Space Use and the Physical Attributes of Acute Care Units: A Quantitative Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 193758672110438
Author(s):  
David Kelly ◽  
Michael J. Pingel
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Space Use ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
Floor Plans ◽  
Design Options ◽  
Station Location

This article shares the results of a quantitative analysis of the space use and physical attributes of 140 acute care units (ACU) completed since 2007. Objective: To fill a gap in the literature with respect to the state of practice for ACU design over the study period by investigating relationships among the physical characteristics and density of completed ACUs. Background: Robust industry interest about the topic—further agitated by the dearth of large-scale quantitative research regarding ACU space use—motivated completion of the study. Method: Through extraordinary collaboration by participating firms, floor plans of 140 new ACUs from the study period were gathered, systematically measured, and then analyzed. Results: Structural bay size, nurse station location, and the number of beds per unit were found to have significant relationships to ACU floor-gross area per bed. Additionally, nine significant associations among the explanatory variables were found, including moderate relationships among bay size, nurse station location, room handedness, and toilet room placement. Conclusion: The results suggest that project design teams tend to bundle key physical attributes together when planning ACUs. Moreover, density increases resulting from bay size reduction diminish as the bay size drops below 31′. Any impacts resulting from the major external events demarking the last decade were not sufficient to appreciably affect ACU density. Lastly, those concerned with increasing density and controlling ACU floor gross area are alerted to explore design options featuring bay sizes of approximately 30′ in conjunction with a centralized nursing model containing more than 32 beds per unit.

scholarly journals Dynamic Planning of Bicycle Stations in Dockless Public Bicycle-sharing System Using Gated Graph Neural Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jianguo Chen ◽  
Kenli Li ◽  
Keqin Li ◽  
Philip S. Yu ◽  
Zeng Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Location Prediction ◽  
City Management ◽  
Dynamic Planning ◽  
Graph Sequence ◽  
Graph Modeling ◽  
The Government ◽  
Location Clustering ◽  
Station Location

Benefiting from convenient cycling and flexible parking locations, the Dockless Public Bicycle-sharing (DL-PBS) network becomes increasingly popular in many countries. However, redundant and low-utility stations waste public urban space and maintenance costs of DL-PBS vendors. In this article, we propose a Bicycle Station Dynamic Planning (BSDP) system to dynamically provide the optimal bicycle station layout for the DL-PBS network. The BSDP system contains four modules: bicycle drop-off location clustering, bicycle-station graph modeling, bicycle-station location prediction, and bicycle-station layout recommendation. In the bicycle drop-off location clustering module, candidate bicycle stations are clustered from each spatio-temporal subset of the large-scale cycling trajectory records. In the bicycle-station graph modeling module, a weighted digraph model is built based on the clustering results and inferior stations with low station revenue and utility are filtered. Then, graph models across time periods are combined to create a graph sequence model. In the bicycle-station location prediction module, the GGNN model is used to train the graph sequence data and dynamically predict bicycle stations in the next period. In the bicycle-station layout recommendation module, the predicted bicycle stations are fine-tuned according to the government urban management plan, which ensures that the recommended station layout is conducive to city management, vendor revenue, and user convenience. Experiments on actual DL-PBS networks verify the effectiveness, accuracy, and feasibility of the proposed BSDP system.

scholarly journals Understanding what matters most to patients in acute care in seven countries, using the flash mob study design

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva S. van den Ende ◽  
◽  
Bo Schouten ◽  
Marjolein N. T. Kremers ◽  
Tim Cooksley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Patient Perspective ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Patient Centred Care ◽  
Trial Register ◽  
What Matters

