Operation Note Transformation: The Application of Lean Six Sigma to Improve the Process of Documenting the Operation Note in a Private Hospital Setting

Clinical documentation is a key safety and quality risk, particularly at transitions of care where there is a higher risk of information being miscommunicated or lost. A surgical operation note (ON) is an essential medicolegal document to ensure continuity of patient care between the surgical operating team and other colleagues, which should be completed immediately following surgery. Incomplete operating surgeon documentation of the ON, in a legible and timely manner, impacts the quality of information available to nurses to deliver post-operative care. In the project site, a private hospital in Dublin, Ireland, the accuracy of completion of the ON across all surgical specialties was 20%. This project sought to improve the accuracy, legibility, and completeness of the ON in the Operating Room. A multidisciplinary team of staff utilised the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology, specifically the Define/Measure/Analyse/Design/Verify (DMADV) framework, to design a new digital process application for documenting the ON. Post-introduction of the new design, 100% of the ONs were completed digitally with a corresponding cost saving of EUR 10,000 annually. The time to complete the ON was reduced by 30% due to the designed digital platform and mandatory fields, ensuring 100% of the document is legible. As a result, this project significantly improved the quality and timely production of the ON within a digital solution. The success of the newly designed ON process demonstrates the effectiveness of the DMADV in establishing a co-designed, value-adding process for post-operative surgical notes.

Program Quality and Developmental Outcomes Related to Youth Volleyball in Ethiopia: Assessing Relationships and Variations

This study aims to assess program quality and developmental outcomes of a youth volleyball project in one of the regional states in Ethiopia, and further examine variations between groups across gender and project site zones. We applied a cross-sectional survey design, collecting quantitative data from youth volleyball players (n = 215) with a mean age of 16.18 years (SD = 0.69) through a self-reported questionnaire. The results indicated that young players’ perceptions did not vary significantly across gender, except for the mean score of the perceived experience variable for girls (M = 2.68, SD = 0.318) was significantly higher than the mean score of boys (M = 2.58, SD = 0.258). One-way (project site zone) analyses of variance (ANOVAs) identified that youth volleyball projects in the central zone were consistently rated higher than those in the western zone, except for the current practice rating. Moreover, correlation analysis results indicated the presence of a significant relationship, both within and between program quality and developmental outcome variables. Furthermore, the results of regression analysis indicated that the program quality variables together predicted each of the developmental outcomes, accounting for 18.9% to 31.7% of the variances. It is concluded that the quality of the youth volleyball program in Ethiopia varies considerably across the project site zones and the program quality variables significantly relate to the developmental outcomes measured with differential effects. The data from this study reveals several practical applications for Ethiopia and beyond in terms of guiding youth volleyball projects. Moreover, the findings of the study showed that youth sport and the manner in which it is structured and delivered to youth players influences the attainment of positive developmental outcomes. These results suggest that contextual differences really do have an effect on the quality of youth sport program processes and developmental outcomes.

Factor Influencing Basecamp Location Selection of Highway Projects Based on Spatial Analysis

The highway project has a significant challenge in carrying out its work. The procurement of massive and constant materials is a significant problem. There are problems in basecamp selection: high transportation costs due to the distance to the raw material from the quarry, and on a managerial level, selection of basecamp location is the basis for construction firm management in controlling costs, time, and quality of the project. The literature review has mapped technical and non-technical factors in two decades. However, the lesson learned from historical data as a basis for decision-making is limited—the mileage factor between the quarry to the basecamp and from basecamp to the project site. This study aims to analyze the factors that influence determining the basecamp location for highwayprojects. The research method used is a case study, with a qualitative approach strategy using a questionnaire from experienced parties in similar projects. Analytical Hierarchy Process approach and in-depth interview with the former technical manager of highway project from a construction company were used as a decision support tool. The results showed that a priority of basecamp selection was determined based on the factor of the distance from the base camp to the project site, the distance from the basecamp to the quarry, the plan for independent material production. Apart from technical constraints, licensing and social issues were a factor in the location determination stage. This study contributes to the decision-making model for selecting basecamp locations at the managerial level in a construction company.

Real-time evaluation of compaction quality based on RF- ACGWO with high robustness and generalization ability

The effective evaluation of compaction quality is a key issue for the safety of earth-rock dams. However, existing prediction models of compaction quality are designed to improve prediction accuracy but generally ignore generalizability and robustness, resulting in deviations from practical evaluation results, making these models inapplicable to complex construction environments. To address these problems, a novel real-time evaluation model for construction unit compaction quality based on random forest optimized by adaptive chaos grey wolf algorithm (RF-ACGWO) is proposed in this article. In RF-ACGWO, RF predicts compaction quality, while ACGWO increases efficiency and accuracy for traditional RF parameter selection and improves the generalizability and robustness of the model. Also, meteorological factors at a project site are also considered to affect the model, thereby improving model accuracy. After embedding the proposed method in a Three-Dimensions (3D) rolling monitoring system, real-time evaluation, guidance and feedback on a project site can be obtained. Compared to the conventional evaluation methods, RF-ACGWO achieves the highest accuracy of 0.838, the best generalizability of 0.793 and the most stable robustness when applied to a large-scale, real-life hydraulic engineering project.

