Healthcare Key Performance Indicators; A DHA Study in Perception and Importance by Clinical and Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals at a Large Healthcare System

Healthcare systems in the United States are unique structures where compassion for the care of others meets the science of medicine. It is a business, but it is a business with passionate professionals who care about the health of its customers, or patients. While most businesses have one structured financial system, health care contains finance for both the business and the patient. KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, reported by finance are usually created for revenue driven initiatives with little contact and communication with the clinical teams. KPIs are a prominent driver utilized by health systems and reimbursement agencies to measure efficiency and cost (hfma.org, 2023). They indicate the state of important measurements within the hospital (hfma.org, 2023). They measure the health of the facility through a series of patient-related and financial related targets (hfma.org, 2023). KPIs are considered best practice and are recognized at a national level (hfma.org, 2023). It is unclear which KPIs are perceived as most important to an organization, and if there is a difference between clinical leaders and financial leaders. The goal of this study is to review what is perceived as the most important KPIs and why by both clinical and financial leadership in a health organization. A small nominal group survey study was performed, and the survey was sent to clinical physician and nurse leaders and non-clinical financial leaders who reviewed and selected KPIs that are the most important. Participants were asked their rankings and reasoning for those rankings. Participants were asked to choose their top 5 most important, then to rank the top 5 in level of importance with 5 being the most important. The results indicate that the most important KPIs to both revenue cycle and operational leaders are similar and hold high values within the organization as they are directly related to revenue. Although treating patients is the most important aspect for all healthcare leaders, understanding the bottom line is a large contributor to an organization’s success. The participant group understands the metrics needed to maintain quality of care, employment, and critical ancillary needs for the hospital. The study results indicate the understanding of KPIs is equal among revenue cycle and operational leaders

T cell receptor signal strength in Treg and iNKT cell development demonstrated by a novel fluorescent reporter mouse

Generation of a Nur77 reporter mouse is used to demonstrate TCR signal strength during thymic selection and peripheral maintenance of conventional and nonconventional T cell subsets and presents a novel tool for studying antigen receptor activation in vivo

Inspiring Children's Futures : Children's Participation: Adults' Perceptions of Child Participation and Young People's Views on Responses during Covid-19

This Learning Report is part of a series of thematic reports documenting the COVID 4P Log survey findings from service providers and policymakers from 22 countries and five continents. The project presented in this report drew upon key findings from the COVID 4P Log project pertaining to children’s1 participation to engage young people in discussions about the meaning and implications of those findings. The COVID 4P Log questions and these findings have been analysed and co-authored by a collaborative, intergenerational partnership of adults and young people

Plasma concentrations of soluble IL-2 receptor α (CD25) are increased in type 1 diabetes and associated with reduced C-peptide levels in young patients.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Type 1 diabetes is a common autoimmune disease that has genetic and environmental determinants. Variations within the IL2 and IL2RA (also known as CD25) gene regions are associated with disease risk, and variation in expression or function of these proteins is likely to be causal. We aimed to investigate if circulating concentrations of the soluble form of CD25, sCD25, an established marker of immune activation and inflammation, were increased in individuals with type 1 diabetes and if this was associated with the concentration of C-peptide, a measure of insulin production that reflects the degree of autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells. METHODS: We used immunoassays to measure sCD25 and C-peptide in peripheral blood plasma from patient and control samples. RESULTS: We identified that sCD25 was increased in patients with type 1 diabetes compared with controls and replicated this result in an independent set of 86 adult patient and 80 age-matched control samples (p = 1.17 × 10(-3)). In 230 patients under 20 years of age, with median duration-of-disease of 6.1 years, concentrations of sCD25 were negatively associated with C-peptide concentrations (p = 4.8 × 10(-3)). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The 25% increase in sCD25 in patients, alongside the inverse association between sCD25 and C-peptide, probably reflect the adverse effects of an on-going, actively autoimmune and inflammatory immune system on beta cell function in patients