Is Upcoding Anesthesia Time the Tip of the Iceberg in Insurance Fraud?

The question of whether there is anomalous billing in anesthesia care is beginning to be asked by operating room managers, health care administrators, policy makers, and regulators. This question may arise when an anesthesia case seems to take more time to complete than it should. Audits, when conducted, have found that an unusual number of claims end with the digits 0 or 5 as if large numbers of cases start or end on the 5-minute mark. Such a finding serves as a red flag for that practice to undergo an audit. Questions may also be raised because the percentage of patients coded as having a higher anesthesia risk, using the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification System, has increased from 2.9% in 2005 to 13.2% in 2013, mainly because coding a patient’s physical status at a higher classification or anesthesia risk in a claim ensures better payment of the claim

An Accessible Infrastructure

Professors Carol Tenopir and Suzie Allard, and Mike Frame elucidate how their studies into perceptions of data sharing among scientists are enhancing research collaboration and progress

A conceptual framework of the interface between the design and construction processes

Purpose – As the construction industry strives for closer integration of the participants, more responsibility for the management of the detailed design process is being directed to main contractors and combined with their existing duties of managing the construction and pre-construction processes. Crucially, this necessitates successful management of the interface between these processes, and this paper seeks to investigate a conceptual view of that interface to provide a foundation for improving understanding of it. Design/methodology/approach – Recent and current literature is examined, and various theoretical backgrounds for the design and the construction processes are reviewed. The consequences for the understanding of the interface are discussed. The significance of conceptual frameworks is also reviewed. Findings – A significant difference is identified in the published work between the theoretical understandings of the construction and design processes. From this a conceptual framework for the interface between these processes is developed. Practical implications – The difference identified may have significant implications for further research, and for the development of management techniques applicable to the interface. Furthermore, the lack of access to specialist knowledge at the optimum time during the design process is identified as having a potentially significant impact on that process. Originality/value – These findings could provide an understanding and basis for further research into the interface between the processes, and for the development of an enhanced model that would facilitate improved management of the interface and the optimisation of the process of the selection, appointment and input of specialist subcontractors

Usability Testing to Improve Research Data Services

Usability refers to the ease and accessibility of a system. Usability testing seeks to study how users interact with a system in order to improve the users’ experience and satisfaction in achieving their objectives with the system. Usability testing is an important metric for improving a library’s online services, including research data services. Libraries can help make research data available by providing repositories and data curation services for researchers to house their collected data. Providing services throughout the science data life cycle (i.e. plan, collect, share, and preserve) is important for producing higher quality research, expanding its impact, and data reuse. The Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is supported by the US National Science Foundation and seeks to provide the framework and cyber-infrastructure to meet the needs of the science community to provide constant and secure access to Earth observational data. The DataONE network has heavily invested and implemented a comprehensive Usability Program to ensure user-centric software and components are made available to the variety of DataONE stakeholders. DataONE’s ONEMercury is a search tool for scientific data, and the ONEDrive is a mounted workspace on the user’s computer that works with ONEMercury. In 2012, a usability test was performed of the DataONE’s ONEMercury tool to evaluate how scientists engage with its content and information. Twenty-six participants performed a series of tasks using the tool. MORAE software recorded the sessions, including screen display, keystrokes, and mouse movements. Participants were also asked to think aloud as they completed the tasks. The results were analyzed by observation, think aloud, time on task, and number of errors. Another usability test was performed of the DataONE’s ONEDrive to assess user impressions as the tool was in development. Six participants were shown a wireframe of the tool and asked for their feedback. This paper proposes to examine the results from the ONEMercury and ONEDrive tests and draw implications for libraries and other data providers wishing to implement and utilize usability practices and principles

UA & Sociocultural WG: Summary of 5 Priority Tasks

Presentation on the five priority areas including toolkit/tools, customer-based focused assessment on tools and needs and assessments of other stakeholders, personas/scenarios, policies and best practices, and development of a feedback mechanism

Peers Speaking to Peers on Finding Sustainability

This panel from the World Data System's 2023 Repository Sustainability Summit featured Dr. Pedro Luiz Pizzigatti Correa (University of Sao Paulo), Rebecca Koskela (RDA-US), Giri Prakash (ARM Data Center), and was moderated by Mike Frame (USGS)

The role of federal libraries and federal librarians in research data services (RDS): An exploratory study

This study explores the roles federal (government) libraries and librarians play in scientific (international) knowledge development within federal agencies and in the larger scientific enterprise. In particular, this research looks at libraries’ and librarians’ facilitation of scientific inquiry through the application of research data services (RDS). Currently, librarians’ research and data consultation activities with administrators and researchers typically involve creating citations and finding datasets; less frequently, librarians are engaged in data management planning and other RDS activities. However, federal libraries and librarians have been identified as key stakeholders in collaborative science generally and specifically in scientific data cyberinfrastructures, such as the NSF-funded DataONE Project. “DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth) enables science through cyberinfrastructure development for data storage, preservation, use, and reuse and by building a ommunity of data literate researchers and information practitioners” (see dataone.org)

Data Management Education from the Perspective of Science Educators

In order to better understand the current state of data management education in multiple fields of science, this study surveyed scientists, including information scientists, about their data management education practices, including at what levels they are teaching data management, which topics they covering, and what barriers they experience in teaching these topics. We found that a handful of scientists are teaching data management in undergraduate, graduate, and other types of courses, as well as outside of classroom settings. Commonly taught data management topics included quality control, protecting data, and management planning. However, few instructors felt they were covering data management topics thoroughly, and respondents cited barriers such as lack of time, lack of necessary expertise, and lack of information for teaching data management. We offer some potential explanations for the existing state of data management education and suggest areas for further research