Investigation and prediction of noise pollution levels from wind turbines: A case study of Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant, South Vietnam

In recent years, the demand for electric power in Vietnam has increased at annual growth rates of 10% to 12%, and the challenge is to promote renewable energy sector. One of these sustainable energy sources is to harness energy from the wind through wind turbines (WTs). In fact, more wind power plants in Vietnam are continuously to be built due to the rapidly growing demand of country's industrialization and modernization process. However, a significant hindrance preventing the widespread use of WTs in Vietnam is the noise they produce, which significantly contributes to the annoyance experienced by residents living near wind farms. The prediction of noise impacts for new wind farms is one of the many aspects of the environmental impact assessment process in Vietnam as well as in the world. In addition, the determination of the 45 dBA noise contour-line is very important because it is the basis for determining the scope of the project impact according to the IFC/WB performance standards and the number of households to be relocated from the project site. The article’s main focus is therefore on the estimation and simulation of the acoustical noise produced by 18 WTs during the operation phase of Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant and the background noise levels at the project site have been performed by using a combination of specific study methods such as environmental modeling (iNoise Pro modeling software), mapping and geographic information systems. The obtained results show the importance of using modeling method in quantifying the noise levels generated from 18 wind turbines of the Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant met IFC standard and Vietnamese regulation on noise during day-time, but did not meet IFC standard on noise during night-time. The level of background noise measured during night-time in the project area also did not meet IFC standard. Therefore, the overall cumulative noise level exceeds the IFC standard for residential area (45 dBA only). In addition, the appropriate solutions to reduce noise levels from WTs are also proposed.

Eco-innovation Adoption in Malaysian Contractor Firms: Understanding the Components and Drivers

Eco-innovation (EI) is a concept that integrates eco-consciousness within innovation development. While EI has been widely applied in the manufacturing industry, its adoption in the construction sector remains uncertain. The rising concern of environmental impacts on construction necessitates the importance of finding more innovative ways to push environmental needs within the complexity of projects’ design and methods. Contractors hold a strategic position to promote and adopt EI into management, construction, and development. This paper explores 1) the adoption level of EI practices and 2) the relationship between the adoption of EI practices and the factors that drive EI, within the Malaysian contractor firms. A questionnaire survey was developed using 18 EI components and four driving factors. A total of 95 Grade G7 contractor firms responded to the survey. The survey revealed that the level of EI adoption in contractor firms is still at a moderate pace. The results showed that organisational EI is a crucial component that supports the firm’s eco-innovative management approach to improve firm’s environmental performance. The results indicated that all four driving factors have a positive relationship with the implementation of EI. Technology factor was identified as crucial in influencing better adoption of EI in contractor firms. Findings from this study are beneficial to develop a framework on strategies to increase the EI adoption rate among the contractor firms and deepen the understanding of EI implementation at the firm level, further extending to the project site level.

Analysis of influential factors affecting workers’ productivity on highway construction projects during Covid-19 pandemic in Cagayan Valley Region, Philippines

In highway construction projects, labor-oriented work is an integral part of the management process, requiring analysis of factors affecting labor productivity during Covid-19 pandemic. This research identified 53 influential factors affecting construction labor productivity at selected cities and towns in Cagayan Valley Region, Philippines. Due to the pandemic, the construction industries incurred substantial profit losses. More so, the construction workers are too much affected because of the Enhance Community Quarantine (ECQ) imposed by the local government. Results indicated there was laxity on the Covid-19 protocols. No health worker in the project site ranked the highest in the health & safety factor group with an RII of 0.97 and ranked 1st among 53 factors on the different groups. Besides, no safety engineer was assigned to the projects and ranked 2nd with an RII of 0.93. Among the 7 groups of factors, the health and safety group ranked 1st with 0.81, followed by the schedule compression group with an RII of 0.78. Hence, these two groups of factors have a strong relationship, as evidenced by number of workers reduced. It was learned that the contractors’ strategy was to increase the number of working days to cope with their schedules. Hypothesis testing supported that there are various significant factors influencing labor productivity loss during the Covid-19 pandemic, as suggested by more than 50% of the respondents.

Impediments to Construction Safety Improvement

Construction safety is one of the parameters for evaluating the success of a construction project. Evidence from the literature suggests that a poor health and safety (H&S) record is a matter of concern to project stakeholders. The benefits of improved H&S performance include, inter alia, increased productivity, reduced construction cost, reduced workplace accidents, and an enhanced industry image. This research seeks to determine major obstacles to project site safety in Nigeria. An understanding of these impediments provides an opportunity to develop strategies for H&S at construction sites. A questionnaire survey was used to address the objectives of the study, while descriptive statistics were employed to interpret the quantitative data obtained. The findings revealed that stakeholders’ lack of commitment, ineffective H&S regulations, and inadequate H&S training among construction professionals are the major obstacles to H&S performance. This study provides in-depth knowledge by highlighting the significant obstacles to H&S practice. The research is limited to Nigeria and did not secure enough evidence to generalise its findings. Therefore, similar studies are required in other developing countries to compare the impediments to construction H&S in those countries to the findings of this study.