Managing Health Services: Cases in Organization Design and Decision Making

Managing Health Services: Cases in Organization Design and Decision Making Deborah E. Bender with Julie Curkendall and Heather Manning 2000, 214 pp $55 softcover

This book was written to help “hone the skills of managers and leaders who walk and breathe in the ever increasingly challenging world of health sciences management.” It is intended to be used in conjunction with the textbooks Health Care Management: Organization Design and Behavior, (1) and The Well Managed Healthcare Organization, (2) but it also can be used on its own. Although the book was written for new nurse managers, it contains valuable information that can be used by managers in any stage of their careers.

The authors use a series of 16 case studies to illustrate real life situations and challenges faced by managers. Each case is divided into the same five-part system:

* a focused topic description,

* learning/teaching objectives,

* background and case overview,

* organizational problems, and

* questions for discussion.

This organizational system helps guide readers in their analysis and provides a focus for discussions in a classroom setting. The book can be used to help students handle situations that will occur during their careers or by managers as a reference book to help them manage situations that occur daily. The authors take a subject that could be dry and make it interesting by presenting relevant case studies, thought-provoking questions, and discussions that promote problem-solving of tough scenarios with results that can be applied to everyday situations.

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Anthony N. Maluccio, Cinzia Canali and Tiziano Vecchiato Assessing Outcomes in Child and Family Services: Comparative Design and Policy Issues

Anthony N. Maluccio, Cinzia Canali and Tiziano Vecchiato (Eds.) Assessing Outcomes in Child and Family Services: Comparative Design and Policy Issues. Hawthorne, NY: 2003. $49.95 hardcover, $24.95 papercover.

The passage of the amendments to the Social Security Act (1994) gave the United State federal government a mandate to examine the nation’s child welfare service delivery system focusing on safety, permanency, and child well being outcomes. Since 2000, states have been participating in Child and Family Services Reviews conducted by the federal Children’s Bureau. While these reviews rely largely on administrative data from established management information systems, they also include examinations of a randomly selected small sample of complete case records and interviews of professional and community partners involved in child welfare services. Public policy resulting from these evaluations will affect what and how children’s and family services are funded for many years.

That is why this collection of papers on conducting outcome research in child and family services is timely for evaluation researchers and practitioners to read. Originally presented at the “Outcome-based Evaluation: A Cross-national Comparison” seminar in Volterra Italy in 2001, this volume is one of two. The companion volume is entitled, Evaluation in Child and Family Services: Comparative Client and Program Perspectives.

The focus of this volume is on sharing perspectives on challenges raised by the intersections of evaluation design and public policy. The reader can expect to examine program evaluation using examples from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, South Africa, and Italy. Of particular interest is the notion of how complex these evaluations can be and how similar the problems are from country to country.

Ward offers an examination of the Looking After Children study, a national evaluation of fifty performance indicators for children in foster care in the United Kingdom. Two themes raised here and repeated by other contributors are that management information systems are not sensitive enough to drill down to the level of information needed to evaluate outcomes and that social work practitioners do not understand the importance of accurate thorough individual case documentation in evaluation.

Fein, reports on the evaluation of two intensive family preservation sites first emphasizing the importance of comparing what the social workers actually did with the clients rather than measuring time spent. Secondly she articulates the necessity for the definition of a “good” outcome, that is what is considered a good evaluation depends on how “good outcomes” are defined in the beginning. Next, Chaskin applies the theory of change model of evaluation that involves convening and evoking various stakeholders’ theories of change in community building efforts and how complex that can be.

In chapter four, Vecchiato notes the challenges to applying national indicators to detect regional differences, and presents discussion about “the limits of national planning.” In contrast, Goerge presents the case that paying close attention to selecting intervention measurements and control groups will overcome many challenges of non-experimental designs, using national welfare reform as the example.

Chapters six through eight address specific design issues. Pilati and associates offer an example of a public health intervention evaluation for smoking and compares it to other cross-national studies. Landsverk and Davis note that system improvements in child mental health systems do not demonstrate individual clinical level improvements. Pompei promotes the importance of informed documentation and how it enables embedded program evaluation using an example of residential care.

