The Impacts of Perceived Risks on Information Search and Risk Reduction Strategies: A Study of the Hotel Industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examined the impacts of perceived risks on information search and risk reduction strategies as well as the relative importance of each risk reduction strategy. Multiple regression analysis was applied to analyze the sample of South Korean hotel customers and to test the hypotheses of the study. It was found that when hotel customers faced the same kind of risk, they adopted different information search strategies to reduce various risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, ‘following hotel employee’s advice’ was perceived to be the most important information search strategy to reduce risks. This is the first study to compare the differences of perceived risk and information search strategies under the COVID-19 pandemic and normal conditions to help hotels to develop more effective strategies to recover from the pandemic. The results of the study should be interpreted with care since it was based on Korean hotel customers. The influence of cultural differences in perceived risk and information search strategy should be addressed in future studies. The study contributes to the tourism and hospitality information search and risk reduction strategy-related literature and recommends avenues for further research in the field.

Development and Implementation of an Opioid Risk-Reduction Strategy

Practice Problem: Accidental overdose is a continued concern for those who are prescribed opioids, and it is essential that healthcare members intensify prevention and response measures in order to prevent death or misuse from this medication. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: “In adult patients at an outpatient chronic pain management clinic (P), how does development and implementation of a safe opioid risk-reduction office policy (I), compared to usual practice (C), improve patient rates of naloxone availability and health literacy (O) over eight weeks (T)?” Evidence: The CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Naloxone and Opioid Overdose, and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services website were used to gather evidence-based components for information and practice changes. Intervention: This project created a safe opioid risk-reduction strategy in the form of a new office protocol that ensured naloxone was received with instruction on what to do in the event of an overdose or life-threatening respiratory reaction to opioids and other safety information. The providers assessed the change in knowledge by using the teach back method. Outcome: The results showed improvement in the availability of naloxone as a reversal agent as well as increased understanding of safe opioid storage, disposal, and drug interactions. Conclusion: The manuscript reports barriers, successes, and challenges discovered during the project. The recommendations can be applied to other outpatient clinic sites to enhance the safety of all patients who manage their chronic pain with the use of prescription opioids.

eClinic: increasing use of telehealth as a risk reduction strategy during the covid-19 pandemic

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, telehealth was already being rapidly adopted nationally by healthcare systems. During the covid-19 pandemic, increased use of telehealth may be considered as a risk reduction strategy. Benefits of this strategy may be conferred to both patients and health providers.

Reducing the Risk of Failure by Deliberate Weaknesses

The deliberate weaknesses are points of weakness towards which a potential failure is channeled in order to limit the magnitude of the consequences from failure. The article shows that reducing risk by deliberate weaknesses is a powerful domain-independent method which transcends mechanical engineering and works in various unrelated areas of human activity. A classification has been proposed of categories and classes of deliberate weaknesses reducing risk as well as discussion related to the underlying mechanisms of risk reduction. It is shown that introducing and repositioning existing weaknesses is an effective risk-reduction strategy which transcends engineering and can be applied in many unrelated domains. The article shows that in the case where the cost of failure of the separate components in a system varies significantly, an approach based on deliberate weaknesses has a significant advantage to the equal-reliability/equal-strength design approach.