BACKGROUND:Medication errors are a common source of adverse healthcare incidents particularly in the emergency department(ED) that has a number of factors that make it prone to medication errors.This project aims to r...BACKGROUND:Medication errors are a common source of adverse healthcare incidents particularly in the emergency department(ED) that has a number of factors that make it prone to medication errors.This project aims to reduce medication errors and improve the health and economic outcomes of clinical care in Hong Kong ED.METHODS:In 2009,a task group was formed to identify problems that potentially endanger medication safety and developed strategies to eliminate these problems.RESULTS:Responsible officers were assigned to look after seven error-prone areas.Strategies were proposed,discussed,endorsed and promulgated to eliminate the problems identified.A reduction of medication incidents(Ml) from 16 to 6 was achieved before and after the improvement work.CONCLUSION:This project successfully established a concrete organizational structure to safeguard error-prone areas of medication safety in a sustainable manner.展开更多
The relationship between major quality tools such as quality function development （QFD）, failure mode and effects analysis （FMEA）, design of experiments （DOE） and statistical process control （SPC） is analyzed ...The relationship between major quality tools such as quality function development （QFD）, failure mode and effects analysis （FMEA）, design of experiments （DOE） and statistical process control （SPC） is analyzed through an extensive review of the literature and the concurrent quality engineering philosophy, and a basic structure for the integration of quality tools is presented. An integrated quality management system （IQMS） is developed using C＋＋ Builder, running in the Windows 2000 Server environment with the basic internet connections, and SQL Server 2000 as the platform for developing the database, An illustrative example applying IQMS to the continuous quality improvement for a crane equipment manufacturing is reported. The result shows that the application of IQMS can optimize the process of design and manufacturing, shorten the cycle time of product, reduce the cost, and realize quality improvement continuously, The proposed integrated framework with IOMS is believed to be applicable to continuous quality improvement in many manufacturing companies.展开更多
Background:Strong scientific evidence is needed to support low-income countries in building effective and sustainable immunization programs and proactively engaging in global vaccine development and implementation ini...Background:Strong scientific evidence is needed to support low-income countries in building effective and sustainable immunization programs and proactively engaging in global vaccine development and implementation initiatives.This study aimed to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of system-wide continuous quality improvement(CQI)interventions to improve national immunization programme performance in Ethiopia.Methods:The study used a prospective,quasi-experimental design with an interrupted time-series analysis to collect data from 781 government health sectors(556 healthcare facilities,196 district health offices,and 29 zonal health departments)selected from developing and emerging regions in Ethiopia.Procedures included baseline quality assessment of immunization programme and services using structured checklists;immunization systems strengthening using onsite technical support,training,and supportive supervision interventions in a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle over 12 months;and collection and analysis of data at baseline and at the 6th and 12th month of interventions using statistical process control and the t-test.Outcome measures were the coverage of the vaccines pentavalent 3,measles,Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine(BCG),Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine(PCV),as well as full vaccination status;while process measures were changes in human resources,planning,service delivery,logistics and supply,documentation,coordination and collaboration,and monitoring and evaluation.Analysis and interpretation of data adhered to SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines.Results:Prior to the interventions,vaccination coverage was low and all seven process indicators had an aggregate score of below 50%,with significant differences in performance at healthcare facility level between developing and emerging regions(P=0.0001).Following the interventions,vaccination coverage improved significantly from 63.6%at baseline to 79.3%for pentavalent(P=0.0001),62.5 to 72.8%for measles(P=0.009),62.4 to 73.5%for BCG(P=0.0001),65.3 to 81.0%for PCV(P=0.02),and insignificantly from 56.2 to 74.2%for full vaccination.All seven process indicators scored above 75%in all regions,with no significant differences found in performance between developing and emerging regions.Conclusions:The CQI interventions improved immunization capacity and vaccination coverage in Ethiopia,where the unstable transmission patterns and intensity of infectious diseases necessitate for a state of readiness of the health system at all times.The approach was found to empower zone,district,and facility-level health sectors to exercise accountability and share ownership of immunization outcomes.While universal approaches can improve routine immunization,local innovative interventions that target local problems and dynamics are also necessary to achieve optimal coverage.展开更多
