Physiotherapy practice in the private sector: organizational characteristics and models.

BACKGROUND: Even if a large proportion of physiotherapists work in the private sector worldwide, very little is known of the organizations within which they practice. Such knowledge is important to help understand contexts of practice and how they influence the quality of services and patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to: 1) describe characteristics of organizations where physiotherapists practice in the private sector, and 2) explore the existence of a taxonomy of organizational models. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional quantitative survey of 236 randomly-selected physiotherapists. Participants completed a purpose-designed questionnaire online or by telephone, covering organizational vision, resources, structures and practices. Organizational characteristics were analyzed descriptively, while organizational models were identified by multiple correspondence analyses. RESULTS: Most organizations were for-profit (93.2%), located in urban areas (91.5%), and within buildings containing multiple businesses/organizations (76.7%). The majority included multiple providers (89.8%) from diverse professions, mainly physiotherapy assistants (68.7%), massage therapists (67.3%) and osteopaths (50.2%). Four organizational models were identified: 1) solo practice, 2) middle-scale multiprovider, 3) large-scale multiprovider and 4) mixed. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide a detailed description of the organizations where physiotherapists practice, and highlight the importance of human resources in differentiating organizational models. Further research examining the influences of these organizational characteristics and models on outcomes such as physiotherapists' professional practices and patient outcomes are needed.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) : A pedagogical guide for decision makers in the public sector

This guide introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a performance measurement technique, in such a way as to be appropriate to decision makers with little or no background in economics and operational research. The use of mathematics is kept to a minimum. This guide therefore adopts a strong practical approach in order to allow decision makers to conduct their own efficiency analysis and to easily interpret results. DEA helps decision makers for the following reasons: - By calculating an efficiency score, it indicates if a firm is efficient or has capacity for improvement. - By setting target values for input and output, it calculates how much input must be decreased or output increased in order to become efficient. - By identifying the nature of returns to scale, it indicates if a firm has to decrease or increase its scale (or size) in order to minimize the average cost. - By identifying a set of benchmarks, it specifies which other firms' processes need to be analysed in order to improve its own practices.

Interprofessional practices of physiotherapists working with adults with low back pain in Québec's private sector: results of a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Collaboration and interprofessional practices are highly valued in health systems, because they are thought to improve outcomes of care for persons with complex health problems, such as low back pain. Physiotherapists, like all health providers, are encouraged to take part in interprofessional practices. However, little is known about these practices, especially for private sector physiotherapists. This study aimed to: 1) explore how physiotherapists working in the private sector with adults with low back pain describe their interprofessional practices, 2) identify factors that influence their interprofessional practices, and 3) identify their perceived effects. METHODS: Participants were 13 physiotherapists, 10 women/3 men, having between 3 and 21 years of professional experience. For this descriptive qualitative study, we used face-to-face semi-structured interviews and conducted content analysis encompassing data coding and thematic regrouping. RESULTS: Physiotherapists described interprofessional practices heterogeneously, including numerous processes such as sharing information and referring. Factors that influenced physiotherapists' interprofessional practices were related to patients, providers, organizations, and wider systems (e.g. professional system). Physiotherapists mostly viewed positive effects of interprofessional practices, including elements such as gaining new knowledge as a provider and being valued in one's own role, as well as improvements in overall treatment and outcome. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study offers new insights into the interprofessional practices of physiotherapists working with adults with low back pain, as perceived by the physiotherapists' themselves. Based on the results, the development of strategies aiming to increase interprofessionalism in the management of low back pain would most likely require taking into consideration factors associated with patients, providers, the organizations within which they work, and the wider systems.

How useful is consolidation of public sector entities' financial statements ?

Whether or not to consolidate financial statements is dealt with in IPSAS#6. This standard is by and large based on IAS#27. It deals with the criterion according to which an entity's financial statements should be considered and which consolidation technique should be used. However, it remains silent when it comes to exposing the reason why a public sector entity should consolidate its financial statements. The literature is almost as silent as IPSAS on this issue. Which means that there is a lack of both theoretical and empirical knowledge on this subject. This paper explores the usefulness of the consolidation of financial statements (CFS) for different categories of users. It aims at investigating for which purposes consolidation is most useful and whether enlarging the scope of the consolidate group serves these purposes. Five purposes are considered: information, decision- making, accountability, risk-assessment, statistics improvement. The paper also aims at investigating if some categories of users consider CFS more useful than others. The issue is essentially empirical. Therefore it is examined in light of the results of an in-person interviews. We surveyed 25members of parliament, officials, creditors, and consultants of the Swiss central government. The results show that consolidating FS is considered especially important and useful for risk- assessment, information and accountability and to a somewhat lesser extent for decision-making and statistics improvement. Extending the scope of CFS may improve the situation when it comes to statistics but it would only marginally make CFS more relevant for decision making. Consultants and, to a lesser extent, members of the finance ministry are those respondents who deem the scope enlargement to be the most useful.

