Modelling home care organisations from an operations management perspective

Home Care (HC) service consists of providing care to patients in their homes. During the last decade, the HC service industry experienced significant growth in many European countries. This growth stems from several factors, such as governmental pressure to reduce healthcare costs, demographic changes related to population ageing, social changes, an increase in the number of patients that suffer from chronic illnesses, and the development of new home-based services and technologies. This study proposes a framework that will enable HC service providers to better understand HC operations and their management. The study identifies the main processes and decisions that relate to the field of HC operations management. Hence, an IDEF0 (Integrated Definition for Function Modelling) activity-based model describes the most relevant clinical, logistical and organisational processes associated with HC operations. A hierarchical framework for operations management decisions is also proposed. This analysis is derived from data that was collected by nine HC service providers, which are located in France and Italy, and focuses on the manner in which operations are run, as well as associated constraints, inputs and outputs. The most challenging research areas in the field of HC operations management are also discussed

hospital factory for manufacturing customised patient specific 3d anatomo functional models and prostheses

The fabrication of personalised prostheses tailored on each patient is one of the major needs and key issues for the future of several surgical specialties. Moreover, the production of patient-specific anatomo-functional models for preoperative planning is an important requirement in the presence of tailored prostheses, as also the surgical treatment must be optimised for each patient. The presence of a prototyping service inside the hospital would be a benefit for the clinical activity, as its location would allow a closer interaction with clinicians, leading to significant time and cost reductions. However, at present, these services are extremely rare worldwide. Based on these considerations, we investigate enhanced methods and technologies for implementing such a service. Moreover, we analyse the sustainability of the service and, thanks to the development of two prototypes, we show the feasibility of the production inside the hospital

Letture e lettori di Lucano, «Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Fisciano 27-29 marzo 2012»

I contributi del volume studiano aspetti del "Bellum civile" di Lucano e della sua ricezione

Climbing the Great Wall of China for Australia: three views

Claire Roberts, Jean-François Lanzarone and Sang Y

Vissuti emotivi e bisogni non soddisfatti nei caregivers familiari di soggetti con disturbo del comportamento alimentare.

Introduzione ed obiettivi: Nella ricerca clinica, il termine carer viene utilizzato per riferirsi a quelle persone direttamente coinvolte o con un ruolo significativo nella vita di un soggetto con un disturbo mentale. Finora è stata condotta poca ricerca sulla specificità dei caregivers di pazienti con disturbi alimentari. I disturbi del comportamento alimentare (ED) pongono diverse sfide ai caregivers, come la mancanza di informazioni, scarso supporto sociale e comprensione, burden psicologico. Questo studio esplorativo di tipo cross-sectional si focalizza sui bisogni psicologici e sull’esperienza di assistenza dei carers di pazienti con un disturbo alimentare, con l’obiettivo di esplorare i livelli di bisogni non soddisfatti e le esperienze negative vissute dai familiari caregivers. È stato inoltre studiato il livello di accordo tra familiari e pazienti riguardo la percezione dei sintomi principali dei disturbi alimentari. Metodo: Trentotto caregivers familiari (età media: 45.9 anni) e 38 pazienti con una diagnosi di ED (principalmente AN e BN) hanno compilato delle misure self-report ((Carers’ Needs Assessment Measure, CaNAM; Experience of Caregiving Inventory, ECI; Short Evaluation of Eating Disorders, SEED; Family Adaptability and Cohesion and Evaluation Scales, FACES III). Risultati: I caregivers hanno evidenziato diverse difficoltà nell’esperienza di assistenza, confrontandosi con vari bisogni non soddisfatti. La principale fonte di supporta risulta la famiglia. Il burden psicologico dei caregivers non sembra essere associato con la gravità sintomatica dei pazienti e con la data di insorgenza della patologia. È stata infine discussa l’importanza di occuparsi dei bisogni psicologici dei caregivers familiari nella pratica clinica

Psychological support and psychotherapy via digital devices in Covid-19 emergency time: Some critical issues

The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting fear, quarantine and lockdown measures implemented in Italy and other countries to contain the risk of contagion have seriously impacted the mental health of a large number of people. The need to offer psychological and psychotherapeutic support to these people, while respecting the government's pressing calls to "stay home", have led many psychologists and psychotherapists, both in the public and private sectors, to provide their professional services via teleconference, telephone, smartphone, etc. The aim of this work is to highlight some critical issues related to the sudden switch from the traditional method of providing psychological services to the digital one in Italy