Research, development, and evaluation of the practical effect of a storage inflow and outflow management system for consumables in the endocrinology department of a hospital

Background This study was designed for the research and development (R&D) and application of a storage inflow and outflow management system enabling departments to perform efficient, scientific, and information-based consumable management. Methods In the endocrinology department of a hospital, expert and R&D teams in consumable management were set up, and an information-based storage inflow and outflow management system for consumables was designed and developed. The system was operated on a personal computer and was divided into three modules: public consumables, bed consumables, and quality control management. The functions of the system included storage inflow and outflow, early warnings, response to user queries, and statistics on consumables. Data were derived from the hospital information system (HIS,ZHIY SOFTWARE HIS VERSION4.0) and a questionnaire survey. Economic indicators, work efficiency of consumable management, nurse burnout, consumable stockroom management, and staff satisfaction were compared under manual management, Excel-based management, and the consumable storage inflow and outflow management system. The results of the questionnaire were analysed using the R software, version 4.1.0. Results Dates were obtained from manual management, Excel-based management and the consumable storage inflow and outflow management system. Under these three methods, the daily prices of department consumables per bed were 53.43 ± 10.27 yuan, 38.65 ± 8.56 yuan, and 31.98 ± 7.36 yuan, respectively, indicating that the new management system reduced costs for the department. The time spent daily on consumable management was shortened from 119.5 (106.75, 123.5) min to 56.5 (48.5, 60.75) to 20 (17.25, 24.25) min. Nurses’ emotional fatigue and job indifference scores, respectively, decreased from 22.90 ± 1.65 and 8.75 ± 1.25 under manual management to 19.70 ± 1.72 and 6.90 ± 1.37 under Excel-based management and to 17.20 ± 2.04 and 6.00 ± 1.30 under the novel system; the satisfaction of the warehouse keeper and collection staff, respectively, increased from 76.62% and 80.78% to 91.6% and 90.5% to 98.8% and 98.5% under the three successive systems. Conclusions The storage inflow and outflow management system achieved produced good results in the storage and classification of consumables.

The Use of Technological Innovations in Promoting Effective Humanitarian Aid - A Systematic Review of the Literature

The number and scale of natural and man-made disasters is increasing at an unprecedented rate, leading to devastating consequences for citizens, governments and entire economies. In response, Humanitarian Supply Chains (HSC) are used as a means of reducing suffering and saving lives. HSCs manage and deliver aid to those in need after a disaster strikes and exist only for the period of the relief operation. With reduced budgets there is an impetus to investigate technological innovations that offer increased efficiencies and reduced costs. One such innovation is information and communications technology (ICT); currently under-utilized by HSCs. This paper investigates the benefits, barriers and enablers of increased ICT adoption in HSCs and offers solutions most suited to their needs. The study develops a matrix that identifies the enablers and barriers of implementing innovative ICT and highlights associated managerial implications and suggested areas for future research.

Going Telemental

Telemental health (TMH) is considered by many to be the future of mental healthcare, with some claiming that these methods should replace more traditional approaches. Early teletherapeutic initiatives demonstrate an immediate set of benefits for patients including improved access to care, reduced costs, better schedule flexibility, greater environmental familiarity, and higher rates of patient engagement. Notable limitations to TMH include enhanced privacy concerns, the variable digital literacy of certain populations/persons, and technological instability. However, other limitations regarding therapeutic relationships, experiences, and settings have gone undertheorized and are not sufficiently represented in the current research. This chapter surveys these considerations and argues that digital medical interventions are unable to effectively replicate the same degree of ‘contact' and ‘intimacy' available in physical care; providers should therefore be cautious in wholly replacing in-person methods or in implementing a standalone paradigm of digital care.

Improved Design of Lifting Slide Rail System of Stone Processing Machine

In this research, improved design for the lifting slide rail system on stone processing machine has innovated in a few aspects, including the innovative design of the lifting rail, fixture to fix and connect with the hydraulic tappet, and the sliding block equipped with limit device etc. The improved design has been successfully applied to the stone processing machine to crush and process block and stone flake processing waste of different shapes, it turned out that the needle flake particle content and crushing index of the processed stone are in line with the national standard requirements, i.e. crushing index of 7.2%, reaching the technical requirements of Class I crushed stone. In another words, the improved design has significantly improved the processing efficiency and safety and reduced costs effectively; meanwhile, its handy operation and utilization has made it ready to promote in a wider range.

