A practical guide to the principles and methods of cost analysis as a managerial tool for improving the efficiency of hospitals. Addressed to managers and administrators, the manual aims to equip its readers with the knowledge and skills needed to calculate the costs of different activities or departments, analyse their significance, and use this information to manage resources wisely. Throughout, recommendations and advice are specific to the different purposes of cost analysis and the different types of decisions commonly facing managers. The manual, which is intended for use as a training tool, was finalized following extensive field testing in workshops in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Zimbabwe. Methods of cost-finding and cost analysis are thoroughly explained and illustrated with practical examples and model step-by-step procedures for performing calculations. Since hospital accounting systems in developing countries may have gaps or inaccuracies, the manual gives particular attention to reliable methods for estimating costs when existing data are problematic. The manual opens with an explanation of the many advantages of using cost-finding and cost analysis as managerial tools. These include the provision of data needed for informed decisions on operations and infrastructure investment, the planning of future budgets, the establishment of charges for patient services, and the development of mechanisms for ensuring that costs do not exceed available revenues and subsidies. Against this background, the core of the manual is presented in three chapters. The first and most extensive chapter explains how to allocate costs to cost centres and how to compute unit costs. Information and examples are presented according to seven steps. Each is discussed in terms of the types of data needed, how component cost items should be treated, and how costs can be computed in particular situations or cases. Practical examples are used to illustrate the types of questions addressed in cost analysis and the value of this information in guiding decisions. Chapter two explains how cost data can be used to improve the management of an individual hospital. Information is intended to guide decisions at both the cost centre, or department, level and the hospital level. Managerial tasks covered include budgeting, profitability, efficiency improvements, contracting outside services or producing in-house, and assessing fiscal solvency. Chapter three considers the use of cost data in managing national and regional hospital systems. Specific applications include improvements in the referral system, the appropriate use of different providers of services, and the comparison of similar hospitals to identify inefficiencies or sources of waste. The manual concludes with a series of practical exercises, followed by explanations of their answers.
A practical guide to the principles and methods of cost analysis as a managerial tool for improving the efficiency of hospitals. Addressed to managers and administrators, the manual aims to equip its readers with the knowledge and skills needed to calculate the costs of different activities or departments, analyse their significance, and use this information to manage resources wisely. Throughout, recommendations and advice are specific to the different purposes of cost analysis and the different types of decisions commonly facing managers. The manual, which is intended for use as a training tool, was finalized following extensive field testing in workshops in Bangladesh, Egypt, and Zimbabwe. Methods of cost-finding and cost analysis are thoroughly explained and illustrated with practical examples and model step-by-step procedures for performing calculations. Since hospital accounting systems in developing countries may have gaps or inaccuracies, the manual gives particular attention to reliable methods for estimating costs when existing data are problematic. The manual opens with an explanation of the many advantages of using cost-finding and cost analysis as managerial tools. These include the provision of data needed for informed decisions on operations and infrastructure investment, the planning of future budgets, the establishment of charges for patient services, and the development of mechanisms for ensuring that costs do not exceed available revenues and subsidies. Against this background, the core of the manual is presented in three chapters. The first and most extensive chapter explains how to allocate costs to cost centres and how to compute unit costs. Information and examples are presented according to seven steps. Each is discussed in terms of the types of data needed, how component cost items should be treated, and how costs can be computed in particular situations or cases. Practical examples are used to illustrate the types of questions addressed in cost analysis and the value of this information in guiding decisions. Chapter two explains how cost data can be used to improve the management of an individual hospital. Information is intended to guide decisions at both the cost centre, or department, level and the hospital level. Managerial tasks covered include budgeting, profitability, efficiency improvements, contracting outside services or producing in-house, and assessing fiscal solvency. Chapter three considers the use of cost data in managing national and regional hospital systems. Specific applications include improvements in the referral system, the appropriate use of different providers of services, and the comparison of similar hospitals to identify inefficiencies or sources of waste. The manual concludes with a series of practical exercises, followed by explanations of their answers.
Paediatrics at a Glance provides an introduction to paediatrics and the problems encountered in child health as they present in primary, community and secondary care, from birth through to adolescence. Thoroughly updated to reflect changes in understanding of childhood illness over the last 5 years, the 4th edition of this best-selling textbook diagrammatically summarises the main differential diagnoses for each presenting symptom, while accompanying text covers important disorders and conditions as well as management information. Paediatrics at a Glance: • Is an accessible, user-friendly guide to the entire paediatric curriculum • Features expanded coverage of psychological issues and ethics in child health • Includes more on advances in genetics, screening and therapy of childhood illness • Contains new videos of procedures and concepts on the companion website • Includes a brand new chapter on Palliative Care - an emerging area in the specialty • Features full colour artwork throughout • Includes a companion website at www.ataglanceseries.com/paediatrics featuring interactive self-assessment case studies, MCQs, videos of the procedures and concepts covered in the book, and links to online resources Paediatrics at a Glance is the ideal companion for anyone about to start a paediatric attachment or module and will appeal to medical students, junior doctors and GP trainees as well as nursing students and other health professionals.
