehålla funktionalitet som gör det möjligt att skapa webbplatser åt artisterna samtidigt som det ska gå att underhålla och uppdatera textmaterial såväl som bilder som finns på webbplatserna. Systemet har skapats med tekniker, språk och ramverk som finns tillgängliga under fria licensavtal. Systemets grund är skapat med PHP-ramverket Laravel tillsammans med HTML, CSS och Twitter Bootstrap. Denna del fungerar som gränssnitt för administratörer där användaren kan logga in och skapa webbplatser. De webb-platser som skapas av systemet är skrivna i AngularJS tillsammans med HTML, CSS och Twitter Bootstrap. Mellan dessa delar finns ett REST-api skrivet i Laravel som sköter kommunikationen mellan komponenterna. Systemet arbetar mot en MySQL-databas där all data lagras och hämtas ifrån. Summit Music Management har förutom att leverera text- och bildmaterial, även fungerat somtestpanel för att kunna mäta systemets användbarhet. Testerna visade att systemet kan möta de behov som finns hos Summit Music Management men att det kan komma att behöva vidareutvecklas för att bättre passa en större kundgrupp och för att strama åt säkerhetsaspekterna ytterligare.

The Role of ‘Edutainment’ in Education for Sustainable Development

The Sustainable Strategies Game (SSG) is being developed as ‘edutainment’ in response to the need to understand sustainable futures and advocate sustainability within workplaces in Higher Education. SSG seeks to both deliver experiential teaching and learning for business sustainability and enhance students’ learning experiences within Worcester Business School. This paper presents findings from action research undertaken to formally investigate two aspects of SSG within edutainment for ESD: firstly, it explores the value students obtain from game playing as an approach to sustainability learning. Secondly, it establishes students’ suggestions for evolutions to SSG, e.g. game design and additional features such as social media interventions or legal challenges, to increase its value as a tool for teaching and learning. Informal feedback following sessions playing SSG suggests games generally generate positive effects on students’ learning. Students highlighted SSG offered an enjoyable alternative approach to learning and could drive changes to sustainability thinking. Introducing such gameplay offers the potential to engage participants in collaborative behaviours and encourage consideration of profitability through strategies which carry less impact on the environment; vital to create a sustainable future. This paper presents qualitative evidence from game players that can enhance SSG as a tool to further improve students’ learning experience and its value as edutainment rather than entertainment within ESD.

Document Management System: Strategic Plan, 1996

This Strategic Plan provides the Iowa Department of Transportation with guidelines for defining the acquisition and implementation of a document management system to automate current manual methods of document handling and distribution. In preparation for the production of the Strategic Plan, the USI Team conducted a series of user interviews at the DOT Ames and East Central Iowa Transportation Region facilities, and reviewed various documents relating to day-to-day operations.

Records Management System: Indexing Standard, Document Standard, Technology Standard, Laboratory Configuration, 1997

Purpose of Records Management Sysytem indexing standards document is to develop indexing standards that will best support Iowa DOT's effort to build an agency-wide Records Management System