Large Scale Survey Research with Older Adults/Persons with Disabilities in a Public Health Crisis

Best practice for measuring quality improvement and consumer satisfaction of health and human services for older adults and people with disabilities relies on in-person survey administration. This poster highlights adaptation strategies undertaken across three large-scale evaluation studies of program/service delivery conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating a departure from in-person techniques: 1) Integrated Satisfaction Measurement for the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (I-SAT-PACE), 2) National Core Indicators- Aging and Disabilities/Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (NCI-AD/IDD), and 3) Assisted Living Resident Quality of Life (AL-QOL). Data collection for these projects occurred from September 2020 to August 2021, providing an opportunity to showcase project adaptation over the course of the pandemic. Using project implementation examples across 15 states and approximately 10,100 participants, we discuss implications for successful survey coordination, interviewer training, data collection, and participant/stakeholder engagement during a public health emergency. Strategies included pivoting to phone, Zoom, and paper-based data collection and increasing technical assistance for field staff and participants. Project teams were able to increase access to participation by implementing multimodal survey delivery, mitigate coronavirus exposure, continue collecting older adults and people with disabilities’ experiences, and compare results based on method of delivery. Technology barriers, field staff dropout, need for larger sample sizes, and inclusion of participants with dementia, hearing, and speech impairments present important tradeoffs to consider. These examples indicate it is possible to administer hybrid data collection methods across populations with varying cognitive and physical abilities without compromising data quality.

ESP Field Operational Score – A Unified Approach to ESP Performance Benchmarking

Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs) contribute over 60% of the Kuwait's oil production from 2,500 ESPs. Past efforts in benchmarking ESP performance were based on single metric reporting such as run life, reliability, failure rates and downtime reported separately resulting in often contradictory results. The Field Operational Score (FOS) was developed as a more holistic and integrated approach in measuring ESP performance answering questions such as how often do downtime event occur and how long do they last? How fast can we identify a trip and restart production? How many days will an ESP operate before failing and how likely will it prematurely fail? The FOS enables a unified and well-rounded approach to measuring ESP operational performance which includes factors often overlooked in ESP benchmarking. The FOS metrics include production downtime (ESP and Non-ESP related), trips, response time, premature failure rate, run life, data quality and entry time. Each of these metrics has been assigned a unique weightage and when combined result in a performance score reflecting the operational performance of individual ESPs. The FOS for each ESP is based on the previous fiscal year performance against the accumulative current fiscal year performance with an expected improvement of 5%. Once calculated, the score highlights areas of improvement and deterioration in ESP operations. When grouping multiple ESPs, the FOS is the summation of the individual ESP's KPIs resulting in the combined score of a cluster of ESPs. The FOS clusters are embedded into the field operational staff hierarchy ensuring that a fair and balanced benchmark is applied to all related staff such as Team leaders (500 – 1000 ESPs), senior engineers (150-250 ESPs), and field engineers (50 – 100 ESPs). By linking field staff KPIs directly to their ESP cluster performance, more proactive and effective efforts were exerted by the field staff towards ensuring optimum ESP operations. The FOS enabled management staff to become more involved in individual well performance as opposed to previous dependency on individual engineer efforts. As a result of the routine FOS, multiple operational enhancements were adapted such as increasing the SCADA connectivity for ESPs, more effective troubleshooting procedures, proactive ESP monitoring, and targeted ESP intervention. Although targeted at 5%, the improvement in the last fiscal year was upwards of 15% with each metric outperforming its' previous fiscal year's performance. By assigning each ESP its own KPI, targeted intervention is enabled allowing the field staff to quickly identify weak performing ESPs and improve its performance. The application of detailed benchmarking has shown to guide both ESP field staff and management towards identifying individual weak performing ESPs per metric, unifying performance into a single operational score, and focuses on improving the overall performance of ESP operations.

