This study describes nurses' perceptions about how and why medication errors occur and their personal experiences with medication errors. A survey was mailed to a random sample of registered nurses. Two hundred and two responded. Of those, 158 (78%) nurses admitted making medication errors and provided details about these errors. This study, by providing the perspective of frontline nurses, con...

We investigate the influence of random errors in external control parameters on the stability of holonomic quantum computation in the case of arbitrary loops and adiabatic connections. A simple expression is obtained for the case of small random uncorrelated errors. Due to universality of mathematical description our results are valid for any physical system which can be described in terms of h...

The objective of this study was to examine the relative efficacy of two different methodologies for auditing self-funded medical claim expenses: 100-percent-of-claims auditing versus random-sampling auditing. Multiple data sets of claim errors or 'exceptions' from two Fortune-100 corporations were analysed and compared to 100 simulated audits of 300- and 400-claim random samples. Random-sample ...

The statistical procedure for determination of the relation type – equivalence or tolerance – in a finite set on the basis of multiple pairwise comparisons with random errors is presented in the paper. The procedure consists of two tests; it is an extension of the approach presented in [3]. The test statistics is based on a mixture of some random variables and rests on: estimated form of both r...

Reliability and validity are crucial issues in research. Reliability is concerned with lowered quality of data due to random errors in measurement. Validity is concerned with whether variables measure what they purport to measure or are biased by other systemic factors, excluding random errors. Strength of correlation is limited by reliability. Given the problems in measuring reliability and va...

In astrophysical applications, derived quantities like distances, absolute magnitudes and velocities are used instead of the observed quantities, such as parallaxes and proper motions. As the observed values are affected by random errors and selection effects, the estimates of the astrophysical quantities can be biased if a correct statistical treatment is not used. This paper presents and disc...

As an alternative to the oversimplified error schemes currently adopted in establishing quality control (QC) strategies, a complex model was assumed implying (a) the distribution of errors (critical error is regarded as a value discriminating between "effective errors" to be detected and "subcritical errors" which do not interfere with the medical decision whose detection is considered as a fal...

Available data may reflect a true but unknown random variable of interest plus an additive error, which is a nuisance. The problem in predicting the unknown random variable arises in many applied situations where measurements are contaminated with errors; it is known as the regression-to-the-mean problem. There exists a well known solution when both the distributions of the true underlying rand...

Epidemiological studies have shown the effect of diet on the incidence of chronic diseases; however, proper planning, designing, and statistical modeling are necessary to obtain precise and accurate food consumption data. Evaluation methods used for short-term assessment of food consumption of a population, such as tracking of food intake over 24h or food diaries, can be affected by random erro...

Softwood logs are processed into green boards through a series of horizontal or vertical sawing operations that reduce lumber thickness. This paper uses physical understanding to model how systematic and random errors in board thickness accumulate during sequential resawing. The error model is validated on board thickness measurements gathered at a northern California sawmill. The analysis • ex...