Volume 3 Issue 4
Authors: Adriana Maria Rios Rincon; Antonio Miguel Cruz
Abstract: This research was aimed at examining how transaction performance regarding medical equipment maintenance affected overall healthcare service quality, understood as healthcare input and/or process quality. A cross-sectional, retrospective, exploratory study was thus designed for examining 719 maintenance transactions. Such sample size guaranteed 0.8 statistical power, having 0.2 effect size at =0.05. Secondary source data were taken from databases kept at two hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia. A multivariate linear regression model was used for analysing the effect of turnaround time (TAT, the independent variable) in terms of hours on healthcare institution service quality (decreased overall quality, the dependent variable), controlling for the type of service provider carrying out the maintenance transaction (i.e. in-house or outsourcing) and the maintenance type concerned (i.e. preventive or corrective) in healthcare service quality. The results provided sufficient statistically significant support (p<0.001), good CI precision (+ 1.156, + 1.432) and low standard error (standard error=0.070), as healthcare service quality became negatively affected as TAT value increased due to low maintenance service provider quality or performance (i.e. TAT=+1.473).
Keywords: Multivariate Linear Regression Model; Quality Management; Healthcare Service Operation Research; Maintenance; Medical Engineering; Clinical Engineering
Authors: Richard K. Lomotey; Kathy Mulder; JoAnn Nilson; Candice Schachter; Kristy Wittmeier; Ralph Deters
Abstract: Hemophilia is a bleeding condition that prevents blood clot during injuries. Some studies suggest that persons with the condition often do not report the problem and in some cases, there is the need to take certain critical actions when injuries occur. This has created the need to investigate best approaches that can encourage people with the condition to seek medical help or in the case where the injury is minor, the patients can treat themselves by following some guidelines. To this effect, our ongoing project, which is in collaboration with the Canadian Physiotherapists in Hemophilia Care (CPHC), seek to explore the issue through the adoption of mobile computing technology. Thus, an App is developed called, Hemophilia Injury Recognition Tool (HIRT?), which provides the users (especially young men) with a set of instructions on how to access minor injuries. In cases where the injury is severe, the patient is asked to go to the emergency room or contact the nearest Hemophilia Treatment Center which is provided in the App. The paper discusses the architectural flow of the App as well as the user feedback. Overall, the haemophiliacs who tested the App found it very useful in terms of its content, reminders, and clarity of steps.
Keywords: Mobile Devices; Haemophilia; Proxy; Cloud Computing; Distributed System; NoSQL Database; Injury Assessment