TECHNOLOGIES USING TELEPHONE APPLICATIONS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

The global crisis in Climate Change (CC) requires Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Information and Technologies (CSAITs) to address it. Mobile Phone Applications (MPAs) among other ICTs could be veritable tools for enhancing job performance of field staff by facilitating their generation and dissemination of relevant information to adapt, cope with and mitigate the effects of CC. This study examined access and dissemination of CSAITs using MPAs by field staff in Edo State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics, access and dissemination of CSA-related information, use of MPAs for CSAITs and the constraints to usage of MPAs among field workers. Data were collected from the 120 field staff comprising 78 Field Extension Workers and 42 Enumerators of Edo State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Results show that 55.8% of respondents were males and 40.8% were between 41-50 years of age, 54.2% were HND/B.Sc holders and 50.8% had between 11-20years working experience. The CSAITs mostly accessed (≥50%) using MPAs include irrigation and “fadama” farming, weather forecasts and zero or minimal tillage and non-burning while CSAITs mostly disseminated include manure application, mulching, and timely harvesting. The MPAs used for CSA-related tasks include voice calls ( =2.78), Short Messaging Service (SMS) ( =2.53), calculators ( =2.46), camera ( =2.46) and emails ( =2.43). Constraints to using MPAs for CSAITs-related tasks included inadequate knowledge and skills in CSAITs ( =3.72) and in the use of many MPAs and

Remote Geotechnical Evaluation of Rights of Way of Hydrocarbon Transmission Lines

Due to the health emergency currently affecting the planet, it has been impossible for engineering specialists to carry out direct inspections of the land. During this time, it has been necessary to develop techniques and procedures that allow engineers to obtain information from the land remotely. Here, they are supported by the technology that allows them to record images remotely via drones and communicate so they can perform inspections by auxiliary field personnel, directed at a distance by specialists. To do this, a preliminary flight plan is defined, based on the experience and knowledge of the terrain by the specialist and the visual of the drone is transmitted via the Internet from a PC in the field. Later, which images to record and the sites that require more detail or a direct inspection by the field assistant are defined. Finally, the field assistant transmits the images of the inspection. In this way, the specialist’s training and experience, the operational ease of the drone, and the skill of the field staff are taken advantage of. This article details the procedure for remote inspection, and ways in which it can even be extended to corridor recognition tasks to define the layout of rights of way.

Covid Tracker for Medical Front-Liners- A Survey

This paper studies the need and suggests a centralized pandemic management system for monitoring and managing the Covid-19 positive patients. The initial process of the system will be data collection from a standard medical organization and performing suitable preprocessing. Following this, is the Geocoding process of the patient’s address and area wise sub clustering. Next is plotting the patient on a map for better visualization. After this the medical staff will access this data and field staff will fillup the patient’s symptoms and upload it to a database. A doctor can assign the type of treatment, ambulance and hospital to the patient. Finally, tracking the patient’s arrival to the hospital via ambulance and treating the patient will mark the end. Analysis and visualization on the patients live data will help the authorities in decision-making. Through all these steps, the monitoring of a Covid-19 positive patient will become very easy and convenient for the medical front liners and other concerned authorities

Reasons for Data-Prompted Site Visits: Field Staff Findings and Review Committee Decisions

ABSTRACT Background A major component of the ACGME's Next Accreditation System (NAS) is the annual review of key performance indicators by each review committee (RC) for all programs under its oversight. The RC may request a site visit that is data-prompted for either a full review of all common and specialty-specific program requirements or a focused review of specific concerns for programs identified as underperforming. Objective The aims of this study were to: (1) identify the reasons that RCs requested data-prompted site visits; (2) describe the findings by accreditation field representatives as reflected in their site visit reports; and (3) summarize the accreditation decisions of RCs that followed the data-prompted site visits (DPSVs). Methods RC letters to programs informing them of a DPSV, site visit reports, and RC letters with accreditation decisions were reviewed for all programs having DPSVs from 2015 to 2020. Results DPSVs were performed in 312 programs, including 59 hospital-based, 122 medical-based, and 131 surgery-based programs; 214 programs had a single DPSV, and 98 programs had repeat DPSV. The most frequent reason that RCs requested a DPSV was noncompliance on the annual ACGME Resident/Fellow Survey. Notification of a DPSV prompted a change in program director in 7% of programs in the single DPSVs group and 57% of programs in the repeat DPSVs group. Surgery-based programs in the single and repeat DPSVs groups were more likely to receive an unfavorable accreditation status. The majority of programs in the single DPSVs group (78%) and repeat DPSVs group (70%) had a status of continued accreditation as of March 2020. Conclusions Noncompliance on the Resident/Fellow survey was the most frequent reason that RCs requested a DPSV. The majority of programs in the single and repeat DPSV groups achieved a favorable accreditation status.

