Political institutions, state capacity, and crisis management: A comparison of China and South Korea

How do political institutions influence crisis management? By comparing responses to COVID-19 in China and South Korea, this article argues that different political institutions affect countries’ responses to crises by shaping state capacity. First, the article proposes a state capacity-driven crisis management framework including four types of capacity: information capacity, decision-making and implementation capacity, coercive capacity, and mobilization and cooperation capacity. Second, the article contributes to the literature by making linkages between different forms of state capacity and regime type. Combinations of state capacity are different in democracies and authoritarian regimes because state capacities are shaped by two different institutional arrangements: central–local government relations and state–society relations. Additionally, the article finds that the impacts of political institutions on crisis management through different state capacities are contingent on scenarios such as the different stages of a crisis.

109 Improving Escalation and Treatment Plans in the Borders General Hospital (BGH) During COVID-19

Topic Clear escalation and treatment plans created in discussion with patients are crucial to managing patients safely and appropriately. Our goal was to introduce a standardised, easily identifiable document for this purpose, with an aim of 90% of medical inpatients having a clear escalation plan discussed and documented. Intervention We developed a Treatment Escalation Plan (TEP), raised awareness via different platforms and delivered teaching for staff. For baseline and subsequent data collections following interventions, we reviewed the notes of twenty random medical inpatients for decisions regarding escalation, patient involvement in decision making including capacity and specific interventions considered. We also included time taken to find information; documented patient/family discussions and whether a TEP was present. We collected qualitative feedback from staff. Improvement After introduction, TEP was present in 35/60 patients (58%). Improvement was demonstrated across all measured domains when a TEP form was present: escalation decision (no TEP 80%, TEP 100%), discussion with patient/relative (no TEP 4%, TEP 85%), capacity decision regarding escalation (no TEP 52%, TEP 91%), decision on specific interventions (no TEP 12%, TEP 94%), mean time taken to find information (no TEP 84 seconds, TEP 34 seconds). Qualitative feedback from staff was positive, particularly the inclusion of specific care decisions beyond “DNACPR”. Discussion We felt it was critical to develop a TEP to ensure appropriate decisions are made and clearly documented for medical inpatients, especially in light of COVID-19. In patients with a TEP completed, we observed improvements in all domains, particularly in the involvement of patients/relatives in escalation decisions, which is key to delivering patient-centered care. Implementing a new system in a pandemic had challenges, such as continuity of staffing, however feedback was uniformly positive. This is an ongoing project that will continue to promote TEPs to improve patient care.

Recursive Solution of Queue Length Distribution for Geo/G/1 Queue with Delayed Min(N, D)-Policy

In this paper we consider a discrete-time Geo/G/1 queue with delayed Min(N, D)-policy. Using renewal process theory, total probability decomposition technique and z-transform, we study the transient and equilibrium properties of the queue length from an arbitrary initial state, and obtain both the recursive expressions of the transient state queue length distribution and the steady state queue length distribution at arbitrary time epoch n+. Furthermore, we derive the important relations between equilibrium queue length distributions at different time epochs n–, n and n+. Finally, we give some numerical examples about capacity decision in queueing systems to demonstrate the application of the analytical results reported in this paper.

The Problems in will Expression in Civil Law Transactions and Healthcare in Case of Capacity of Individuals

The expression of each individual’s will is one of the important rights. This freedom is protected by human rights. In legal systems the expression of the central positions of the will of individuals is protected. In civil law transactions as well as in health care individuals have specific and complicated rights to express their will. And the problematics of it comes from that capacity issue. The rights to expression, rights to liberty ect. are recognized as the basic rights of each individual, of each member of the society. The protection of the expression of the individual’s will is significant moment from the international as well as national point of view. A significant aspect and more sensitive is the protection of incapable person’s rights, for instance, in civil law transactions and healthcare matters in legal framework. The key challenge for the protection of those rights is to find the balance between capable and incapable persons’ rights protection in the case of will expression in particular matters. Keywords: legal capacity, decision, treatment, willpower, civil law

Coordinate the Express Delivery Supply Chain with Option Contracts

In this paper, the authors study the capacity decision problem in an express delivery supply chain consisting of an online retailer and an express delivery provider where products sold by the online retailer are delivered by the express delivery provider to end customers. Unlike the case of the traditional manufacturer-retailer channels, the delivery capacity is a kind of “service product” that cannot be inventoried. To avoid the risk of unprofitable capacity, the delivery provider tends to build a limited delivery capacity which is smaller than the system-wide optimal capacity. To solve such a problem, the authors investigate the capacity coordination issue in this service supply chain using option contracts. By allowing the online retailer to reserve the capacity in advance, the delivery provider could rent a part of capacity which surpasses its self-owned capacity from a third party logistics. It is demonstrated that, compared with the benchmark based on a newsvendor model, option contracts can coordinate the delivery service supply chain. The authors also figure out the feasible option contracts that improve member's expected profit and show the degree of improvement that could be achieved.

Simultaneous Optimization of Capacity Decision and Pricing Policy of a Hotel in Stochastic Demand Environment

In the context of the hotel industry, one of the biggest and capital-intensive challenges a decision maker has is to decide on the capacity of the hotel. While taking this decision, the decision maker needs to take seasonality of demand into consideration. Also, the interplay between price and demand also play a major role on this decision. In this study, an effort is made to simultaneously identify the optimal capacity and pricing policy of a hotel in the presence of a stochastic demand environment. Differential calculus is used to identify the solution. Both capacity and price are considered as decision variables for the decision maker. To comply with reality, the seasonality in demand is incorporated in the form of bi-level demand. Numerical illustrations are also shown to explain the decision-making process. This study offers a starting point for an entrepreneur to decide both capacity and pricing for their upcoming hotel.

Capacity Decision in Emergency Hospital Operation Rooms

The operations management is a multidisciplinary field that investigates, for instance, the design, management and processes improvement focused on the development, production, distribution and delivery of products and services, encompassing activities such as the implementation of policies, making quota decisions, identification and problem solving, response to uncertainty, among others. Regarding the resources dimensioning in hospitals, the Brazilian scenario is limited to legislative instruments that assume a prior and added sizing. This chapter uses a discrete event simulation tool to set the amount of operation rooms needed for patient care in an emergency department, so that emergency patients have guaranteed compliance, minimizing the cancellation of elective surgeries because of this type of demand. As a result, it was found that the minimum amount established by normative instruments was not appropriate to the specific requirements of the organization.