Examples Of Performance Indicators Research Articles

Cross-Asset Resource Allocation and the Impact on Road Network Performance

The allocation of available budget among different assets is one of the most complex problems that administrations have to face in the management of transport infrastructures. In order to effectively distribute the available budget over multiple assets (e.g. pavements, bridges, guardrails, signs, lighting systems, etc.), administrations need decision support tools. Typical practice was to allocate resources with one of the four methods: historical-based, formula-based, asset value-based, needs-based. However, none of these methods considers performances and therefore they are not able to optimize the use of the resources according to the objectives set. Therefore, transportation organizations are increasingly looking to performance-based and optimization methods to improve their transparency, credibility and decision-making in the cross-asset budget allocation processes. One of the main issues of performance-based methods is the identification of a structure of performance indicators linked to strategic objectives. This study first presents a performance-based "hybrid" framework, combining top-down/bottom-up processes, for allocating funds among different classes of highway assets using an interactive multi-objective approach. Then, some examples of performance indicators linked to the most common objectives used on the Italian road network are presented, with particular attention to some assets often considered as complementary.

Modeling, Assessment and Design of an Emergency Department of a Public Hospital through Discrete-Event Simulation

Emergency departments in hospitals are having many difficulties in achieving the performance levels required by health regulators and society. The waiting times as well as the total throughput time are examples of performance indicators that emergency departments need to improve in order to provide a better service to the community. To achieve improvement of performance, the present paper shows a methodology to assist the design process of an emergency department using simulation techniques. In this study, the emergency department of a hospital located in the northern region of Portugal was considered to test the proposed simulation technique. The emergency department initial state was assessed, in terms of patient flow, as well as the human resources needed at every stage of the service. In order to understand in depth the process that a patient goes through during an emergency episode, a comprehensive study was performed on the hospital database. This allowed the analytical description of an emergency episode, which was further used as an input to the simulation model. After developing the simulation model with the information obtained by the hospital’s database, a validation stage was performed. Finally, in order to achieve an optimized design for the emergency department several variant scenarios were considered and evaluated. This methodology proved to be very useful in determining an optimized operation for complex, and non-linear systems.

Damage in metal forming

Physical mechanisms of ductile damage in metal forming, experimental characterization methods for damage, and models predicting the damage level in formed components are reviewed. Applications of damage analysis in metal forming processes reveal that damage in metal formed parts is not failure, but a product property that accumulates between processes. Various metal forming process designs demonstrate that damage in formed products can be reduced and their performance can be increased. Static and fatigue strength, impact toughness, stiffness, and formability are typical examples of performance indicators that can be improved by damage-based process design. Potential scientific and technological challenges are addressed to realize damage-controlled metal forming processes.

Development and adaptation of a Canadian clinical practice guideline for the rehabilitation of adults with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (tbi)

A clinical practice guideline (CPG) for traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation is under development in Ontario and Québec, Canada. Multiple stakeholders (clinicians/managers, physicians, researchers, and decision-makers) were consulted regarding their perceptions about their needs and the CPG content/format and implementation and participated as experts in a meeting to achieve consensus on the main recommendations to include in the CPG; to modify recommendations requiring adaptation, and to identify performance indicators to measure practice related to the recommendations. To report on the consensus process results. Sixty TBI experts (i.e. clinicians from multiple disciplines, researchers, managers, decision-makers and community associations) participated. Using prepared lists of recommendations based on scientific evidence and existing guidelines about the organization of rehabilitation services (e.g. case management) and the rehabilitation of specific brain injury-related impairments (e.g. fatigue and sleep disorders), experts assembled in 6 working groups produced a preliminary set of recommendations. For the organization of services, 39 new recommendations were added to the 71 existing recommendations; 78 new recommendations were added to the 142 related to impairments, for a total of 330 recommendations. Examples of performance indicators included patient satisfaction and chart audit (presence/absence of recommended assessment/intervention). A first set of guidelines was produced and they will be refined through further consultation with the experts who will prioritise the recommendations for the final version of the CPG.

Performance Indicators in Screening Programmes

Breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening programmes make it possible to decrease the population mortality rates of these diseases. How-ever, complex standards of the quality of care must be introduced and followed in order to maintain a favourable ratio between the benefits and risks arising from population-wide screening programmes. Such programmes should be organized and population-based, ensuring that quality control is performed at all levels. This review introduces the system of quality control in the Czech cancer screening programmes, and provides specific examples of performance indicators that are usable and/ or being used in these programmes. Cancer screening programmes in the Czech Republic are equipped with a comprehensive information background which involves monitoring of the cancer burden in the population, monitoring of the screening process based on clinical data, and monitoring of the screening process based on administrative data. In particular, the specific performance indicators describe the success rate of take up of the target population, ability of the screening test to reveal (sensitivity) or to exclude (specificity) the screened condition, correct employment of subsequent diagnostic methods or treatment of detected cancers or precancerous lesions where applicable. In the Czech breast cancer screening programme, these indicators are routinely used in order to monitor the individual centres; in both colorectal and cervical cancer screening programmes, these indicators are used to monitor the entire programme, whereas the system of quality control for individual centres is under continuous development. A project of personalized invitations was launched in 2014, and its results are regularly evaluated in cooperation with the Czech National Reference Centre and the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.