America's Rural Hospitals: A Selective Review of 1980s Research

We review 1980s research on American rural hospitals within the context of a decade of increasing restrictiveness in the reimbursement and operating environments. Areas addressed include rural hospital definitions, organizational and financial performance, and strategic management activities. The latter category consists of hospital closure, diversification and vertical integration, swing-bed conversion, sole community provider designation, horizontal integration and multihospital system affiliation, marketing, and patient retention. The review suggests several research needs, including: developing more meaningful definitions of rural hospitals, engaging in methodologically sound work on the effects of innovative programs and strategic management activities—including conversion of the facility itself—on rural hospital performance, and completing studies of the effects of rural hospital closure or conversion on the health of the communities served.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74857/1/j.1748-0361.1990.tb00682.x.pd

DNA delivery by microinjection for the generation of recombinant mammalian cell lines

Gene transfer methods for producing recombinant cell lines are often not very efficient. One reason is that the recombinant DNA is delivered into the cell cytoplasm and only a small fraction reaches the nucleus. This chapter describes a method for microinjecting DNA directly into the nucleus. Direct injection has several advantages including the ability to deliver a defined copy number into the nucleus, the avoidance of DNAses that are present in the cell cytoplasm, and the lack of a need for extensive subcloning to find the recombinant cells. The procedure is described for two cell lines, CHO DG44 and BHK-21, using green fluorescent protein as a reporter gene. However, this method could easily be adapted to other cells lines and using other recombinant genes

Building a climate of trust during organizational change: The mediating role of justice perceptions and emotion

Over the years, research has shown that, although there are various factors which contribute to failed change, one of the key reasons people resist change is due to the inability of leaders to convince employees to support change and to commit the energy and effort necessary to implement it. Senior management can ensure an organization is change-ready by developing and maintaining a supportive culture and climate that positively influence the emotional health and welfare of employees. Despite the obvious importance of leadership to change efforts, little previous research has investigated, holistically and in the context of major change, the relationship between senior management actions and employee responses. Furthermore, the change literature largely ignores the role that emotions play in employee responses to change initiatives. This chapter addresses both areas, and develops a model of organizational change from a justice and emotions perspective, which depicts employees’ justice perceptions related to senior executives as affecting trust directly and indirectly, through associated emotional responses