A model for malaria elimination based on learnings from the Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh

Background Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project (MEDP) was started as a Public-Private-Partnership between the Indian Council of Medical Research through National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh and Foundation of Disease Elimination and Control of India, which is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited. The project’s goal was to demonstrate that malaria can be eliminated from a high malaria endemic district along with prevention of re-establishment of malaria and to develop a model for malaria elimination using the lessons learned and knowledge acquired from the demonstration project. Methods The project employed tested protocols of robust surveillance, case management, vector control, and capacity building through continuous evaluation and training. The model was developed using the learnings from the operational plan, surveillance and case management, monitoring and feedback, entomological investigations and vector control, IEC and capacity building, supply chain management, mobile application (SOCH), and independent reviews of MEDP. Results The MEDP has been operational since April 2017 with field operations from August 2017, and has observed: (1) reduction in indigenous cases of malaria by about 91 %; (2) need for training and capacity building of field staff for diagnosis and treatment of malaria; (3) need for improvement insecticide spraying and for distribution and usage of bed-nets; (4) need for robust surveillance system that captures and documents information on febrile cases, RDT positive individuals, and treatments provided; (5) need for effective supervision of field staff based on advance tour plan; (6) accountability and controls from the highest level to field workers; and (7) need for context-specific IEC. Conclusions Malaria elimination is a high-priority public health goal of the Indian Government with a committed deadline of 2030. In order to achieve this goal, built-in systems of accountability, ownership, effective management, operational, technical, and financial controls will be crucial components for malaria elimination in India. This manuscript presents a model for malaria elimination with district as an operational unit, which may be considered for malaria elimination in India and other countries with similar geography, topography, climate, endemicity, health infrastructure, and socio-economic characteristics.

SMART Mental Health Project: process evaluation to understand the barriers and facilitators for implementation of multifaceted intervention in rural India

Background Globally, mental health problems are a growing public health concern. Resources and services for mental disorders are disproportionately low compared to disease burden. In order to bridge treatment gaps, The Systematic Medical Appraisal, Referral and Treatment (SMART) Mental Health Project was implemented across 12 villages in West Godavari district of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This paper reports findings from a process evaluation of feasibility and acceptability of the intervention that focused on a mental health services delivery model to screen, diagnose and manage common mental disorders (CMDs). Methods A mixed methods evaluation was undertaken using quantitative service usage analytics, and qualitative data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with stakeholders including primary care physicians, community health workers, field staff and community members. Barriers to and facilitators of intervention implementation were identified. Andersen’s Behavioral Model for Health Services Use was the conceptual framework used to guide the process evaluation and interpretation of data. Results In all, 41 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and 6 primary health centre (PHC) doctors were trained in mental health symptoms and its management. ASHAs followed up 98.7% of screen positive cases, and 81.2% of these were clinically diagnosed and treated by the PHC doctors. The key facilitators of implementation were adequate training and supervision of field staff, ASHAs and doctors, use of electronic decision support, incorporation of a door-to-door campaign and use of culturally tailored dramas/videos to raise awareness about CMDs, and organising health camps at the village level facilitating delivery of intervention activities. Barriers to implementation included travel distance to receive care, limited knowledge about mental health, high level of stigma related to mental health issues, and poor mobile network signals and connectivity in the villages. Lack of familiarity with and access to mobile phones, especially among women, to accessing health related messages as part of the intervention. Conclusions The evaluation not only provides a context to the interventions delivered, but also allowed an understanding of possible factors that need to be addressed to make the programme scalable and of benefit to policy makers.