Patsey Doolin\u27s Chivaree

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Retained Foreign Body

Retained foreign bodies after surgeries or procedures are a rare complication with great consequences. The most commonly retained surgical items are guidewires, surgical sponges, and suture needles. The procedure at highest risk for retained foreign bodies is central venous catheterization. The literature regarding specific risk factors that increase the potential for retained surgical items varies. Evidence suggests that procedures with blood loss over 500 mL, lack of or an incorrect surgical instrument and sponge count, longer procedures, and unexpected intraoperative events all increase the risk of retained surgical items. There is conflicting evidence on the effect that elevated body mass index (BMI) or the emergent nature of a procedure has on retained surgical item risk. Interventions aimed at preventing retained foreign bodies include surgical counts, mandatory imaging after procedures, bar-coding of items used during surgery, and radiofrequency detection systems. These interventions have varying detection rates. Regardless of the safety measures used, none are perfect and a high index of suspicion must be maintained to prevent retained surgical foreign bodies

Improvements In Audit Report Lag And Reporting Timeliness: A Non-Event For Technology Advances

Technological advances have transformed the professional lives of all accountants.  Consequential expectations would include improvements in the timing of the audit report and the reporting of financial information.  There is a presumption in the empirical literature that audit report lag is a primary cause of financial reporting delay.  This empirical research study finds little or no change in the audit report lag and timeliness of reporting during the period 1996 to 2001.  Audit report lag appears to play a questionable role, if any, in financial reporting delays and other factors such as inertia and interest may be the major impediments to timely reporting.  Finally, given the financial atmosphere after the Enron-Arthur Andersen debacle, our research finds no difference among auditing firms for the variables examined.  While this could be interpreted in a positive manner, it could also indicate that all Big-5 firms potentially have similar problems

Does A Tone At The Top That Fosters Ethical Decisions Impact Financial Reporting Decisions: An Experimental Analysis

The accounting profession believes the reliability of financial reporting is affected by an organizations internal control, the foundation of which relates to the tone at the top of an organization. Despite attempts by organizations to create ethical environments, financial accountants are sometimes confronted with ethical dilemmas that may affect financial reporting decisions.An experiment that consisted of six different financial reporting scenarios was used to examine the influence of the tone at the top on financial reporting decisions. Subjects were assigned to three different organizational categories in terms of tone at the top a tone that fosters ethical behavior, a tone that does not foster ethical behavior, and a neutral tone. The results support the position that tone at the top does relate to financial reporting decisions

DIT scores and political ideology: evidence of a non-significant relationship

The present study was motivated by concern about the validity of the DIT and methodological issues in Fisher and Sweeney (2001, 1998) studies. Our study of 98 accounting students from three private institutions in the eastern U.S. generates results that directly contradict those of Fisher and Sweeney’s (1998). Using the nine-point scale, we could reject our three hypotheses relating to DIT scores associating with political orientation. First, we find that there was not a significant difference between the pre-test DIT scores of liberal and conservative politically orientated students. Second, the follow on DIT test scores for those students who were not politically conservative did not decrease when responding from a conservative perspective. Third, the follow on DIT test scores for those students who were not politically liberal did not increase when responding from a liberal perspective