Berry and Cash’s intriguing study of risk assessment resulted in the conclusion that differential response family assessment and service provision are disconnected from the risk assessment process. Next, Wright and Paget’s paper specifically discusses the genesis of the United States’ federal reviews from a learning organization perspective, applying the logic model of evaluation. In chapter 11 Ainsworth discusses the cultural issues involved in the research agenda setting process and across professional disciplines, using an institutional review process example from Australia.

Finally Lightburn raises concerns about applying experimental evaluation designs before programs are mature enough to implement the services as intended, using the Family Resource Centers evaluation as an example. This reflects the condition of many new programs which target the most needy: those parents with multiple needs who live in dangerous or isolated communities, and who take longer to engage in services offered.

This book truly does not offer a cross-national comparison. However, the similarity of design and policy perspectives among nations should encourage more information sharing forums. Several contributors caution about the unintended consequences of focusing evaluations on indicators and systems, in view of lack of evidence that changes in systems influence outcomes for particular children. This book raises the caveat that, to paraphrase Amitai Etzioni in Modern Organizations, organizations under scrutiny of evaluation tend to neglect doing those things that are less easily measured because some things lend themselves to measurement better than others. As Vecchiato has discussed, evaluation efforts should be directed at building better theories to support effective children and family services.

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Design For Six Sigma As Strategic Experimentation: Planning, Designing, And Building World-Class Products And Services

Cook (engineering, U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) presents a practical, science-based methodology (DFSS/SE) for guiding the product realization process for highly competitive markets. The methodology uses forecasts of cash flow, market share, and price to select the final design from among the alternatives considered. A single formalism is used to integrate the tasks and responsibilities of marketing research, product planning, finance, design, engineering, and manufacturing within the overall process. The accompanying CD-ROM contains Excel macros, sample files, and templates; tutorials; and raw data used as input for the problems analyzed in the text. For graduate engineers, statisticians, and scientists who are or soon will be involved in product developing and servicing; specialists in marketing research and finance; and CEOs.


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Development Kit facilitates embedded system design

Helping developers create processing-based systems to best suit application, MicroBlaze(TM) Development Kit: Spartan(TM)-3E 1600E Edition delivers integrated platform with hardware, design tools, intellectual property, and reference designs. Kit supports 32-bit MicroBlaze soft processing design for Spartan-3E series of Platform FPGAs. Central XC3S1600E-4FG320C device provides platform logic, DSP coprocessing, and embedded system integration capabilities.

Low-Cost Kit Includes Xilinx Award-Winning Platform Studio Integrated Design Environment, Spartan-3E Embedded Board and Flexible 32-Bit MicroBlaze Soft Processor

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 30 /– Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today released the MicroBlaze(TM) Development Kit: Spartan(TM)-3E 1600E Edition, a comprehensive design environment with everything embedded developers need to create processing-based systems. The Spartan-3E 1600E Edition delivers an integrated platform with hardware, design tools, intellectual property (IP) and reference designs to kick-start the development process. The fully integrated kit allows developers to rapidly customize their processor and IP to best suit their specific application and configure complete systems.

“Embedded processing customers continue to demand complete solutions to quickly start and complete their hardware and software development,” said Lawrence Getman, director of marketing for the Embedded Processing Division at Xilinx. “The fully integrated MicroBlaze embedded development kit enables both rapid hardware and software creation on an inexpensive, pre-verified Spartan-3E platform to accelerate the design of low-cost embedded solutions.”

Complete Development Kit

The MicroBlaze Development Kit: Spartan-3E 1600E Edition supports flexible 32-bit MicroBlaze soft processing design for the Xilinx Spartan-3E series of Platform FPGAs. MicroBlaze soft processing cores are instantiated in FPGA hardware, and combined with IP peripherals, FPUs and other co-processing engines to enable a fully customizable platform that meets the developer’s demanding and ever-changing embedded design requirements.

The kit includes:

– Spartan-3E SP3E1600E development board;

– Fully licensed versions of the award-winning Platform Studio embedded tool suite and ISE(TM) FPGA design software;

– Extensive peripheral support of processing IP cores;

– JTAG probe for code download, debug and FPGA programming;

– Serial and Ethernet cables, regional power supply, pre-configured FLASH device;

– Variety of pre-verified reference designs and full documentation; and

– Embedded operating system support

Central to the SP3E1600E board functionality is the Spartan-3E XC3S1600E-4FG320C device with platform logic, DSP co-processing and embedded system integration capabilities. The 1600E evaluation board provides a rich set of features and includes several options for peripherals, memory, displays, connectors, and interfaces that enable designers to easily and cost effectively prototype and evaluate their embedded system design.