Abstract Background Truly patient-centred care needs to be aligned with what patients consider important, and is highly desirable in the first 24 h of an acute admission, as many decisions are made during this period. However, there is limited knowledge on what matters most to patients in this phase of their hospital stay. The objective of this study was to identify what mattered most to patients in acute care and to assess the patient perspective as to whether their treating doctors were aware of this. Methods This was a large-scale, qualitative, flash mob study, conducted simultaneously in sixty-six hospitals in seven countries, starting November 14th 2018, ending 50 h later. One thousand eight hundred fifty adults in the first 24 h of an acute medical admission were interviewed on what mattered most to them, why this mattered and whether they felt the treating doctor was aware of this. Results The most reported answers to “what matters most (and why)?” were ‘getting better or being in good health’ (why: to be with family/friends or pick-up life again), ‘getting home’ (why: more comfortable at home or to take care of someone) and ‘having a diagnosis’ (why: to feel less anxious or insecure). Of all patients, 51.9% felt the treating doctor did not know what mattered most to them. Conclusions The priorities for acutely admitted patients were ostensibly disease- and care-oriented and thus in line with the hospitals’ own priorities. However, answers to why these were important were diverse, more personal, and often related to psychological well-being and relations. A large group of patients felt their treating doctor did not know what mattered most to them. Explicitly asking patients what is important and why, could help healthcare professionals to get to know the person behind the patient, which is essential in delivering patient-centred care. Trial registration NTR (Netherlands Trial Register) NTR7538.

scholarly journals Quantitative Evaluation of China’s Pork Industry Policy: A PMC Index Model Approach

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Youzhu Li ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Jinsi Liu ◽  
Chongguang Li ◽  
Jason Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Operation Mode ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Price Control ◽  
Price Regulation ◽  
Index Model

To ease the fluctuation of hog prices and maintain the hog market’s stability, the central government of China has issued a series of hog price control policies. This paper, supplemented by co-word analysis and LDA thematic modeling, constructed 9 first-level indicators and 36 s-level indicators and used a PMC index model to conduct quantitative research on the selected 74 policies and regulations of China’s pig price regulation policies from July 2007 to April 2020. The research concludes that the research tool system of China’s hog price control is formed. The overall design of the hog price control policy is relatively reasonable, but there are still the following problems: the subject of China’s pig price control policy is singular, so it is difficult to form a resultant force; the policy pays attention to the price regulation in the short term, but ignores the long-term industrial structure adjustment; it emphasizes market supervision, but insufficient support for slaughtering and processing; it focuses on production and management to improve the development quality and efficiency of the pig industry, but does not take social equity into account. Finally, some policy suggestions are put forward: multi-department division of labor and close cooperation; adjusting the industrial structure of hog and carrying out appropriate large-scale breeding; establishing the operation mode of slaughtering and processing in the producing area to reduce the circulation cost of the pig industry; ensuring the consumption of pork by low-income groups and giving consideration to social efficiency and equity.

scholarly journals Fluids of the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Edwards ◽  
Guillaume L. Hoareau
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Fluid Resuscitation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Military Research ◽  
Animal Data ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
The Future ◽  
Significant Burden

Fluids are a vital tool in the armament of acute care clinicians in both civilian and military resuscitation. We now better understand complications from inappropriate resuscitation with currently available fluids; however, fluid resuscitation undeniably remains a life-saving intervention. Military research has driven the most significant advances in the field of fluid resuscitation and is currently leading the search for the fluids of the future. The veterinary community, much like our civilian human counterparts, should expect the fluid of the future to be the fruit of military research. The fluids of the future not only are expected to improve patient outcomes but also be field expedient. Those fluids should be compatible with military environments or natural disaster environments. For decades, military personnel and disaster responders have faced the peculiar demands of austere environments, prolonged field care, and delayed evacuation. Large scale natural disasters present field limitations often similar to those encountered in the battlefield. The fluids of the future should, therefore, have a long shelf-life, a small footprint, and be resistant to large temperature swings, for instance. Traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock are the leading causes of preventable death for military casualties and a significant burden in civilian populations. The military and civilian health systems are focusing efforts on field-expedient fluids that will be specifically relevant for the management of those conditions. Fluids are expected to be compatible with blood products, increase oxygen-carrying capabilities, promote hemostasis, and be easy to administer in the prehospital setting, to match the broad spectrum of current acute care challenges, such as sepsis and severe systemic inflammation. This article will review historical military and civilian contributions to current resuscitation strategies, describe the expectations for the fluids of the future, and describe select ongoing research efforts with a review of current animal data.