Can the administration be trusted? An analysis of the concept of trust, applied to the public sector

In the first part of this paper, we present the various academic debates and, where applicable, questions that remain open in the literature, particularly regarding the nature of trust, the distinction between trust and trustworthiness, its role in specific relationships and its relationship to control. We then propose a way of demarcating and operationalizing the concepts of trust and trustworthiness. In the second part, on the basis of the conceptual clarifications we present, we put forward a number of "anchor points" regarding how trust is apprehended in the public sector with regard to the various relations hips that can be studied. Schematically, we distinguish between two types of relations hips in the conceptual approach to trust: on one hand, the trust that citizens, or third parties, place in the State or in various public sector authorities or entities, and on the other hand, trust within the State or the public sector, between its various authorities, entities, and actors. While studies have traditionally focused on citizens' trust in their institutions, the findings, limitations and problems observed in public - sector coordination following the reforms associated with New Public Management have also elicited growing interest in the study of trust in the relationships between the various actors within the public sector. Both the theoretical debates we present and our propositions have been extracted and adapted from an empirical comparative study of coordination between various Swiss public - service organizations and their politico - administrative authority. Using the analysis model developed for this specific relationship, between various actors within the public service, and in the light of theoretical elements on which development of this model was based, we propose some avenues for further study - questions that remain open - regarding the consideration and understanding of citizens' trust in the public sector.

"Riesgo de oportunismo del Gobierno en el sector eléctrico colombiano". Aproximación al diseño institucional de la regulación eléctrica en Colombia

Análisis del riesgo de oportunismo del gobierno Colombiano planteado por el diseño institucional y normativo de la CREG, y favorecido por una notoria concentración de calidades en cabeza del Estado Colombiano como agente de mercado y regulador.

El bachillerato art??stico experimental (artes pl??sticas) en la Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Art??sticos n??mero 1 de Madrid

Situar hist??ricamente la Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Art??sticos n?? 1 de Madrid para explicar el origen de una situaci??n que permite llegar a la realizaci??n de estos estudios experimentales justificadamente; recopilar el desarrollo de las actuaciones realizadas hasta llegar al Bachillerato Art??stico Experimental, Artes Pl??sticas y, posteriormente al Bachillerato de Artes, Artes Pl??sticas y Dise??o; recoger la realizaci??n de la experiencia de Bachillerato Art??stico, Artes Pl??sticas, en la Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Art??sticos n?? 1 de Madrid, dejando constancia hist??rica de esta experiencia educativa; recopilar la legislaci??n existente, evaluar y sacar conclusiones. Se inicia con el an??lisis de la documentaci??n y legislaci??n existente; trata de reconstruir la historia de la Escuela de Artes Aplicada y Oficios n?? 1 de Madrid y secuencializar los hechos y actuaciones que la hacen posible. Se recogen y analizan todos los datos existentes sobre la experiencia del Bachillerato Art??stico en la Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Art??sticos n?? 1 de Madrid. Para ello, se recurre a los archivos del centro, as?? como datos recogidos directamente de la experiencia. Se recogen testimonios de las personas implicadas en la realizaci??n de la experiencia de Bachillerato Artistico en esta Escuela y en otras escuelas. Se reunen datos sobre el panorama educativo de otros pa??ses europeos y se realiza un an??lisis estad??stico de las calificaciones de curso y de los datos recogidos en la Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad. Investigaci??n hist??rica, enfoque descriptivo, investigaci??n aplicada, investigaci??n evaluativa, an??lisis estad??stico. Las ense??anzas art??sticas (Artes Aplicadas) comienzan a definirse en Espa??a a finales del siglo XVIII y desde entonces existe en ellas un deseo de integrar enfoques art??sticos, cient??ficos e industriales; las ense??anzas art??sticas cubren un sector de formaci??n art??stica que la sociedad demanda y es una formaci??n que incide directamente en la calidad de vida y en la cultura que se construye entre todos. Son ense??anzas restringidas desde su especificidad y en las que se valora sus aspectos cualitativos m??s que cuantitativos. La Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Art??sticos n?? 1 de Madrid, se encuentra muy vinculada a la historia de la misma de estas ense??anzas art??sticas. Hay que considerar el Bachillerato Art??stico Experimental y su sucesor, el Bachillerato de Artes, como una oferta importante en la educaci??n art??stiva de este nivel y, de manera especial, como estudios iniciales que dan paso a estudios universitarios relacionados con estos temas. Cubre las necesidades de un sector minoritario pero importante de la poblaci??n que se orienta hacia un tipo de estudios art??sticos que resultan fundamentales para la cultura del pa??s.