Physicians diagnose and treat a host of conditions. Everyone who understands the nature of health care will be better able to participate in their own and their family's care. The Nature of Clinical Care explains the concepts underlying medical care. It provides everybody, including students, professionals and patients, with the know-how to participate in their own care. Approachable, straightforward, and insightful, it fills a crucial gap by addressing the patient-doctor relationship, how people make diagnoses, the purposes, benefits and risks of interventions, and the art and science of Medicine. It is a vast collection of helpful resources. As such, this compendium augments our knowledge base enabling and empowering everyone who must interact with the care system and its professionals.
A well prepared student takes the initiative to create learning opportunities and propel themselves towards qualification; we find that the better prepared you are, the luckier you become. From the Preface The key to passing clinical finals is not a secret; adequate preparation and the ability to think logically and speak clearly are all hallmarks of a successful candidate. This unique guide gives final year students the knowledge and confidence required to pass their examinations with insiders' tips on particular information and skills required to be a top candidate. It is ideal as both a revision aid in the weeks leading up to the examination, and as an aide-memoire the night before.
This new edition of the successful Get Ahead! Surgery: 250 SBAs for Finals provides invaluable revision for all medical students preparing for final exams. Written by experienced authors, this book covers the entire syllabus in a clear and comprehensive style. It builds on the strengths of the first edition to provide reliable and effective revisio
This new edition of the successful Get Ahead! Surgery: 250 SBAs for Finals provides invaluable revision for all medical students preparing for final exams. Written by experienced authors, this book covers the entire syllabus in a clear and comprehensive style. It builds on the strengths of the first edition to provide reliable and effective revision practice to help candidates achieve success in final exams.
Autism: A Practical Guide for Parents was written from the perspective of a father of children (now adults) with disabilities and who is also a licensed and certified psychologist and counselor. When parents are faced with serious medical problems in their children, they become very gullible to exaggerated claims of cure and unethical providers. The book contains substantial information about behavioral interventions to help mediate the behavioral concerns for children with autism, including an extensive reading list to help supplement the parents’ working knowledge and interventions. Also, a section is dedicated to various (and at times erroneous) interventions, including chelation, transcranial magnetic therapy, light therapy, and others. A research section is included to emphasize the importance of psychometric testing and review for the development of reliable and valid testing assessment vehicles. A psychological approach to the understanding of autism begins with a specific perspective of this challenge. First of all, children are children, including those children with autism. Second, you need to be educated about a broad spectrum of autism symptoms, including behavioral, medical, speech and language, and physical. Also, you need to join with a behavioral health team, including a psychologist, behavioral specialist, therapeutic staff support, and/or mobile therapist through your local managed care organization. Remember, you can help make positive behavioral and emotional health changes in your child to help him/her achieve a happy, healthy, and productive life. I have organized this book to be an easy read for parents and professionals. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to read about the abstract details of existential phenomenology, but would rather let me help you understand the details of autistic behavior from the viewpoint of a psychologist and father. I hope I have succeeded in this task!
In this chapter, we begin by defining domestication as a genetic process, whereby animals change phenotypically and genetically as a response to living under human supervision. This has caused a convergent set of phenotypic modifications across numerous different species, through a combination of relaxed natural selection, increased human selection, and correlated responses. The genetic mechanisms underlying these processes are discussed in addition to genetic drift and inbreeding. The driving types of mutations are dealt with, as is the way in which genes are organized in the genome to give rise to a specific genetic architecture facilitating selection responses. The different methods used to discover genes and mutations are divided into either top-down approaches, where one starts with the phenotype and uses mapping methods to find the causative genes, or bottom-up, where the genetic polymorphism is the starting point and the phenotype the desired response variable. A number of examples of single genes and mutations that have been coupled to behavioral variation are given, among them genes showing pleiotropic effects on pigmentation, and genes involved in regulation of the effects of neuropeptides. Finally, the relatively novel area of behavioral epigenetics is examined, in particular with its possible relation to domestication effects.
An active pleasure to read' Mail on Sunday Harold Wilson's famous reference to 'white heat' captured the optimistic spirit of a society in the midst of breathtaking change. From the gaudy pleasures of Swinging London to the tragic bloodshed in Northern Ireland, from the intrigues of Westminster to the drama of the World Cup, British life seemed to have taken on a dramatic new momentum. The memories, images and colourful personalities of those heady times still resonate today: mop-tops and mini-skirts, strikes and demonstrations, Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, Mary Quant and Jean Shrimpton, Enoch Powell and Mary Whitehouse, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger. In this wonderfully rich and readable historical narrative, Dominic Sandbrook looks behind the myths of the Swinging Sixties to unearth the contradictions of a society caught between optimism and decline.
