Evaluation of the new ward housekeeper role in UK NHS Trusts

In the year 2000, the UK government promoted the concept that hospital services be shaped around the needs of the patient to make their stay in hospital as comfortable as possible and advocated the introduction of a ward housekeeper role in at least 50 per cent of hospitals by 2004. This is a ward-based non-clinical role centred on cleaning, food service and maintenance to ensure that the basics of care are right for the patient. In 2002 the Facilities Management Graduate Centre at Sheffield Hallam University completed a series of six case studies looking at the role within different NHS Trusts. These were developed through interviews and observations with the facilities manager, ward housekeepers and nursing staff and also by collecting documentary evidence such as job descriptions, financial details and training information. Common themes were identified, relating to experiences of developing and implementing the ward housekeeper role. This paper suggests models of best practice relating to role, recruitment, induction, training, integration and management.</p

Achieving patient-focused maintenance services/systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the contribution made from the estates services to the quality of the patient experience from the perspective of all estates staff ranging from front-line staff to directors of estates and facilities. The work is exploratory in nature owing to no known earlier studies in this area. Design/methodology/approach – A postal questionnaire is distributed to a non-random self-selecting group of National Health Service (NHS) estates staff – therefore those staff working in the areas of maintenance, engineering, building, gardening and general office estates management. A total of 920 questionnaires are distributed to the 46 NHS trusts. There are 202 responses, which is a return rate of 22 per cent. Findings – It is clear that overall estates staff consider their job/service to be important to the patient experience, 94 per cent of respondents indicate they did. This is further confirmed by 82 per cent of estates line managers considering their job to be important to the patient experience. In terms of how estates feel they contribute to the patient experience, there is a range of responses, however the main reason highlighted is the recognition that the hospital could not function without the service being provided, i.e. the maintenance of essential services, water, power and the general infrastructure. Estates departments perhaps need on patient awareness of the services they provide and the importance of them in making the hospital function. Research limitations/implications – The results presented provide a useful insight into how estates departments in the NHS perceive their contribution to the patient experience. However, they are not without limitations. First, the sample size is relatively small; and second non-random sampling techniques are used. Originality/value – The findings suggest a number of avenues for future work. The most obvious would be to investigate the level of awareness from patients regarding estates services in the NHS

Patient choice in the NHS: How critical are facilities services in influencing patient choice?

Purpose – From December 2005, patients in the UK needing an operation will be offered a choice of four or five. These could be NHS trusts, foundation trusts, treatment centres, private hospitals or practitioners with a special interest operating within primary care. This is called “Choose and Book”. The purpose of this research is to discover how critical facilities management service factors are in influencing a choice of hospital. The aim is to find out what the most important influencing factors are to people when making a choice of which hospital to have their operation. If facilities services and the patient environment are influencing factors in the patient experience, which are considered critical. Design/methodology/approach – Focus groups were used as the primary method of data collection. Findings – The study finds that all three focus groups placed more importance on clinical factors than facilities factors. High standards of cleanliness and good hospital food were the two facilities factors that participants in all groups placed most importance on. Cleanliness was highlighted by all three groups as a top facilities priority for the NHS at the moment and there was a general perception that private hospitals have better standards of cleanliness. Practical implications – By understanding how important facilities factors are in influencing patient choice and which ones have a critical impact, it will help NHS trusts focus on where they channel their resources.</p

An exploratory study of goods and services tax awareness in Malaysia

Tax has been recognized as one of the main sources of governments’ income. Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an example of tax that contributes to the governments’ income. This tax has been implemented in many countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. GST is a tax imposed on the sale of goods and services. In recent years, this issue on GST has been raised by the Malaysian Government as an approach to reduce its deficit. However, the Malaysian Government is still finding the right time to implement GST as they are still conducting studies on the social impact of GST. This study attempts to investigate Malaysian awareness towards the upcoming of GST implementation

\u3ci\u3eAgonopterix Alstroemeriana\u3c/i\u3e (Oecophoridae) and Other Lepidopteran Associates of Poison Hemlock \u3ci\u3e(Conium Maculatum)\u3c/i\u3e in East Central Illinois

