Case management: key to access, quality, and financial success

Several strategic, organizational, and operational variables drive successful case management programs. Organizational goals and accountability for support by administrative and medical staff leaders set the stage for a comprehensive program. The integration of utilization review, discharge planning, and other functions into the role of the case manager improves productivity and continuity. Choosing a model for assigning patients, a variable unique to the institution, should be carefully considered. Regardless of the power of strategic goals or the creative selection of a model, daily practices that promote daily review and communication will reveal all of the opportunities for improved performance. Complications are avoided one patient at a time and patients deserve vigilance. Length of stay is shortened 1 day at a time and we can no longer afford to miss these opportunities. In the period of high census, an unnecessary day for one patient at the end of his/her stay may mean another patient being diverted to another hospital away from his/her physician and past medical records. Creating constructive physician partnerships and cooperative relationships with postacute care providers can bring a case management program to higher level of performance. While many organizations have employees called "case managers," fewer have a comprehensive approach that has the potential to drive so many important indicators of performance.     

Measuring low skills in Europe: how useful is the ISCED framework?

This paper aims to find a suitable definition of a low skilledworker, that can be applied in a consistent way across the variouscountries of the European Union. The International StandardClassification of Education (ISCED) is identified as the mostsuitable means of measuring skills over time and space, as thoseindividuals categorised as less than ISCED 3 are labelled ‘low-skilled’.The paper then uses three international surveys of educationalperformance to justify this choice. It is shown that those inthe <ISCED 3 group are likely to have a limited grasp ofthe skills needed in the modern workplace, and that this definitionalgroup captures most individuals who are categorised as low-skilledby more objective means. Thus this definition of low-skilledworkers appears to be useful and appropriate.     

A qualitative response analysis of UK firms' employment and output decisions

This paper investigates firms' employment and output decisions and presents some empirical evidence concerning the rationality of firms' expectations. The dymanic model is based on the assumptions of convex adjustment costs and monopolistic competition in the product market. The results are obtained using categorical information on individual firms contained in business surveys collected by the Confederation of British Industry. Ordered probit models are used to estimate the employment and output equations. We find that expected demand is a critical determinant of firms' decisions, the effect of changes in cost conditions is not as well determined, and the data are not consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis.     

Young people's perceptions of complaints procedures in local government

This study examined 46 young people aged 16–24 years and evaluated their knowledge and awareness of the formal complaints procedures used by local government. Two areas in Scotland, one city (Edinburgh) and one town (Stirling), were chosen to participate in the study. Six focus groups, three in each area, were carried out to identify the level of awareness among the respondents and to permit a cross‐section of educational backgrounds to be obtained. A questionnaire was used to assemble a profile on each participant. After analysis of the focus groups, a focused interview with the Corporate Complaints Officers from two councils was undertaken. Each interview incorporated an in‐depth discussion regarding the formal complaints procedure while focusing on the young people within their constituency. The research revealed that young people's knowledge and awareness of local government complaints procedures is low, regardless of educational background and area of residence. For a minority, social factors such as confidence and competence do play a role although it is mainly organizational barriers, such as lack of information and access, which are the main causes of the problem. A number of young people indicated that they would complain if they knew how to execute a complaint successfully. The service providers were knowledgeable that awareness is low among this age group.     

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in information technology private standard settings – the institutional account

The IT (information technology) standardisation landscape is characterised by the increasing importance of private standard setting consortia, a greater convergence between the structural features of formal and private standard organisations, and greater diversity in standard organisations. Institutional theory has been applied to explain the convergence of standard setting bodies. This paper applies institutional theory to four studies of standards organisations, showing that there are indeed homogenising mimetic, coercive and normative forces in standard setting that lead to the convergence of emergent organisations with the institutional features, but that there are also forces promoting heterogeneity, in particular the multiplicity of institutional fields within which standards consortia operate, leading to a complex, and often conflicting, matrix of institutional norms to be accommodated.     

Antecedents and Outcomes of Diversity and Equality Management Systems: An Integrated Institutional Agency and Strategic Human Resource Management Approach

This study examines the development and impact of diversity and equality management systems (DEMS). A national sample of human resource managers from 155 Canadian firms responded to surveys about their firm's diversity and equality management (DEM) practices. Cluster analysis and latent class modeling identified three distinct approaches to DEM: classical disparity DEMS showing limited development of DEM‐related practices, institutional DEMS involving complex selection mechanisms and monitoring of employment statistics, and configurational DEMS linking diversity to business strategy. Hypothesis‐testing analyses indicated that both institutional and configurational DEMS were predicted by coverage by the Canadian employment equity program, federal contractor status, and the presence of a diversity expert on staff. Only configurational DEMS was predicted by inclusion of HRM in developing business strategy. Configurational DEMS positively predicted the employment of workers with disabilities and members of visible minority groups as well as ROA. These findings support the proposition based on strategic human resource management (SHRM) theory that DEM practices should be considered as bundles and that vertical linkage to strategy is important for DEM effectiveness. As such, SHRM theory explains how managers can structure strategic responses to institutional pressures that go beyond requirements to achieve strategic goals. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.