Applications of lean in human resources management in healthcare

Recent challenges brought by the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic have underscored the importance of coping with pressures on the workforce in healthcare around the world and have emphasised the continuing need to improve quality and operation efficiency of healthcare services even in such dire circumstances. Over the years, lean thinking has gained recognition in the healthcare industry, where lean has been associated with benefits, such as improved healthcare delivery quality, reduced costs and increased effectiveness of the healthcare delivery processes. Lean thinking has also been analysed in human resources with benefits, such as increased job satisfaction and perceived job autonomy. The current narrative review was planned to analyse and discuss the application and implementation of lean strategies with a particular focus on human resource management in healthcare. The review is complemented by a case study in a private healthcare group in Turkey, ---Continue

Development of a Novel Design Strategy for Moving Mechanisms Used in Multi-Material Plastic Injection Molds

Plastics injection molding is a sector that is becoming increasingly competitive due to the environmental issues it entails, pressuring consumers to reduce its use. Thus, plastics processing companies attempt to minimize costs, with the aim of increasing competitiveness. This pressure is transmitted to the mold manufacturers, as the mold conditions the equipment that it is used for, which may have significantly different amortization costs. The present work aimed to design a novel mechanism able to deal with the necessary movements in 2K injection molding in a more compact way. A novel hybrid mechanical and hydraulic movement was developed. More compact movements lead to smaller molds, which can be used on smaller injection machines, leading to reduced costs. This methodology consists of multiplying a disproportionate movement to the mold through several movements, which results in a slightly more complex, but much more compact, system for molds devoted to multi-material injected parts.

Organizational Cost and Complexity Saving Opportunities via the Development, Deployment, and Implementation of Blockchain Networks

Blockchain is being promoted as the platform to disrupt business as usual in many transaction-heavy sectors. Questions remain about the future standards of blockchain, their feature set, functionality, and the willingness of organisations to disrupt their existing revenue streams via blockchain. The most significant near-term promise that affords industry is the cost and complexity savings via the standardization of their technology infrastructure stacks. This paper explores the benefits available of reduced costs and complexity via the adoption of blockchain.

Improving the efficiency of machining on metal-cutting machines by aligning the CNC program and the evolutionarily changing cutting dynamics

Modern machines with high accuracy provide an accordance of the trajectories of the executive elements to the CNC program. However, this is not guarantee the same accuracy of manufacturing the part. One of the main reasons for the formation of the geometric defects is the elastic deformations of the tool and the workpiece. It is caused by variations of the cutting forces, changes in the rigidity of the workpiece along the tool path. It depends on changes of the properties of the dynamic link formed by cutting. Therefore, there is a problem of synergetic aligning of controlled trajectories with changing cutting properties. In the article, the regularities of the alignment of external control and internal dynamics are considered on the basis of mathematical modeling of the system in which the trajectories of the executive elements are controlled. The case of accounting the a priori given law of changes of the stiffness of the workpiece is considered. The effectiveness of the alignment is estimated by the reduced costs while ensuring the required quality of the parts.

Entrepreneurship and innovation in informal productive enterprises: Development of process innovation in a floral arrangement company

Purpose: reporting a process innovation in an informal productive enterprise, inserted in the field of parties, ceremonies and events décor, involving floral arrangements. Methodology: qualitative-descriptive study, with information being obtained through documentary research and case study. Originality/Relevance: this study analyzes an informal productive business, whose practice improvement was conducted based on technological resources. It is relevant because there are only few studies dedicated to technological development, and that thematize the most frequent type of productive enterprise in Brazil. Findings: the process innovation that was conducted has enabled a greater productive efficiency, as well as health, safety and hygiene in the workplace, since it has reduced costs and manufacturing time; and it has eliminated unnecessary procedures that result from the manual method. Theoretical/Methodological Implications: the innovation, developed and described heading from the theories and methodological approach used, in addition to promoting improvement in the ability of adapting to different customer demands, has added an element to the process innovation effects foreseen by Oslo Manual. Social Implications: in parallel to the operational results pointed out, the academic activity has enabled the improvement of economic enterprise that belong to settings and groups in social disadvantage.

Design and Simulation of Smart Communication System for Unmanned Arial Vehicles

In recent years, the use of drones has drastically increased as the evolution of drone use in commercial sectors and reduced costs of the hardware. Earlier drone services were mostly used for military operations but nowadays the Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV) system is very advanced and its applications are not limited to military operations. The recent years have also witnessed a network evolution of UAVs from single ground to air network to multi-UAV network systems along with usage of wireless public networks like LTE which can act as UAV communication channel. In the proposed project, a communication system used in the UAS system is simulated to analyze the UAV behavior under different conditions with respect to mission planning and the communication networks used. A comprehensive study is done on communication networks used in controlling UAVs. For a safer approach, the proposed model is simulated using available software instead of hardware implementations. ArduPilot SITL, MAVProxy and Mission Planner are used to simulate the UAV system virtually. Whereas network simulations of Wi-Fi and LTE network are done with the help of NS-3 on a separate platform. Various network parameters like network delay, throughput, etc., are graphically represented.