Hospital and Physician Capacity Update

Offers an alternative view of healthcare costs by examining trends in hospital capacity and healthcare labor across regions. Outlines how effective management of healthcare capacity would enable affordable quality care that meets patient needs and wants

Trends and Variation in End-of-Life Care for Medicare Beneficiaries With Severe Chronic Illness

Provides an updated analysis of regional and hospital variations in end-of-life care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic illnesses, including percentage of hospital deaths, days in intensive care units, and physician labor per patient

Tracking the Care of Patients with Severe Chronic Illness - The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008

In 2001 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued Crossing the Quality Chasm, a report that sent a wake-up call to patients, providers, and policy makers about the poor quality of American health care. The IOM argued that one of the central drivers of poor quality has been the unsystematic and fragmentary nature of our health care delivery system. Nowhere are the system’s failings more apparent than in the care of the chronically ill. More than 90 million Americans live with at least one chronic illness, and seven out of ten Americans die from chronic disease. Among the Medicare population, the toll is even greater: about nine out of ten deaths are associated with just nine chronic illnesses, including congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, cancer, coronary artery disease, renal failure, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease, and dementia

Understanding the Stereotypes, Emotions, and Behaviors Towards Introverts in the Workplace

The present study utilizes the SCM and the BIAS Map to understand perceptions of introverts within the workplace and highlight potential approaches to mitigate introversion mistreatment. It was hypothesized that, when compared to extraverted employees, introverted employees would be perceived as lower in warmth and competence, receive more emotional responses of contempt, more behavioral responses of passive harm, and that contempt would mediate the relationship between competence and passive harm. Conversely, it was hypothesized that extraverts would be perceived as higher in warmth and competence, receive more emotional responses of admiration, more behavioral responses of active facilitation, and that admiration would mediate the relationship between competence and passive facilitation. MANOVA and mediation analyses were conducted to assess the proposed relationships. Unexpectedly, introverts were not perceived as significantly less warm than extraverts, were not found to receive significantly more responses of contempt or active harm, and contempt was not found to mediate the relationship between competence and active harm. All other hypotheses were supported. By assessing the stereotypes generally held about introverts and extraverts in the workplace, and the subsequent emotional and behavioral effects from the stereotypes, this framework is expanded to include personality and test the theoretical model of introversion mistreatment. In addition to expanding the framework, we also call attention to interventions aimed at decreasing introversion mistreatment within the workplace. Limitations and areas for future research are also discussed

St. Albans and the Markyate Psalter: Seeing and Reading in Twelfth-Century England

One of the most compelling and provocative books of twelfth-century England, the Markyate Psalter was probably produced at St. Albans Abbey between 1120 and 1140. The manuscript has been known by many names: the St. Albans Psalter, the Albani Psalter, the Hildesheim Psalter, and the Psalter of Christina of Markyate. Heralded as a high point of English Romanesque illumination, the manuscript contains the earliest known copy of the saint\u27s life known as Chanson de St. Alexis. This volume explores the manuscript\u27s many contexts, reading its texts and images amidst the rising internationalism of the period, marked by the circulation of objects, ideas, and peoples. Some of the leading scholars of twelfth-century manuscript studies here explore the Markyate Psalter, understanding it through new methodologies, pursuing innovative lines of inquiry. The collection shines fresh light on a well-known manuscript, and promises to open important lines of discourse about the book and its readers.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_sitv/1000/thumbnail.jp

Field Test of the Cougar Home Safety Assessment for Older Persons Version 1.0

After reviewing the literature on environmental safety and existing home safety evaluation tools, the researchers developed the Cougar Home Safety Assessment Version 1.0 (Cougar 1.0). This assessment is a 56-item tool for identifying environmental safety hazards in the homes of older persons. The first purpose of this study was to develop and field test the Cougar 1.0 to determine its inter-rater reliability and validity. The second purpose was to identify specific environmental safety hazards in the residences of older persons during the field test. Three graduate occupational therapy students administered the Cougar 1.0 in the homes of 14 older persons within one county of northeastern Pennsylvania. The instrument was found to have a moderate level of inter-rater reliability, as Cohen’s Kappa for the ratings of the 3 raters was .506. Percent agreement between the three raters was 90 percent. The field test found that the most frequently unsafe aspects of the homes were: a lack of grab bars near toilets; no emergency numbers posted near phones; the presence of non-grip throw rugs; lack of fire extinguishers; and lack of step stools. Participating residents and occupational therapy home safety specialists provided positive feedback regarding the content validity of the Cougar 1.0. This research suggests that the use of this instrument by occupational therapists may prevent client injuries in the home

Cloud Computing in Virtual Environments

In this paper we present the basis of a new middleware service that provisions clouds for virtual organizations (VOs).This service makes use of a virtual environment\u27s inherent ability to render objects to represent clouds with real clouds. These clouds are created on demand by avatars and tagged to provide a rudimentary semantic that can be used for searching. Clouds are then loaded with an inventory that contains objects and scripts used to access remote resources. Compute resources, sensor networks, and visualization services can be part of the cloud\u27s inventory. Second Life is used to implement this cloud computing service. The authorization mechanism of Second Life and an external database managed by our cloud service is used to restrict access to clouds based on avatar roles and group membership.We argue that this service can be used effectively by a VO to provide a very interactive experience for its members as well as potential collaboration between multiple VOs. Cloud computing takes a very figurative meaning in our work since we literally create clouds in the environment and manage their ownership, access and capabilities. We believe this innovative work brings together grid computing, social networking and virtual environments in a very attractive and understandable way

Exploring Occupational Therapy Student Stress: Professor and Student Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to identify occupational therapy student stress levels and determine factors influencing this emotional response. The study also sought to obtain the perspective of occupational therapy professors on this issue. This mixed-methods study utilized an online quantitative descriptive survey and a telephone or face-to-face qualitative open-ended interview. Online survey respondents included a nationwide sample of 340 occupational therapy professors and 459 occupational therapy students. Additionally, nine professors and five students served as the interviewees. All professors were certified by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) and employed either full or part time as instructors in an Accreditation Council of Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) accredited entry level Master of Science or entry level doctoral educational program. All students were enrolled in an ACOTE accredited entry level master’s or entry level occupational therapy doctoral degree program. Findings demonstrated high stress levels in students caused by personal, financial, and academic pressures. Professors acknowledged student stress; however, the results indicated the need for enhanced understanding and communication regarding student stress. Students may benefit from more intense counseling and stress reduction measures. Additionally, professors and universities may need to enhance existing support systems for students. Professors are advised to be attuned to student stress levels and may need to adjust academic requirements accordingly. Further research is needed to determine avenues for diminishing student stress

Effects of Illustration Details on Attention and Comprehension in Beginning Readers

Reading is a critical skill as it provides a gateway for other learning within and outside of school. Many children struggle to acquire this fundamental skill. Suboptimal design of books for beginning readers may be one factor that contributes to the difficulties children experience. Specifically, extraneous details in illustrations (i.e., interesting but irrelevant to the story elements) could promote attentional competition and hamper emerging literacy skills. We used eye-tracking technology to examine this possibility. The results of this study indicated that excluding extraneous details from illustrations in a book for beginning readers reduced attentional competition (indexed by gaze shifts away from text) and improved children’s reading comprehension. This study suggests that design of reading materials for children learning to read can be optimized to promote literacy development in children