Kit Accelerates Development

Xilinx Platform Studio’s intelligent design tools combine with a programmable FPGA platform in the MicroBlaze Development Kit to enable developers to craft embedded systems with the optimal combination of features, performance, area and cost. They can choose the most effective processing system for the target application, select IP, optimize performance, and validate software on the development board before their own custom hardware is available.

In addition, the pre-verified reference designs delivered with the development kit offer a broad set of options for rapidly configuring complete systems, allowing developers to get the basic design running quickly so they can focus more of their valuable time on optimizing the application. These include both hardware and software implementations to exercise the many features of the SP3E1600E platform, such as Ethernet, DDR memory, and various FLASH functions. Embedded OS (eOS) support is also included for Mentor Nucleus, Petalogix micron Clinux and Micrium micron C/OS-II.

Pricing and Availability

The MicroBlaze Development Kit: Spartan-3E 1600E Edition (Model #: DO-S3E1600E-DK-UNI-G, lead free RoHS compliant) is available now for purchase at $595 USD. The ISE FPGA and Platform Studio embedded tools shipped with the 1600E Edition kit support the following computing platforms: Windows(R) 2000 SP2, SP3, SP4, and XP SP1, SP2, Solaris(R) 2.8/5.8 and 2.9/5.9, as well as Linux(R) Red Hat(R) Enterprise 3 and 4. For more information on Xilinx embedded development kits, including the Spartan-3E 1600E, visit www.xilinx.com/embdevkits .


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Samsung mobile phones - The art of innovative engineering

For better or for worse, although the former seems to weigh over commandingly, mobile phones have changed human lives with the many possibilities that they bring along with them. The question is not what more new developments are bound our way in the future, but whether we really need such added applications from a device whose primary purpose is to provide a problem free communication platform. Today's mobile phones innovatively venture into a newer horizon of multi tasking where these highly evolved communication devices play multifarious roles of a mini music player, a competitive digital camera, a multimedia device and even a mini computer. Quite naturally, the incorporation of such applications carry some demerits in the form of breakdowns and slower processing. However, manufacturers are trying hard to overcome all odds with the help of the evolving technology, and one name that has shown great resilience in this aspect is the South Korean electronics giant Samsung.

Samsung owes its reputation of an innovative manufacturer to a league of really advanced and sophisticated mobile phones that it has released over the years. The manufacturer seems to take to improvisation as easily as a bird takes to flying. Evidently, it has best applied its intelligence for the purpose of etching out neatly designed samsung mobile phones that score high on the beauty charts. Exemplary speaking, the Samsung Z650i is a pure delight for users who want a dash of style along with their well endowed communication devices. This slider Tri Band beauty is exactly what Samsung promises to deliver in a perfect blend of style and substance within its package. Owing to such phone as the Samsung Z650i, the highly popular manufacturer has contributed much to the much profitable mobile phone industry, whose fanfare seems to grow with every minute all over the world.

http://www.amazines.com/Electronics/article_detail.cfm/276542?articleid=276542

Refill Kit for Print Cartridge

We wish to introduce ourselves as one of the leading manufacturers of ATC Brand Do-it-Yourself Inkjet refill kits, Compatible Toner Cartridges for inkjet and laser printers. 90% MONEY SAVING IN REFILL KIT FOR PRINT CARTRIDGES.

ATC has been providing it's customers with inkjet refill cartridges and bulk inks for more than 4 years (since 2003).

The refill kits are used to refill printer cartridges of Hp, Samsung, Lexmark, and Canon etc and for both black and colors. You can refill the printer cartridge more than 4 times. Do not throw away your used printer cartridge. Preserve our environment and do it yourself inkjet refill kit.

The product, which we sell in the market, has a minimum shelf life of two years and more. We stand by the guarantee of the inks used and are willing to take back any products that may be considered defective with respect to the quality of ink.