scholarly journals Conducting quantitative studies with the participation of political elites: best practices for designing the study and soliciting the participation of political elites

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Vis ◽  
Sjoerd Stolwijk
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Response Rates ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Quantitative Studies

Abstract Conducting quantitative research (e.g., surveys, a large number of interviews, experiments) with the participation of political elites is typically challenging. Given that a population of political elites is typically small by definition, a particular challenge is obtaining a sufficiently high number of observations and, thus, a certain response rate. This paper focuses on two questions related to this challenge: (1) What are best practices for designing the study? And (2) what are best practices for soliciting the participation of political elites? To arrive at these best practices, we (a) examine which factors explain the variation in response rates across surveys within and between large-scale, multi-wave survey projects by statistically analyzing a newly compiled dataset of 342 political elite surveys from eight projects, spanning 30 years and 58 countries, (b) integrate the typically scattered findings from the existing literature and (c) discuss results from an original expert survey among researchers with experience with such research (n = 23). By compiling a comprehensive list of best practices, systematically testing some widely held believes about response rates and by providing benchmarks for response rates depending on country, survey mode and elite type, we aim to facilitate future studies where participation of political elites is required. This will contribute to our knowledge and understanding of political elites’ opinions, information processing and decision making and thereby of the functioning of representative democracies.

scholarly journals Statistical downscaling of a climate simulation of the last glacial cycle: temperature and precipitation over Northern Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1489-1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Korhonen ◽  
A. Venäläinen ◽  
H. Seppä ◽  
H. Järvinen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Earth system models of intermediate complexity (EMICs) have proven to be able to simulate the large-scale features of glacial–interglacial climate evolution. For many climatic applications the spatial resolution of the EMICs' output is, however, too coarse, and downscaling methods are needed. In this study we introduce a way to use generalized additive models (GAMs) for downscaling the large-scale output of an EMIC in very different climatological conditions ranging from glacial periods to current relatively warm climates. GAMs are regression models in which a combination of explanatory variables is related to the response through a sum of spline functions. We calibrated the GAMs using observations of the recent past climate and the results of short time-slice simulations of glacial climate performed by the relatively high-resolution general circulation model CCSM (Community Climate System Model) and the regional climate model RCA3 (Rossby Centre regional Atmospheric climate model). As explanatory variables we used the output of a simulation by the CLIMBER-2 (CLIMate and BiosphERe model 2) EMIC of the last glacial cycle, coupled with the SICOPOLIS (SImulation COde for POLythermal Ice Sheets) ice sheet model, i.e. the large-scale temperature and precipitation data of CLIMBER-2, and the elevation, distance to ice sheet, slope direction and slope angle from SICOPOLIS. The fitted GAMs were able to explain more than 96% of the temperature response with a correlation of >0.98 and more than 59% of the precipitation response with a correlation of >0.72. The first comparison with two pollen-based reconstructions of temperature for Northern Europe showed that CLIMBER-2 data downscaled by GAMs corresponded better with the reconstructions than did the bilinearly interpolated CLIMBER-2 surface temperature.

scholarly journals Non-consumer based drivers of store success in a South African food retail group

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
M. Vleggaar ◽  
E. V.D.M. Smit
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Stepwise Multiple Regression ◽  
Sales Growth ◽  
Performance Measurements ◽  
Food Retail ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Store Performance