With the popularity of smart handheld devices, mobile streaming video has multiplied the global network traffic in recent years. A huge concern of users' quality of experience(Qo E) has made rate adaptation method...With the popularity of smart handheld devices, mobile streaming video has multiplied the global network traffic in recent years. A huge concern of users' quality of experience(Qo E) has made rate adaptation methods very attractive. In this paper, we propose a two-phase rate adaptation strategy to improve users' real-time video Qo E. First, to measure and assess video Qo E, we provide a continuous Qo E prediction engine modeled by RNN recurrent neural network. Different from traditional Qo E models which consider the Qo E-aware factors separately or incompletely, our RNN-Qo E model accounts for three descriptive factors(video quality, rebuffering, and rate change) and reflects the impact of cognitive memory and recency. Besides, the video playing is separated into the initial startup phase and the steady playback phase, and we takes different optimization goals for each phase: the former aims at shortening the startup delay while the latter ameliorates the video quality and the rebufferings. Simulation results have shown that RNN-Qo E can follow the subjective Qo E quite well, and the proposed strategy can effectively reduce the occurrence of rebufferings caused by the mismatch between the requested video rates and the fluctuated throughput and attains standout performance on real-time Qo E compared with classical rate adaption methods.展开更多
Different techniques including Quality Control Circles, Business Process Reengineering and Statistical Process Control （SPC）, Total Quality Management have been in use to reduce waste in the industry. Waste is consi...Different techniques including Quality Control Circles, Business Process Reengineering and Statistical Process Control （SPC）, Total Quality Management have been in use to reduce waste in the industry. Waste is considered as necessary evil and there are many types of waste in the industry. There are many ways and means to reduce waste but the less costly is to use Quality Control Circles technique effectively and efficiently. In quality control circles human resources that consist of small groups of employees are selected, who voluntarily meet at regular intervals to identify, analyze and solve quality and other problems in their work areas. In the Quality Control Circles different techniques of the quality improvement and total quality management are utilized which could be numeric or nonnumeric such as statistical quality control techniques and fish bone diagram or brain storming respectively. This article discusses that how reduction of waste in Pakistan industry is possible by using Quality Control Circles implementation.展开更多
文摘BACKGROUND:Medication errors are a common source of adverse healthcare incidents particularly in the emergency department(ED) that has a number of factors that make it prone to medication errors.This project aims to reduce medication errors and improve the health and economic outcomes of clinical care in Hong Kong ED.METHODS:In 2009,a task group was formed to identify problems that potentially endanger medication safety and developed strategies to eliminate these problems.RESULTS:Responsible officers were assigned to look after seven error-prone areas.Strategies were proposed,discussed,endorsed and promulgated to eliminate the problems identified.A reduction of medication incidents(Ml) from 16 to 6 was achieved before and after the improvement work.CONCLUSION:This project successfully established a concrete organizational structure to safeguard error-prone areas of medication safety in a sustainable manner.
基金This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.70372062)Tianjin City Key Technologies R&D Program(No.04310881R)New Century Excellent Talent Program of Education Ministry of China(No.NCET-04-0240).
文摘The relationship between major quality tools such as quality function development （QFD）, failure mode and effects analysis （FMEA）, design of experiments （DOE） and statistical process control （SPC） is analyzed through an extensive review of the literature and the concurrent quality engineering philosophy, and a basic structure for the integration of quality tools is presented. An integrated quality management system （IQMS） is developed using C＋＋ Builder, running in the Windows 2000 Server environment with the basic internet connections, and SQL Server 2000 as the platform for developing the database, An illustrative example applying IQMS to the continuous quality improvement for a crane equipment manufacturing is reported. The result shows that the application of IQMS can optimize the process of design and manufacturing, shorten the cycle time of product, reduce the cost, and realize quality improvement continuously, The proposed integrated framework with IOMS is believed to be applicable to continuous quality improvement in many manufacturing companies.
基金The project received financial support from Gavi,the Vaccine Alliance through the FMoH of the Government of Ethiopia.
