Whitehall Contingency Planning for Industrial Disputes

Introduction Electronic health record (EHR) downtime is any period during which the EHR system is fully or partially unavailable. These periods are operationally disruptive and pose risks to patients. EHR downtime has not sufficiently been studied in the literature, and most hospitals are not adequately prepared. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the operational implications of downtime with a focus on the clinical laboratory, and to derive recommendations for improved downtime contingency planning. Methods A hybrid qualitative–quantitative study based on historic performance data and semistructured interviews was performed at two mid-Atlantic hospitals. In the quantitative analysis, paper records from downtime events were analyzed and compared with normal operations. To enrich this quantitative analysis, interviews were conducted with 17 hospital employees, who had experienced several downtime events, including a hospital-wide EHR shutdown. Results During downtime, laboratory testing results were delayed by an average of 62% compared with normal operation. However, the archival data were incomplete due to inconsistencies in the downtime paper records. The qualitative interview data confirmed that delays in laboratory result reporting are significant, and further uncovered that the delays are often due to improper procedural execution, and incomplete or incorrect documentation. Interviewees provided a variety of perspectives on the operational implications of downtime, and how to best address them. Based on these insights, recommendations for improved downtime contingency planning were derived, which provide a foundation to enhance Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience guides. Conclusion This study documents the extent to which downtime events are disruptive to hospital operations. It further highlights the challenge of quantitatively assessing the implication of downtimes events, due to a lack of otherwise EHR-recorded data. Organizations that seek to improve and evaluate their downtime contingency plans need to find more effective methods to collect data during these times.

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The Stockpile Thesis and Industrial Relations at Kambalda

Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/002218568602800303 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 353-366

Author(s):

Helen Lang

Keyword(s):

Recent Work ◽

Social Life ◽

Industrial Relations ◽

Mining Town ◽

Close Relationship ◽

Nickel Mining ◽

Industrial Disputes ◽

Strategic Variable ◽

Consensual Approach

Some recent work on industrial relations in the Australian minirtg industry has focused on a close relationship between the incidence of strikes and the stockpiling of the mineral mined. It is argued that when demand for a mineral falls and the stockpile grows, management can afford the disruption to production caused by strikes. Hence management will take action to provoke strikes by introducing changes in work practices it knows will be opposed by unionists. Not only are the unions more likely to be defeated, but the company concerned is also able to reduce the size of its stockpile of ore. A case-study of the nickel-mining centre of Kambalda in Western Australia suggests that the size of the stockpile isfar less relevant when management and unions have a consensual approach to industrial relations. The stockpile is a strategic variable rather than a cause of industrial disputes. Whether the stockpile is manipulated as part of management's strategy will depend on innumerable, interdependent factors, including the organization of social life in a mining town and whether effective co operative relations develop between managers and unions.

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The Genesis of Arbitration in Western Australia

Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/002218568602800405 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 545-563 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Norman F. Duffy

Keyword(s):

Western Australia ◽

The Political ◽

Trade Union Movement ◽

Union Movement ◽

Early Experiences ◽

Compulsory Arbitration ◽

Industrial Disputes ◽

Political Scene ◽

Conditions Of Employment

The use of compulsory arbitration for the determination of the conditions of employment has a long history in Australia. This paper covers the events leading up to the introduction of legislation for conciliation and for the compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes in Western Australia. After two bruising strikes and the experience of successful voluntary arbitration, the union movement came to the view that compulsory arbitration would be to their advantage. The development of political links between the unions and some members of the Legislative Assembly, coupled with certain fortuitous circumstances in the Parliament, resulted in arbitration legislation being passed in 1900—despite the dominance of the political scene by conservative forces and the opposition of the employers. Early experiences with the legislation showed that conciliation was not successful when arbitration was readily available and that the Act was not the answer to all the problems of the trade union movement.

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The Trend of Industrial Disputes, 1922–1930

Journal of the American Statistical Association ◽

10.1080/01621459.1932.10502598 ◽

1932 ◽

Vol 27 (178) ◽

pp. 168-172

Author(s):

H. M. Douty

Keyword(s):

Industrial Disputes

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Why Join? Why Stay? Instrumentality, Beliefs, Satisfaction and Individual Decisions on Union Membership

The Economic and Labour Relations Review ◽

10.1177/103530469800900106 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 123-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

David Peetz

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Multivariate Analysis ◽

Union Membership ◽

Employee Perceptions ◽

Complex Relationship ◽

Freedom Of Choice ◽

Employee Trust ◽

Industrial Disputes ◽

Perceived Instrumentality ◽

Individual Decisions

To understand individuals' union membership choices it is necessary to examine decisions both to join and to leave (exit) unions, observed when employees are in jobs where unions are available and there is freedom of choice on union membership (‘open’ jobs). Using multivariate analysis of survey data, it was found that sympathy towards unions was the most powerful influence upon union joining, but had little impact on union exit, which was more a function of the perceived instrumentality of membership. Employee perceptions on union in-fighting and cooperation with management influenced union membership, as did the outcome of involvement in industrial disputes. Satisfaction with union delegates was a key influence on attitudes and membership. Employee trust of management only influenced exit behaviour through its interaction with satisfaction with union delegates. Job satisfaction had a complex relationship with union membership that is disguised in aggregated studies.

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UNNECESSARILY NEGLECTED IN PLANNING: ILLUSTRATION OF A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO IDENTIFY HUMAN DIMENSION IMPACTS OF MARINE OIL SPILLS

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management ◽

10.1142/s1464333212500123 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 14 (02) ◽

pp. 1250012 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

FABIENNE LORD ◽

SETH TULER ◽

THOMAS WEBLER ◽

KIRSTIN DOW

Keyword(s):

Emergency Response ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Damage Assessment ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Social Systems ◽

Human Dimensions ◽

Contingency Planning ◽

Human Dimension ◽

Contingency Plans ◽

Negative Impacts

Technological hazards research, including that on oil spills and their aftermath, is giving greater attention to human dimension impacts resulting from events and response. While oil spill contingency planners recognize the importance of human dimension impacts, little systematic attention is given to them in contingency plans. We introduce an approach to identifying human dimensions impacts using concepts from hazard and vulnerability assessment and apply it to the Bouchard-120 oil spill in Buzzards Bay, MA. Our assessment covers the spill, emergency response, clean-up, damage assessment, and mid-term recovery. This approach, while still exploratory, did demonstrate that the spill produced a range of positive and negative impacts on people and institutions and that these were mediated by vulnerabilities. We suggest ways in which the framework may help spill managers to learn from events and improve contingency planning by anticipating risks to social systems and identifying strategies to reduce impacts.

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