Search results

Determinants of Post-acute Care Costs in Acutely Hospitalized Older Adults: The Hospital-ADL Study.

AbstractOBJECTIVES:After hospitalization, many older adults need post-acute care, including rehabilitation or home care. However, post-acute care expenses can be as high as the costs for the initial hospitalization. Detailed information on monthly post-acute health care expenditures and the characteristics of patients that make up for a large share of these expenditures is scarce. We aimed to calculate costs in acutely hospitalized older patients and identify patient characteristics that are associated with high post-acute care costs.DESIGN:Prospective multicenter cohort study (between October 2015 and June 2017).SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:401 acutely hospitalized older persons from internal medicine, cardiology, and geriatric wards.MEASUREMENTS:Our primary outcome was mean post-acute care costs within 90 days postdischarge. Post-acute care costs included costs for unplanned readmissions, home care, nursing home care, general practice, and rehabilitation care. Three costs categories were defined: low [0-50th percentile (p0-50)], moderate (p50-75), and high (p75-100). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations between costs and frailty, functional impairment, health-related quality of life, cognitive impairment, and depressive symptoms.RESULTS:Costs were distributed unevenly in the population, with the top 10.0% (n = 40) accounting for 52.1% of total post-acute care costs. Mean post-acute care costs were €4035 [standard deviation (SD) 4346] or $4560 (SD 4911). Frailty [odds ratio (OR) 3.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.78-6.63], functional impairment (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.03-3.16), and poor health-related quality of life (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.09-3.28) at admission were associated with classification in the high-cost group, compared with the low-cost group.CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS:Post-acute care costs are substantial in a small portion of hospitalized older adults. Frailty, functional impairment, and poor health-related quality of life are associated with higher post-acute care costs and may be used as an indicator of such costs in practice.

Direct current in public lighting for improvement in LED performance and costs

Public lighting’s primary purpose is nighttime visibility for security and safety. How to meet so many requirements of so many stakeholders? The key to developing a good plan is to relate lighting to functions of public spaces, because street lighting is more than a technical requirement, a security need, or a design element. It can be thought of and utilized in terms of how the type, placement, and wattage affect how a street is perceived and used. With present-day used street lighting systems however, flexibility is expensive, as is maintenance and energy consumption. A new solution is to use LED lighting with a Direct Current power system. Advantages are a decrease in: energy conversions; material use; amount of switch- boxes; components; labour costs and environmental comfort. The overall implementation of LED and DC will result in better control and efficient maintenance due to integrated bidirectional communication. A challenge is the relatively high investment for these new solutions. Another challenge; DC is not a standard yet in rules and regulations. In the paper the transition to direct current public lighting system will be described with all the pros and cons. A new concept of public ownership, to overcome financial challenges will be discussed. M Hulsebosch1, P Willigenburg2 ,J Woudstra2 and B Groenewald3 1CityTec b.v., Alblasserdam, The Netherlands 2The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands 3Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa 10.1109/ICUE.2014.6904186

The more trust, the fewer transaction costs - searching for a new management perspective to help solve the challenge of ever rising health care costs

Based on reflection of elements of theories of social capital, institutional economics, presence and prosocial motivation, the authors are developing a conceptual model to reduce costs in health care leading to the hypothesis : more trust leads to fewer transaction costs. Furthermore, a case study in a new form of cooperation within a new to construct hospital is presented in order to explore the hypothesis

Psychosomatic Therapy for Patients with Persistent Somatic Symptoms in Primary Care

Understanding Data Science Costs for SMEs

This video provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a concise breakdown of the costs involved in initiating a data science project. It categorizes expenses into three primary areas: personnel, infrastructure, and data-related costs. Through a practical example of a marketing agency’s venture into customer segmentation, viewers get a tangible sense of potential expenditures. Emphasizing the importance of clear project goals and efficient resource allocation, the session offers insights into making cost-effective decisions in data science endeavors.

Crowdsourcing. Classification, costs, benefits, and usage

The term crowdsourcing was introduced by Jeff Howe (2006). It is the act of a company or organisation to take a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined, and usually large, network of people in the form of an open call. As communication tools to organize work have become widely available, and a well-educated global work force has come online, crowdsourcing has become an increasingly important mechanism to organize work. We discuss a categorisation of crowdsourcing, its costs and benefits and several examples. The use of crowdsourcing begins with the question which strategic goal an organisation wants to achieve, and whether the benefits outweigh the costs. We give some recommendations for adopting crowdsourcing. This usually requires a certain amount of restructuring of existing workflows and a willingness to become more open which may or may not be a welcome side effect.