文摘Background:Strong scientific evidence is needed to support low-income countries in building effective and sustainable immunization programs and proactively engaging in global vaccine development and implementation initiatives.This study aimed to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of system-wide continuous quality improvement(CQI)interventions to improve national immunization programme performance in Ethiopia.Methods:The study used a prospective,quasi-experimental design with an interrupted time-series analysis to collect data from 781 government health sectors(556 healthcare facilities,196 district health offices,and 29 zonal health departments)selected from developing and emerging regions in Ethiopia.Procedures included baseline quality assessment of immunization programme and services using structured checklists;immunization systems strengthening using onsite technical support,training,and supportive supervision interventions in a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle over 12 months;and collection and analysis of data at baseline and at the 6th and 12th month of interventions using statistical process control and the t-test.Outcome measures were the coverage of the vaccines pentavalent 3,measles,Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine(BCG),Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine(PCV),as well as full vaccination status;while process measures were changes in human resources,planning,service delivery,logistics and supply,documentation,coordination and collaboration,and monitoring and evaluation.Analysis and interpretation of data adhered to SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines.Results:Prior to the interventions,vaccination coverage was low and all seven process indicators had an aggregate score of below 50%,with significant differences in performance at healthcare facility level between developing and emerging regions(P=0.0001).Following the interventions,vaccination coverage improved significantly from 63.6%at baseline to 79.3%for pentavalent(P=0.0001),62.5 to 72.8%for measles(P=0.009),62.4 to 73.5%for BCG(P=0.0001),65.3 to 81.0%for PCV(P=0.02),and insignificantly from 56.2 to 74.2%for full vaccination.All seven process indicators scored above 75%in all regions,with no significant differences found in performance between developing and emerging regions.Conclusions:The CQI interventions improved immunization capacity and vaccination coverage in Ethiopia,where the unstable transmission patterns and intensity of infectious diseases necessitate for a state of readiness of the health system at all times.The approach was found to empower zone,district,and facility-level health sectors to exercise accountability and share ownership of immunization outcomes.While universal approaches can improve routine immunization,local innovative interventions that target local problems and dynamics are also necessary to achieve optimal coverage.
基金supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China(NSFC 60622110,61471220,91538107,91638205)National Basic Research Project of China(973,2013CB329006),GY22016058
文摘With the popularity of smart handheld devices, mobile streaming video has multiplied the global network traffic in recent years. A huge concern of users' quality of experience(Qo E) has made rate adaptation methods very attractive. In this paper, we propose a two-phase rate adaptation strategy to improve users' real-time video Qo E. First, to measure and assess video Qo E, we provide a continuous Qo E prediction engine modeled by RNN recurrent neural network. Different from traditional Qo E models which consider the Qo E-aware factors separately or incompletely, our RNN-Qo E model accounts for three descriptive factors(video quality, rebuffering, and rate change) and reflects the impact of cognitive memory and recency. Besides, the video playing is separated into the initial startup phase and the steady playback phase, and we takes different optimization goals for each phase: the former aims at shortening the startup delay while the latter ameliorates the video quality and the rebufferings. Simulation results have shown that RNN-Qo E can follow the subjective Qo E quite well, and the proposed strategy can effectively reduce the occurrence of rebufferings caused by the mismatch between the requested video rates and the fluctuated throughput and attains standout performance on real-time Qo E compared with classical rate adaption methods.
文摘Different techniques including Quality Control Circles, Business Process Reengineering and Statistical Process Control （SPC）, Total Quality Management have been in use to reduce waste in the industry. Waste is considered as necessary evil and there are many types of waste in the industry. There are many ways and means to reduce waste but the less costly is to use Quality Control Circles technique effectively and efficiently. In quality control circles human resources that consist of small groups of employees are selected, who voluntarily meet at regular intervals to identify, analyze and solve quality and other problems in their work areas. In the Quality Control Circles different techniques of the quality improvement and total quality management are utilized which could be numeric or nonnumeric such as statistical quality control techniques and fish bone diagram or brain storming respectively. This article discusses that how reduction of waste in Pakistan industry is possible by using Quality Control Circles implementation.