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) (Apiaceae), a noxious Eurasian weed extensively naturalized throughout North America, is characteristically attacked by few insects. Over the past two decades, an introduced oecophorid caterpillar, Agonopterix alstroemeriana, has been reported infesting poison hemlock, its sole host in its area of indigeneity, in parts of the northeastern and western United States. We report for the first time evidence of established midwestern populations of this species. We also report poison hemlock as a host plant for the polyphagous lepidopterans Eupithecia miserulata, Trichoplusia ni, and Spilosoma virginica

Systematic review of therapeutic leave in inpatient mental health services

AimTo identify, critically evaluate, and synthesise the empirical evidence about therapeutic leave from mental health inpatient settings.Background“Leave” occurs when a mental health inpatient exits the hospital ward with the appropriate authorisation alone, or accompanied by staff, family, or friends. Limited research has previously addressed therapeutic as opposed to unauthorised leave, and the evidence-base has not been systematically evaluated.DesignSystematic review methodology following relevant Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement guidance.Data SourcesMultiple electronic databases (CINAHL; Criminal Justice database; PsycARTICLES; Scopus; OpenGrey; Cochrane; GoogleScholar) for papers published from January 1967 to July 2017.Review MethodsInformation was extracted under the following headings: study, purpose/aims, sample, country, setting, design and data collection method(s), data collection instrument, and results. Papers were assessed, as per the hierarchy of scientific evidence, and where there was sufficient data, we calculated a range of standardised rates of leave incidence.ResultsStandardised leave rates in forensic settings reflect security level. There was little meaningful information on which to base calculation of rates for civil settings. The strongest evidence supports leave used for supervised discharge; other forms of leave lack an evidence base and decisions appear to be made on the basis of heuristic rules and unsupported assumptions. Clinical decision making about therapeutic leave cannot claim to be evidence-based.ConclusionResearch is urgently needed to provide information about how leave is managed, the best ways to support leave, and what happens on leave

Therapeutic leave from secure mental health inpatient services::a review

I am delighted to have been invited to contribute a paper to this liber amicorum for Prof. dr. Frans Koenraadt in honour of his lifetime’s contribution to clinical and theoretical advances in forensic psychology, law, mental health, and education. I first had the pleasure of meeting Frans in Toronto when both he, I, and Lydia Dalhuisen, Frans’ then PhD student, were all presenting work on firesetters and firesetting. Our mutual interest led to further contact and an invitation was extended to me to join the examination panel for Dr Dalhuisen’s PhD thesis defence in Utrecht, a fascinating experience for me since it is not our tradition in the UK to conduct such a public defence. Since then, I have read with great interest and admiration the outputs of the PhD. It was my impression that Prof. Koenraadt provided a highly constructive and flexible educational experience which allowed the PhD room to breathe and grow. My acquaintance with Frans has been short, but I can say with sincerity that his natural curiosity, intellectual openness, and willingness to share his vast accumulated knowledge should serve as a model for us all. In this spirit of sharing, my colleague, EmilyMay Barlow, and I have chosen to address an issue which we feel passionate about. It is also an issue that lies firmly in those intersections between law, criminality, psychology, risk, and clinical practice in which Prof. Koenraadt excels. That issue is the use of therapeutic leave by patients in secure, forensic mental health care

Crowding effects in vehicular traffic

While the impact of crowding on the diffusive transport of molecules within a cell is widely studied in biology, it has thus far been neglected in traffic systems where bulk behavior is the main concern. Here, we study the effects of crowding due to car density and driving fluctuations on the transport of vehicles. Using a microscopic model for traffic, we found that crowding can push car movement from a superballistic down to a subdiffusive state. The transition is also associated with a change in the shape of the probability distribution of positions from negatively-skewed normal to an exponential distribution. Moreover, crowding broadens the distribution of cars' trap times and cluster sizes. At steady state, the subdiffusive state persists only when there is a large variability in car speeds. We further relate our work to prior findings from random walk models of transport in cellular systems.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PLoS ON