Bulgarian-Russian games in the energy sector: an outcome is getting closer. OSW Commentary No. 61, 2011-10-5

Bulgaria and Russia are entering the final phase of setting the conditions of their co-operation in the energy sector. A new gas contract is being negotiated because the currently applicable agreements will have expired by the end of 2012. The fate of two major energy projects – whose implementation depends on good co-operation between Sofia and Moscow: the Burgas– –Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and the construction of a Bulgarian nuclear power plant in Belene with Russian participation – is currently being decided. Another issue ever-present on the agenda is the future of the South Stream gas pipeline promoted by Russia, which is to run through Bulgarian territory. The outcome of all the aforementioned discussions and negotiations will determine for years the model of Bulgarian-Russian relations and may strongly affect the shape of the oil, gas and electricity markets in South-Eastern Europe.

Russia's best ally: The situation of the Russian oil sector and forecast for its future. OSW Study 39/2012

Oil is a strategic raw material for Russia and one of fundamental significance for the functioning of the state and its future. Taxes on oil production and exports are the most important source of state budget revenues which guarantee Russia maintains its political and economic stability. Russia is building its international position on the basis of its vast raw material and energy potential. While a great number of various publications have been devoted to Russian gas and Gazprom, surprisingly little research has been done into the present condition and possible future developments of the Russian oil sector, despite the fact that oil has and will have a much greater impact than gas on the functioning and the future of Russia. The main objective of this text is to describe the present situation of the Russian oil sector, its problems and the challenges it is posing, as well as the government’s policy towards this key branch of the Russian economy. This will be an introduction to an attempt to answer to the questions about the possible future production and the export levels of Russian oil, also broken down into the European and Asian directions.

Reform #1. Why Ukraine has to reform its gas sector. OSW COMMENTARY NUMBER 181/01.09.2015

In April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed a long-awaited law on the gas sector which paves the way for the extremely difficult process of reforming and de-monopolising the Ukrainian gas sector. The law will come into force on 1 October 2015 and involves the break-up of the state-owned company Naftogaz, the current monopolist, and the gradual creation of a competitive gas market in line with the so-called Third Energy Package. At the same time, a threefold increase in the price of gas paid by individual customers and the public sector was introduced. The price had been subsidised for years and no previous government had ever decided to raise it.

A Public Sector Scorecard alkalmazása a hivatásos sportban – magyar esettanulmány

A sporteredmények hagyományosan központi szerepet töltenek be a hivatásos sporttal foglalkozó vállalatok teljesítménymérésében, emellett az üzleti siker és az érintettek bevonásának minősége, mint tényezők szintén kezdenek teret nyerni. A sporteredmények piaci bevételeket hozhatnak, amennyiben a szurkolók elégedettségét váltják ki, és további beruházásokat tesznek lehetővé a sportsiker érdekében (pl. több forrás lesz új játékosok szerződtetésére és magasabb bérekre). A sportvállalatok vezetői azzal a kihívással néznek szembe, hogy megértsék az összetett kapcsolatot a pályán és az azon kívül nyújtott teljesítmény között, azonosítva a kritikus sikertényezőket a stratégiai célok elérése érdekében. Korábbi publikációinkban javasoltuk a Balanced Scorecard alkalmazását hivatásos sportvállalatoknál. Ebben az írásunkban megvizsgáljuk a Public Sector Scorecard alkalmazásának lehetőségét, amely egy alkalmas keretet adhat a hivatásos sportvállalatok stratégiai szemléletű vezetéséhez. Felhívjuk a figyelmet a lehetőségekre és kihívásokra e rendszer bevezetése kapcsán egy részletes esettanulmány segítségével, amely egy hivatásos magyar kézilabdaklubra vonatkozik. Következtetésünk arra irányul, hogy e modell alkalmas a hivatásos sportvállalatok stratégiai szemléletű vezetésének támogatására oly módon, hogy segítségével kiegyensúlyozhatók az érintetti elvárások, mind a sportsikerek, mind az érintettek bevonása, mind az üzleti siker vonatkozásában.

O setor privado sem fins lucrativos e as políticas públicas de esporte e lazer (2008-2011) = : The non-profitable private sector and the public policies for sport and leisure (2008-2011)

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física