Performance Measurement in Belgian Hospitals : a state-of-the-art

Scientific conference (2007, April 03)

This communication proposes a global state-of-the-art around the central question : "How is performance measured and controlled in Belgian hospitals. As a first step in a global research project dedicated ... [more ▼]

This communication proposes a global state-of-the-art around the central question : "How is performance measured and controlled in Belgian hospitals. As a first step in a global research project dedicated to the use of Balanced ScoreCard in publics hospitals around the world, it is essentially focused on global economic aspects and on major macroeconomic statistics. [less ▲]

Performance modelling of peer-to-peer routing

in Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, 2007. IPDPS 2007. IEEE International (2007)

Performance Monitoring Systems in Healthcare Organizations The Managerial Perception of Uncertainty in Volatile Environments

in IAMB (Ed.) Proceedings of the 10th IAMB Conference - "Management Challenges in Global Economy" (2011, June)

Monitoring performance in healthcare organizations appears evolving drastically over time, due to a continuous search for better quality, efficiency and timeliness. As a result, the usefulness of ... [more ▼]

Monitoring performance in healthcare organizations appears evolving drastically over time, due to a continuous search for better quality, efficiency and timeliness. As a result, the usefulness of traditional management/performance control systems in such organizations is questioned and a focus is then made on the context in which each organization is operating. In a contingent-based perspective, a limited number of qualitative and quantitative empirical studies examine how some major contingent variables (nature of the organization, size, structure…) influence both the managerial decision-making process and the management control process in healthcare organizations. But, while largely integrated in other managerial contexts (Kabwigiri and Van Caillie, 2000), most of them ignore the variable “uncertainty” and how uncertainty is perceived by managers in healthcare organizations. So, the prime interest of our empirical study is to appraise how uncertainty is appraised by managers in volatile environments. To investigate this subject further, we rely on seminal studies that link between the influence of the organizational attributes (structure, size, level of technology), and their effect on the managerial decisions-making (personal profile and perception) of a suitable management control system (MCS). Our methodology rests on a “qualitative comparative approach” of thirty case studies, lead in two heterogeneous environments (Belgium and Lebanon). Such method allows us to validate our theoretical framework with qualitative case studies collected via semi-structured questionnaire. Our findings provide us with a dialogue between a single (in-depth) case study exploring the phenomenon and a qualitative comparative approach. Thus, we gain understanding of the causal mechanisms and processes, as well as of the core determinants of the healthcare managerial adoption of performance monitoring systems (PMS). [less ▲]

Performance of a wheelchair-user population on a running progressive maximal field test

in Vanderwoude, L.H.; Hopman, M.T.; Vankemenade, C.H. (Eds.) Biomedical aspects of manuel wheelchair propulsion. The State of the Art II (1999)

Performance of Belgian hospitals: a frontier approach

in Health Economics (1995), 4,5(Sep-oct 1995), 389-397

Performance of GC-LRMS/MS and GCxGC methods for compliance monitoring of the PCDD/F-TEQ and the total TEQ in food and feed

in Organohalogen Compounds (2005), 67

Performance of leaf wetness sensor used in winter wheat disease management

Poster (2011, May 26)

Wetness on crop leaves has particular epidemiological significance because many fungal diseases affect plants only when free moisture is present on leaves. The leaf wetness sensor detects the presence of ... [more ▼]

Wetness on crop leaves has particular epidemiological significance because many fungal diseases affect plants only when free moisture is present on leaves. The leaf wetness sensor detects the presence of wetness on a leaf’s surface, enabling researchers and producers to forecast disease and protect plant canopies, and consequently to optimize fungicide application and often reduce environmental load. This research project aimed at better understanding the leaf wetness duration and its influence in winter wheat disease. Measurement of surface wetness duration by three electronic flat-plate sensors (Model 237-Campbell Scientific, Inc) in wheat fields were compared with tactile and visual observations in replicated field experiments at the site of Arlon (Belgium) during the period May-July 2006 and April-July 2007. Performances of the sensor were evaluated against SWEB model outputs and visual observations of disease symptoms. On the field, dew-onset and dry-off of wetness on leaves were observed visually (with a flash light for dew-onset) at 15-minute intervals. Each sensor was placed close the flag leaf. For the three sensors, the two dew-onset and dry-off times measured in both 2006 and 2007 crop seasons gave a leaf wetness duration (LWD) which was on average one hour less than visual observations. In order to establish a relationship between the surface wetness periods and wheat foliar diseases, LWD was compared with the Septoria leaf blotch (SLB) development risk (main winter wheat disease). A minimal surface wetness duration favourable to infection for SLB was established. [less ▲]

Performance of lung recruitment model in healthy anesthetised pigs

in Proceedings of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2012 (2012)

Performance of osteoporosis risk assessment tools in postmenopausal women aged 45-64 years

in Osteoporosis International (2005), 16(8), 921-927

Osteoporosis risk factor assessment is of uncertain utility in women under 65 years of age. Previous comparative studies of osteoporosis risk assessment tools were not stratified by age. We compared the ... [more ▼]

Osteoporosis risk factor assessment is of uncertain utility in women under 65 years of age. Previous comparative studies of osteoporosis risk assessment tools were not stratified by age. We compared the discriminatory ability of three previously validated osteoporosis risk assessment tools in a referral population of postmenopausal women aged 45-64 years (n=2539) and aged 65-96 years (n=1496) seen at a university-based outpatient osteoporosis center in Belgium. Risk scores for the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool, Osteoporosis Risk Assessment Instrument, and Simple Calculated Osteoporosis Risk Estimation were calculated for each patient. The reference standard was osteoporosis at the femoral neck, defined as a T-score <=-2.5 based on bone mineral density measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Osteoporosis was present in 139 of 2539 (5.5%) women aged 45-64 years and 241 of 1496 (16.1%) women aged 65 years or older. The tools had similar overall discriminatory ability to identify women with osteoporosis [area under the ROC curve 0.750-0.768, P=0.23 for women aged 45-64 years; area under the ROC curve 0.745-0.762, P=0.06 for women aged 65 years or older (P > 0.05 indicates no difference among tools)]. The likelihood ratios for the high-risk score categories ranged from 3.60 to 6.73 for the younger women and 3.45 to 6.99 for the older women when different score thresholds were set to maximize the performance of each tool in each age group. We conclude that the diagnostic accuracy of three osteoporosis risk assessment tools was similar in postmenopausal women aged 45-64 years and women aged 65 years or older. Use of structured risk assessment tools to identify women at high risk of osteoporosis in the early postmenopausal period warrants further study. Of the three tools evaluated, the OST is the simplest and has the best potential for use in clinical practice. [less ▲]

Performance of quadrupole-ion-trap mass spectrometry for the analysis of furan

Poster (2007)