This item is refill kit for print cartridge meant for computer printers and made out of non-toxic plastic material.

Our total commitment to quality and innovation and extensive dealer network helps us to deliver quality products within the stipulated time.

Our cost efficiency and timely deliveries have earned us a loyal client base in the domestic market.

Quality Assured - Quality is cautiously nurtured at every level of the organization. From sourcing to final delivery, every product undergoes several quality tests and inspections.

ATC Inkjet supply offers bulk ink, compatible cartridges and inkjet kits which produce vibrant colours and cheap ink alternative to the high cost of original inkjet cartridge.

Kindly place our website http://www.refillkit-india.in in your site. In return your site link will be placed in our website.

http://www.amazines.com/Electronics/article_detail.cfm/276613?articleid=276613

Nokia 8600 vs Nokia 6300: Great Looks, Great Features

Nokia's popularity as one of the leading mobile phone manufacturer is increasing day by day. Many companies have come and launched several handsets-but Nokia is still holding the numero uno position. Why is this so? What's special there in a Nokia handset. Well, since years back or from the time mobile phones started making its true mark in the world mobile diaspora, Nokia has been deemed as the most user friendly mobile handsets maker in the world. From its birthplace Finland, the company has expanded its business all over the globe and is now enjoying great market share offering the best in technology to the consumers. Nokia has recently unveiled two of its powerful handsets called the Nokia 8600 and Nokia 6300. Both the handsets boast of some mind boggling features. Let's see them.

The Quad Band Nokia 8600 comes in a stainless steel casing and the handset slides open to reveal a sleek and stylish keypad. The handset features a 2 inch 16.7 TFT QVGA display offering a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Pictures and videos taken with the built-in 2 megapixel camera (with 4 x digital zoom) can be best viewed on this screen. The video player function of the phone supports formats like 3GPP, H263 and H264. The Nokia 8600 comes with an integrated music player supporting formats of various types like AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MIDI, AMR and WMA. Connectivity is solid-thanks to Bluetooth 2.0, Micro USB, GPRS and HSCSD. Other features include email with attachments, Nokia Xprees Audio Messaging, voice recording, voice commands, handsfree speaker, 128MB memory etc.

'The slim yet powerful' Nokia 6300 is also a gorgeous Tri Band handset with a number of features like 2 inch 16.7 million TFT QVGA colour screen (240 x 320 pixels), built-in 2 megapixel camera (with 8 x digital zoom), video recording, video streaming, integrated music player (MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H263 and H264), FM radio, handsfree speaker, voice commands, flight mode etc. The Nokia 6300 comes with standard connectivity channels like Bluetooth, SyncML, GPRS, EDGE and USB. Rest of the features of the phone are email with attachments, Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging, push to talk, XHTML browser, 7.8 MB internal memory plus 128 MB MicroSD Memory Card.

Both the Nokia 8600 and Nokia 6300 are great in looks as well as features. Pick one among them and begin to live life in colour.

If you want to know more about the latest Nokia mobile phones like Nokia N95 with best contract, pay as you go & sim free mobile phones deals please visit our online mobile phone comparison shop.

http://www.amazines.com/Electronics/article_detail.cfm/277057?articleid=277057

HP PDA phones: unchained mobile computing

HP is one of the most recognized brand in the personal computing field. Over the years, the company have successfully made and maintained an enviable reputation in personal computing scene with many leading computers, consumer electronic goods, notebooks, computer peripherals and accessories in its product portfolio. As the world of personal computing rapidly merging with mobile computing, HP's entry to the mobile phones and PDA market was an widely anticipated move.

Palm tops and pocket PCs manufactured by HP are clubbed together as iPAQ series. Each hand-held from this manufacturing giant offers their user a definitive edge over other mobile phones with their enhanced mobile computing skills. All of HP PDA phones features Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher as their operating system, thereby opening up new vistas of opportunity for its user. One could have a better idea of HP PDA phones' capabilities when they compare them to the ones available in stores today.

