Evaluation of design interventions for hospitality and privacy at inpatient wards

Objective – Inspired by the strong vision of the hospital organization on hospitality, a new hospital was built with the intention to provide an open environment which supports privacy and interaction between the occupants. This study evaluates the satisfaction of patients, visitors and nursing staff with shared and single bedrooms, regarding privacy and interaction with others. Background – The hospital organization and the architecture firm, responsible for the design of the new hospital, initiated the study in order to receive high quality feedback on design interventions. The design intended to support both social and professional interaction while safeguarding sufficient privacy for the patients. Privacy of patients was evaluated as one of the aspects which may affect the experience of hospitality. Research question – To what extent do layout aspects of single and shared bedrooms support privacy and social interaction of the patients, visitors and staff? Methods – The study was an observational study comparing evaluations of three types of users of the hospital building: patients, visitors and nursing staff. A questionnaire was developed consisting questions about personal characteristics of the respondents, satisfaction with building and care related aspects and a number of statements that had to be rated on a 5-point scale. The study was approved by the Medical Ethical Test Committee of the hospital. Results – 195 nurses, 154 patients and 150 visitors completed the questionnaire. Generally, all three groups were satisfied with the level of privacy and interaction, supported by layout aspects of the single and shared bedrooms; patients were most satisfied. Differences in the rating of importance of privacy related aspects were statistically significant between patients, visitors and staff. Conclusion – The findings contribute to improvement of design interventions in future hospitals. Layout related aspects as well as organizational aspects contribute to improve satisfaction with privacy and interaction. Generally, staff was less satisfied than patients and visitors; more involvement of nurses in future design processes is most valuable.publishedVersio

An Analysis of Changing Transparency Regarding Cybersecurity in Annual Reports

This paper studies the annual reports of 75 listed firms in the Netherlands in relation to the disclosure of cybersecurity information from a financial law and economics perspective in four consecutive financial years (2018-2021). Also, we study legislative developments (especially in the US) regarding cybersecurity disclosure requirements. Furthermore, we discuss the social and private costs and benefits of cybersecurity transparency. We draft hypotheses regarding the actual disclosure of cybersecurity information and propose a research design of an empirical study covering four financial years. The results of our study show that over time disclosing information regarding cybersecurity increases. However, the information value of the disclosures could improve since companies still disclose mostly technical measures that are hard to compare. In order for these efforts to have a social benefits, harmonization efforts need to be made

Materialiteit in de uitgebreide controleverklaring bij beursvennootschappen

Sinds de uitbreiding van de controleverklaring verschaft de accountant meer inzicht aan de gebruikers van de jaarrekening over de door hem uitgevoerde controlewerkzaamheden. In de uitgebreide controleverklaring verstrekt de accountant onder meer informatie over de door hem gehanteerde materialiteit. Dit artikel bevat een eerste verkenning van materialiteitsgegevens uit controleverklaringen bij de jaarrekeningen van 56 beursvennootschappen in de boekjaren 2014 tot en met 2017. Uit de resultaten van dit onderzoek volgt dat er door de Big 4-accountantsorganisaties sinds boekjaar 2014 een meer uniforme materialiteit gehanteerd wordt. Voorts blijkt dat de materialiteit gedurende de onderzoeksperiode na wisseling van accountantsorganisatie en/of extern accountant lager is dan indien er geen wisseling plaatsvond