The research objective of this study was to determine the key drivers of store success in a large food retail group in South Africa. The group currently operates in excess of 800 stores, managed by independent retailers on a franchise basis. Both the biographical details of the store owners and their management styles, demonstrate considerable variability. The effects of six categories of explanatory variables were related to two overall measures of store success – sales growth and an internal measure of store performance – first pairwise and second, by stepwise multiple regression. The bibliographical profiles of the owners, with the exception of age and marketing experience did not predict store success, nor did the family history or number of stores owned. The legal form of ownership had no influence on performance either. As far as competition is concerned, specific competitors and competition density did not contribute to success, but the distance to the nearest competition was positively related to store performance.The implementation of category management and an increased frequency of stock take, as examples of operational procedures, were positively associated with performance. Two leadership styles, one related to a clear articulation of values and the other to the management of deviations from set goals did positively impact on store performance. Active participation in the local community was also reflected in improved store performance.Disappointingly, there was little evidence of significant relationships between retail sales growth and the selected variables. The multivariate model, however, explained approximately twenty per cent of the store performance measurements.

User-opinion mining for mobile library apps in China: exploring user improvement needs

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haichen Zhou ◽  
Dejun Zheng ◽  
Yongming Li ◽  
Junwei Shen
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Opinion Mining ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
User Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Purpose To further provide some insight into mobile library (m-library) applications (apps) user needs and help libraries or app providers improve the service quality, the purpose of this paper is to explore all the types of user improvement needs and to discover which need is the most important based on user results. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from more than 27,000 m-library app users from 16 provinces and autonomous regions in China. Text analysis using latent Dirichlet allocation and Word2Vec was carried out by text preprocessing. Furthermore, a visual presentation was conducted through pyLDAvis and word cloud. Finally, combined with expert opinions, the results were summarized to find the different types of needs. Findings There are three different types of needs for improvement: needs of function, needs of technology and needs of experience. These types can be further divided into six subtypes: richness of function, feasibility of function, easiness of technology, stableness of technology, optimization of experience and customization of experience. Besides the richness of function, the feasibility of function has received the most attention from users. Originality/value Most studies on m-library user needs have only focused on a method of quantitative research based on questionnaire surveys. This study, however, is the first to apply text mining methods for large-scale user opinion texts, which place more focus on user needs and inspire libraries and app providers to further improve their services.

Improving the final year of life at the institutional level: Quality dying initiative (QDI).

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (31_suppl) ◽  
pp. 124-124
Author(s):  
Jeff Myers ◽  
Tracey DasGupta
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Care Setting ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Care Plan ◽  
Acute Care Setting ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Dying Patients ◽  
Care Of The Dying

124 Background: For a tertiary academic health sciences and comprehensive cancer centre, care of the dying is a significant element of the institution’s overall patient and family care experience. The aim for this large-scale quality improvement project was to improve the quality of the experience for a patient in the final year of life and their family members. Methods: This is descriptive study involves one institution and the characterization of three distinct patient populations: A - Imminently dying patients for whom care goals have been clarified to be comfort, B - Patients for whom death “this admission” would not be a surprise and C - Among patients being discharged, death “within the next year” would not be a surprise, linking in the outpatient cancer care setting. Results: On average 19 deaths per week are in some way expected for the institution’s acute care setting. Phase 1 of the QDI included a review of evidence and best practices in care of the dying as well as comprehensive plans for both organizational engagement and communications. Phase 2 of the QDI (i.e. “Implementation Phase”) involved interventions for each patient population. A corporate-wide “Comfort Strategy” was developed to address Population A. Components include standardized order sets, standardized interprofessional “Comfort Assessment and Documentation”, the palliative care team’s “Coaching Consult”, a “Family Member Education” process and an evaluation plan that includes an experience survey routinely sent to family members following a patient’s death. The intervention was piloted on and subsequently rolled out to all inpatient oncology units. Interventions for Population B and C are the triggering of Goals of Care and Advance Care Plan discussions respectively. Key metrics have been identified for all three patient populations and are based on care elements considered important by dying patients and their family members. These now comprise a dashboard, which has been endorsed for roll out to all patient care units in the acute care setting. Conclusions: A quality framework can be effectively applied for the institutional context of developing an approach to improving the final year of life for a cancer patient.

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