BACKGROUND Quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) bring together groups of healthcare professionals to work in a structured manner to improve the quality of healthcare delivery within particular domains. We explored which characteristics of the composition, participation, functioning, and organization of these collaboratives related to changes in the healthcare for patients with anxiety diso...

T he study examines the sustainability of manufacturing quality improvements following the implementation of work teams on production lines. We posit that the impact on manufacturing quality, measured as the defect rate trajectory, is monotonically nonincreasing over time and may, more specifically, assume the shape of an inverted S-curve. Employing a longitudinal research design, we investigat...

This report presents an experiment comparing two lightweight methodologies. The objective of the experiment was to assess extreme programming seen as a design-less process and an agile methodology based on design. The experiment ran in a real environment. Twenty teams produced 20 systems, from scratch to the final product, in a period of one semester. They attended 4 clients. The factors of the...

Theoretical and empirical models explore the effects of a gender equity regulation imposed on an athletic director at a nonprofit university. The behavioral model predicts a decrease in the total number of sports teams and a net decrease in the number of men’s teams, suggesting that the regulation has unintended consequences. The empirical analysis confirms the theory and identifies the size an...

this paper presents a new mathematical model for a combined manpower vehicle routing problem, in which working teams are considered as servers. having teams with different competency affects the service duration and cost that expands the flexibility of scheduling. a fleet of vehicles with different speed and cost of movement is used to transport these teams to visit the customers before the due...

This study examines how engineering design teams converge upon a solution to a design problem and how their solution is influenced by information given to them prior to problem solving. Specifically, the study considers the influence of the type of information received prior to problem solving on team convergence over time, as well as on the quality of produced solutions. To understand converge...

The purpose of this project was to determine whether changing clinicians' behaviors to reduce costs in a large academic medical center is facilitated by the prior existence of a total quality management program. Ten teams, made up primarily of clinicians, were charged with devising strategies for altering specific clinical behaviors to reduce costs without detriment to quality of care. Half the...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of death, morbidity, and health-care spending. The Halifax, Nova Scotia-based INSPIRED COPD Outreach Program™ has proved highly beneficial for patients and the health-care system. With direct investment of <$1-million CAD, a pan-Canadian quality improvement collaborative (QIC) supported the spread of INSPIRED to 19 teams in the 10 ...

conclusions the result of the present study confirmed that students participating in different organized sports at high school level are at a very high risk of getting orodental injury. hence knowledge and education regarding prevention of traumatic injuries is of paramount importance. results 30.3% (n = 335) of students suffered from orodental injuries. a higher number of girls had injury (32%...