Public Health Commons^™

Determinants Of The New Entry Of Hmos Into A Medicare Risk Contract: A Resource Dependence-Diversification Model, Chih-Wen Pai

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of the new entry of an HMO into a Medicare risk contract using a resource dependence—diversification model. This study is conducted through a non-experimental, panel design With one year time lag. An HMO’s market is defined as the service area. The primary sample for this study is composed of 440 HMOS that do not have a Medicare risk contract as of January 1994.

Data for the variables are extracted from the 1994 and 1995 InterStudy and Group Health Association of America (GHAA) directories, the 1996 Area Resource File, the 1994 …

Organizational Slack, Efficiency, And Quality Of Care In Acute Care Hospitals, Kyung Ii Youn

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between technical efficiency and quality of care in hospitals is studied in the context of resource availability in hospital organizations. The resource availability of hospitals is conceptualized by organizational slack.

An integrated model is developed encompassing the source of organizational slack, its impact on technical efficiency and on quality of care, and its impact on the relationship between efficiency and quality. Organizational threat as an environmental factor affecting the level of slack is measured by the level of competition and regulation. Organizational slack is measured using financial and operational indicators of the hospitals. Technical efficiency is estimated by …

A Retrospective Quantitative Assessment Of Trichloroethylene Exposure Of Workers At Aircraft Maintenance Facilities At Hill Air Force Base Through The Use Of Modeling, Anthony O. Copeland

Theses and Dissertations

Monte Carlo simulation and source-receptor modeling are used to estimate the TCE exposures encountered by select workers at aircraft maintenance facilities at Hill Air Force Base between 1955 and 1979. An epidemiological study of this group, a retrospective cohort study of 14,457 workers who were employed at the base for a minimum of one year between 1952 and 1956, was headed by Dr. R. Spirtas of the National Cancer Institute to evaluate mortality associated with occupational exposure. One of the major conclusions of the study was that TCE 'probably does not pose a strong carcinogenic risk for man.' In the …

A Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study Of The Role Of Gender And Developmental Differences In Occupational And Environmental Exposure To Benzene, Elizabeth A. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it shows that physiological differences between men and women result in gender-specific exposures with respect to benzene. Second, it assesses the potential for a lactating woman's occupational and personal benzene exposure to impact a nursing infant's exposure, highlighting the possibility of subjecting an infant to the effects of industrial chemicals via breast feeding. This study employs physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling to investigate the influence of physiological parameters and to evaluate the ability of inhaled benzene to transfer from mother to infant through breastmilk. The models are run through scenarios that simulate …

Pus, Pox, Propaganda And Progress: The Compulsory Smallpox Vaccination Controversy In Utah, 1899-1901, Eric L. Bluth

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the compulsory smallpox vaccination controversy in Utah, 1899-1901. It looks at the two smallpox epidemics during 1899-1901 and follows the boards of health attempts to eradicate smallpox primarily by compelling the vaccination of school children.

Dr. Theodore B. Beatty, secretary of the State Board of Health, championed the effort to vaccinate all Utahns; however, the opposition led by Charles W. Penrose, editor of the Deseret Evening News, produced anti-compulsion and vaccination information which influenced Utahns to generally oppose vaccination. Consequently, the legislature passed an anti-compulsory vaccination statute over the governor's veto to annul the courts decision …

Hospital Quality Assurance And Outcomes Of Hospitalization, Patricia A. Rowell

Theses and Dissertations

This study was undertaken to address the need of professionals responsible for assuring the quality of hospital care for a framework for understanding and evaluating quality assurance mechanisms and their impact on hospital quality of care. Primary data were collected from 70 Virginia short term acute care general hospitals on the design and resources of their quality assurance programs in 1986. Adverse outcome data for 1986 were collected from the Medical Society of Virginia Review Organization. Hospital structural data were obtained from the American Hospital Association computer data base and the Federal Register. The intermediate outcome variables are: rate of …

The Financial Performance Of System Acquired Hospitals, Janet Lynch

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the financial performance of not-for-profit hospitals in 10 Southern states acquired by either the for-profit or not-for-profit multihospital systems between the years 1978 through 1982. The impact of system affiliation on acquired hospitals was investigated by looking at average financial performance from the two years before acquisition to 1984/1985. Differences between the performance of hospitals acquired by for-profit and not-for-profit multihospital systems were examined as well. with regard to the latter, major findings revealed both for-profit and not-for-profit multihospital systems increased debt in acquired hospitals and made improvements to plant and equipment. For-profit multihospital systems additionally increased …

Control Of Hospital Strategy In Small Multihospital Systems, Lora Hanson Warner

Theses and Dissertations

Hospitals are joining multihospital systems (MHSs) with growing frequency. About 80% of MHSs are small, composed of 2-7 hospitals. An important management issue in MHSs is the extent to which member hospitals retain control over their own strategic directions.

Using a contingency framework, this study uses both system and hospital—level determinants to explain the extent to which hospital members of MHSs control their own strategies. Survey and secondary data from 272 member hospitals of 62 small multi hospital systems (size 2-7 hospitals) are analyzed. System dispersion, size, ownership, strategic type, and age along with hospital occupancy, size, relationship to the …

Health Problems Of Selected Lds Missionaries Throughout The World, Susan Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study on Mormon missionaries was to determine the effect of health on missionary activity time, age, sex, months in field, laboring city population, monthly mission cost, living conditions, diet, pre-existing conditions, adequacy of medical care, nativity, effectiveness, emotional health, interpersonal relationships, and motivation and enthusiasm. In addition the research attempted to ascertain the effect of the selected independent factors on ill missionary lost time.

As an outcome of the statistical analysis performed on this study's sample the following results were obtained. Respiratory disorders, gastrointestinal difficulties and orthopedic injuries were the most common health problems. Well missionaries …

Factors Influencing The Use Of Health Services: By Four Wards In The Taipei Taiwan Stake Relief Society Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Candace Sheila Gutzman Hsiao

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what sociocultural, sociodemographic, and sociopsychological factors the Sisters in four Wards in the Taipei Taiwan Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints perceived as keeping them from using the health services during the period from June 1975 to May 1976.

Forty-five Sisters, age twenty-one and older, were surveyed by a written questionnaire during Relief Society meetings during the last week in June and the first week in July 1966.

A majority of the Sisters were found to have experienced times when they did not avail themselves of the existing …

Relief Society Grain Storage Program, 1876-1940, Jessie L. Embry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will describe and interpret the development of this Relief Society wheat storage program from its inception in 1876 to 1940 when the program was transferred to the General Church Welfare Committee. Emphasis will be placed on the sisters' attempts to store grain and the problems they encountered. The thesis will also discuss the effects of outside forces on the program and the different ways the sisters used the grain. The final chapter will deal with the relationship between the movement and the history of the Relief Society and its parent organization, the Mormon Church.