A Health Plan Work in Progress: Hospital-Physician Price and Quality Transparency

Assesses health plans' efforts to provide consumers with price and quality comparisons on hospitals and doctors in twelve metropolitan areas. Looks at the plans' motives and strategies, as well as the limitations, risks, and challenges of transparency

Letter to Carol West regarding Scholarship Committee correspondence, April 7, 1980

A letter from Arthur Liebhaber to Carol West informing West that Alice Murphy is no longer employed at the Dade County Law Library and unlikely to accept appointment to the Scholarship Committee

Evidence of Emotional Intelligence in College Presidents’ Public Writing: Does Their Emotional Intelligence Change Over Time?

Higher education (HIED) presidents face a wide variety of competing demands and pressures. High emotional intelligence (EI) has been found to be effective in good leadership, but few studies exist which examine HIED presidents’ EI. This quantitative growth model study attempted to expand the understanding of EI and its source of change among HIED presidents. Several conceptualizations link together in this study to better understand HIED presidents’ EI. First, higher EI has been linked to strong leadership and strong communication. Studies show EI can change over time and EI is associated with certain demographic factors. Further, language, particularly written language, has been found to reveal characteristics of a persons’ personality. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a person’s personality through their writing can be effectively identified. LIWC has also identified writers’ Big Five personality traits more frequently than their EI. Finally, because most EI assessments are widely criticized, this study used a categorical-dynamic index derived from the Big Five as an EI proxy. This study examined the public writings of HIED presidents created every six months over 2.5-years to better understand EI, its change, and its moderators in HIED presidents. The study found that while EI was significantly different among HIED presidents, it did not significantly change over the 2.5 years. Further, while six moderators were examined, only institutional size was significant. Potential reasons for the lack of significance among these findings are that without targeted EI training, 2.5 years is not enough time to find a significant change in EI. In addition, the sample sizes within each moderator were too small to find significance. The hope is that this study will inspire other researchers to look further into HIED presidents’ EI, presidents who feel like they can improve will seek EI training, and institutions of HIED will consider candidates’ EI levels when selecting their next executive leader

Developing Health System Surge Capacity: Community Efforts in Jeopardy

Examines six communities' efforts to build surge healthcare capacities to respond to terrorist attacks, epidemics, and natural and manmade disasters; the needed components and funding; and the effects of the restrictions and decline in federal funds

Massachusetts Health Reform: High Costs and Expanding Expectations May Weaken Employer Support

Examines how, as a result of the state's health reform, improved access to the individual insurance market and increased employer responsibility may reduce employers' motivation and ability to provide coverage. Considers implications

The Role of Nurses in Hospital Quality Improvement

Presents findings from interviews with hospital executives on the role nurses play in efforts to improve the quality of hospital care, factors affecting their involvement, and the challenges they face. Describes common quality improvement programs

Evidence of Emotional Intelligence in College Presidents’ Public Writing: Does Their Emotional Intelligence Change Over Time?

Higher education (HIED) presidents face a wide variety of competing demands and pressures. High emotional intelligence (EI) has been found to be effective in good leadership, but few studies exist which examine HIED presidents’ EI. This quantitative growth model study attempted to expand the understanding of EI and its source of change among HIED presidents. Several conceptualizations link together in this study to better understand HIED presidents’ EI. First, higher EI has been linked to strong leadership and strong communication. Studies show EI can change over time and EI is associated with certain demographic factors. Further, language, particularly written language, has been found to reveal characteristics of a persons’ personality. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a person’s personality through their writing can be effectively identified. LIWC has also identified writers’ Big Five personality traits more frequently than their EI. Finally, because most EI assessments are widely criticized, this study used a categorical-dynamic index derived from the Big Five as an EI proxy. This study examined the public writings of HIED presidents created every six months over 2.5-years to better understand EI, its change, and its moderators in HIED presidents. The study found that while EI was significantly different among HIED presidents, it did not significantly change over the 2.5 years. Further, while six moderators were examined, only institutional size was significant. Potential reasons for the lack of significance among these findings are that without targeted EI training, 2.5 years is not enough time to find a significant change in EI. In addition, the sample sizes within each moderator were too small to find significance. The hope is that this study will inspire other researchers to look further into HIED presidents’ EI, presidents who feel like they can improve will seek EI training, and institutions of HIED will consider candidates’ EI levels when selecting their next executive leader

Naval air defense threat assessment: Cognitive factors and model

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the cognitive aspects of threat assessment. Threat assessment is the process of evaluating aircraft that are flying in the vicinity of one’s ship and determining how much of a threat they represent to one’s own ship and to the larger battle group. Data were collected from experienced U.S. Navy air defense officers as they interacted with a realistic scenario. Participants assigned threat and priority levels to selected aircraft, and described the factors and rationale that they used to arrive at their decisions. Twenty-two factors (e.g., Altitude, Speed, IFF) were identified. Participants consistently used different, but overlapping, subsets of factors, called profiles: A schema that lists the factors to be considered for a particular type of track, and the expected range of values that any given factor can take on. The participants appeared to sequentially evaluate the factors, and set threat levels that were inversely related to the fit between data and expectations. Aircraft that matched expectations were assigned lower threat levels than aircraft that did not match expectations. Threat Levels were biased by the Geopolitical Situation. A model was proposed that embodied the major findings in the data. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research. Special thanks to Dr. Sue Hutchins at the Naval Postgraduat