Celebrated fiction author and bioterrorism expert Dominic Peloso weaves a complex tale of alien invasion, environmental catastrophe, and societal upheaval. He blends hard sci-fi with biting political and social commentary to create a truly modern literary masterpiece that transcends genres.
A dazzling account of the men (and occasional woman) who led the world’s empires, a book that probes the essence of leadership and power through the centuries and around the world. From the rise of Sargon of Akkad, who in the third millennium BCE ruled what is now Iraq and Syria, to the collapse of the great European empires in the twentieth century, the empire has been the dominant form of power in history. Dominic Lieven’s expansive book explores strengths and failings of the human beings who held those empires together (or let them crumble). He projects the power, terror, magnificence, and confidence of imperial monarchy, tracking what they had in common as well as what made some rise to glory and others fail spectacularly, and at what price each destiny was reached. Lieven’s characters—Constantine, Chinggis Khan, Trajan, Suleyman, Hadrian, Louis XIV, Maria Theresa, Peter the Great, Queen Victoria, and dozens more—come alive with color, energy, and detail: their upbringings, their loves, their crucial spouses, their dreadful children. They illustrate how politics and government are a gruelling business: a ruler needed stamina, mental and physical toughness, and self-confidence. He or she needed the sound judgement of problems and people which is partly innate but also the product of education and experience. A good brain was essential for setting priorities, weighing conflicting advice, and matching ends to needs. A diplomatically astute marriage was often even more essential. Emperors (and the rare empresses) could be sacred symbols, warrior kings, political leaders, chief executive officers of the government machine, heads of a family, and impresarios directing the many elements of "soft power" essential to any regime’s survival. What was it like to live and work in such an extraordinary role? What qualities did it take to perform this role successfully? Lieven traces the shifting balance among these elements across eras that encompass a staggering array of events from the rise of the world’s great religions to the scientific revolution, the expansion of European empires across oceans, the great twentieth century conflicts, and the triumph of nationalism over imperialism. The rule of the emperor may be over, but Lieven shows us how we live with its poltical and cultural legacies today.
SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture. It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie. To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst toThe X Factor.
The new edition of this practical multimedia resource shows you exactly how to perform successfully a full range of peripheral nerve block techniques. Over four hundred illustrations, the majority of which are in colour, plus online video clips, portray the relevant surface anatomy, the internal anatomy, the ultrasonographic anatomy to vividly depict correct needle placement in real patients. Peripheral Nerve Blocks and Peri-Operative Pain Relief has been extensively revised to reflect changes in contemporary practice. Provides a detailed foundation upon which trainees and practitioners can develop their skills in peripheral nerve block. Explains fundamental principles such as the mechanism of action of local anesthetic drugs, needle types, as well as toxicity and safety. Uses a consistent, user-friendly format to present each nerve block’s indications, contraindications, relevant anatomy, technique, adverse effects, and complications. Provides a complete, all-in-one resource in which each block is described in terms of its relevant anatomy, its ultrasonographic anatomy, and its clinical performance. Shows you how to proceed using high quality clinical photographs, radiographic images and specially commissioned line drawings. Offers "Clinical Pearls" in every chapter to help you obtain optimal results. Each chapter in this new edition is supplemented with practical advice and examples of how to use ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks to its greatest effect. Includes a brand new chapter on Transversus abdominis plane block. Features more than two hours of narrated video clips via the Expert Consult online platform to demonstrate a full range of nerve block procedures and enables the user to access full text and images from any computer. Includes the latest ultrasound guided applications for regional anesthesia and pain relief procedures.Ultrasound guided blocks are increasingly being used in the administration of nerve blocks. Reflects the rapid development and acceptance of ultrasound guided techniques. The “hot area in regional anesthesia. Includes new techniques and neural blocks such as Transversus abdominis plane block. Keeps the user up-to-date with the most effective delivery of anesthesia and analgesia. Additional commonly used procedures for pain relief. Provides comprehensive coverage of the full range of regional anesthetic techniques. Each chapter in this new edition is supplemented with practical advice and examples of how to use ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks to its greatest effect. Additional photographs and line drawings in the text accompanied with further online video procedures.The reader is provided with a unique visual guide to not only the approach to and anatomy of specific nerves, but also to the surrounding anatomy, its ultrasonographic anatomy and its clinical performance.. Illustrations and video loops can be used in lectures, presentations and easily downloaded into presentation software.
With more than 130 readings and 24 pages of visual arguments, Conversations offers an extraordinary variety of authors, genres, voices, and viewpoints on important contemporary civic issues. Touching on issues that affect students both as individuals and as citizens, the readings and visuals invite students to join important civic conversations through their own writing. For each issue addressed, Conversations offers not just one or two selections, but several--reminding students that no issue has just one or two sides, but usually involves a wide range of voices. Frequently, selections comment on and argue with other selections, demonstrating that writing is a social exchange, and that much writing is a response to what we read. The images included in this new edition also remind students that we regularly read--interpret and respond to--not only words, but visual arguments found in photographs, artworks, cartoons, advertisements, and websites.
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