Suchergebnisse

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine if internal integration, information sharing, and training constitute direct antecedents to organizations' warning and recovery capabilities. Assuming that organizations periodically face various supply chain risks, the authors intend to show that managers can develop these antecedent competencies in ways that bolster their supply chain risk management (SCRM) capabilities.Design/methodology/approachTo understand the relationships between the antecedents and SCRM capabilities, the authors used Q-sorts and confirmatory factor analysis to develop new warning and recovery measures. The authors then collected survey data from 231 hospital supply managers and analyzed these records using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that internal integration and training positively affect organizations' warning and recovery capabilities, in both a direct and indirect manner. The authors also illustrate how managers can leverage their SCRM capabilities to affect operational performance.Research limitations/implicationsThese results suggest that by developing antecedent competencies like internal integration and training, firms may bolster their warning and recovery capabilities, and ultimately operational performance of the organization.Originality/valueThe findings provide hospital supply organizations and other inventory management teams with a novel approach to managing an evolving array of supply chain risks. Rather than investing in costly risk management techniques, like inventory stocks, organizations can use internal integration and training to improve their SCRM capabilities.

AbstractThe article proposes and tests a model that examines the type of communication media (personal meetings, group classes, and written materials) that is most effective to train and educate patients how to perform two critical self‐management tasks in the treatment of diabetes. The model is based on media synchronicity theory (MST), a media selection theory. The model was tested by surveying 326 patients diagnosed with diabetes. We found that patients best mastered coproduction tasks that required conveying large amounts of information when written documents were provided. However, when coproduction tasks required comprehension of information that had multiple interpretations, patients increased their coproduction task behaviors when the training was face‐to‐face. Also, as predicted by MST, when learning the healthcare task required conveying little new information that patients could comprehend without struggling, patients trained with face‐to‐face media performed this task better. Finally, as expected, when patients increased the number of task behaviors they performed, their health outcomes improved. We discuss how these findings apply not only to healthcare operations, but also to other services that require extensive customer coproduction.

OBJECTIVE: To derive a comprehensive system that allows a single score to define relative fistula severity. METHODS: The present observational study included women with urogenital fistula treated at the Panzi Hospital, Democratic Republic of Congo, or its outreach clinics across the Democratic Republic of Congo between September 1, 2013, and December 31, 2014. Fistula severity was assessed by Goh and Waaldijk classifications and surgical success was ascertained. Logistic regression was used to select fistula characteristics predictive of surgical failure, and to preliminarily verify the newly derived Panzi score. RESULTS: Overall, 837 women were included in the analysis. Goh or Waaldijk fistula descriptors associated with a higher probability of poor surgical outcomes in the unadjusted bivariate analysis were circumferential defect (P=0.007), proximity to the external urethral orifice (P=0.001), and size (P=0.001). These fistula characteristics were used to construct the Panzi score, which varied from 3 (most severe) to 0 (minor fistula). For each increase above 0, the odds of surgical failure increase by a factor of 1.65 (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The Panzi score of urogenital fistula provided a data-driven, simple, comprehensive, and parsimonious score. It could be used to report group data, to provide continuous level data for use in higher order statistics, and to resolve issues such as the cut-off point for referring women to hospital in accordance with fistula complexity.