HP PDA phones' functionality could be assessed by its built quality and its specification. The low budget HP iPAQ rx4240 is a great device for connecting, entertaining and organizing. The handset is fitted with a 400 MHz Samsung processor and works on Windows Mobile 5.0. Endowed with premium features like touch screen, integrated WLAN 802.11b/g and Bluetooth wireless technology, SD slot and one year warranty, the HP iPAQ rx4240 is almost at par with the best of other manufacturers.

Similarly, other handsets like HP iPAQ 510, HP iPAQ hx2495, HP iPAQ hx2795 and HP iPAQ rx5915 exhibits the best of mobile computing. Each handset signifies HP's emergence as a major player in not just PDAs but the whole mobile phone fraternity. Among the most recent offerings of the company, the HP iPAQ hw6945 Mobile messenger deserves a special mention. This powerhouse is equipped with an Intel PXA270 processor (416 MHz) and Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition. From WiFi to Bluetooth, GPS receiver to multi megapixel camera – this HP PDA phone has it all to make it to the top, much like the company itself.

http://www.amazines.com/Electronics/article_detail.cfm/277185?articleid=277185

Online Shopping,Electronics,Entertainment

Video gaming has come a long way since the days of two dimensional games like tetris. With the advancement in multimedia technologies, video games rapidly evolved into one force to reckon with. Better graphics, sound effects clubbed with high definition games to work on such high configuration platform made video game much more than a way to keep your kids busy. More and more people from all walks of life, irrespective of their age are getting into video gaming. Popularity of gaming is such that now we have more than one major gaming tournament held across the world, bringing in avid gamers together to pit their skills against each other.

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony is one of the major player in the gaming market. From gaming consoles to innumerable video games – the company has played a pivotal role in shaping up this industry. Regular gaming consoles available today are generally fitted to an external screen like a TV. For the first time, Sony came up with the concept of high class gaming device which is portable and could be carried anywhere by the user. This innovation lead to the creation of the PlayStation Portable – officially abbreviated as the Sony PSP.

The Sony PSP was initially launched in Japan. After a year of its launch there, Sony PSP was released in USA and Canada and subsequently in Europe and Australia. The gaming device instant popularity in all the places it was released lies in the fact that though the Sony PSP is small, it gives its user the same level of excitement as any other regular gaming device. Moreover, the Sony PSP is not just about gaming. The device is equipped with many other connectivity functions so as you don't have any problem finding and downloading games from the Internet or WiFi hotspots in case you are logged in to some virtual network.

Raina Kelsey is an expert writer and writes about latest gadgets.


http://www.amazines.com/Electronics/article_detail.cfm/277879?articleid=277879

Motorola RIZR Z8: The Smart Choice

While it comes to the segment of wireless communication, the name of Motorola comes first to our minds. In fact, Motorola is the pioneer in mobile telephony catering to the needs and requirements of people for years now. Today, the competition in the mobile world is very high. Motorola still manages to hold a distinct position in the mobile spectrum-all credit goes to Motorola's technological expertise. In the last 2-3 years Motorola has brought some highly sophisticated mobile phones into the market. All the models have got tremendous response. Below we will see the features of the Motorola RIZR Z8 which is becoming very popular nowadays.

The Motorola RIZR Z8 is a 3G slider phone in a spectacular curved casing. The phone measures 109 x 50 x 15.4 mm and weighs 112 grams and fits easily anywhere-be it your hand or pocket. The phone houses a 2.2 inch 16 million colour TFT screen with an effective resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. This sensational display makes great arrangement for viewing pictures and videos taken with the integrated 2 megapixel camera of the phone. The camera comes with LED flash, 8 x digital zoom and Red Eye Reduction features-so go on capturing whatever you like!

With the Motorola RIZR Z8, you can access the Internet also. The phone is endowed with WAP, XHTML and GPRS. Checking your personal mails or replying to your friend's email by a mobile phone is definitely a superior idea. The Motorola RIZR Z8 has got an integrated music player which helps you to listen music even on the move. There are multiple connectivity options like 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth, EDGE and mini USB. Internal memory is the best in its class-the phone carries 90MB memory space. What's more, the phone supports MicroSD memory card for memory expansion.

About the Author:-
Day Kevi is a professional internet marketer who has written various reviews and articles on latest mobile phones like Nokia N95, Samsung U600, Lg Shine, Motorola RAZR maxx V6 and many other Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola mobile phones.