Standardized Toolkit Research Articles

Building a knowledge base for evidence-based healthcare facility design through a post-occupancy evaluation toolkit

Background: Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) can play a critical role in evidence-based healthcare design (EBD) by evaluating design effectiveness and adding to the knowledge base. However, its potential has not been fully realized due to the lack of standardized tools, inaccessibility of findings, a focus on technical performance instead of patient-centred outcomes, and irrelevance to healthcare processes. Objective: To strengthen the EBD knowledge base by developing standardized POE tools. Methodology: A conceptual framework was created from a review of over 100 research publications. A standardized POE toolkit was developed, including questionnaires on design strategies, healthcare outcomes, and staff perception. Pilot testing was conducted at five healthcare construction projects. This toolkit is being further augmented by additional on-site audit POE tools. Findings: From the pilot testing of the first POE tool, significant variations were found among the five pilot facilities in terms of the design strategies adopted. Satisfaction with the indoor environment was higher among occupants at facilities with more sustainable design strategies implemented. Patients reported high satisfaction (65–83% top ratings) and high willingness to recommend facilities (71–85% ‘definitely recommend’). The general satisfaction of staff with building ranged from 0.88 to 2.2 on a scale from −3 to 3. Conclusion: A robust framework and a set of standard tools for obtaining broad building-level data related to healthcare design have been established to comprehensively evaluate building performance and to enable quick dissemination and easy access to new knowledge created.

Atmospheric PCDD/PCDF emission inventory for Turkey

While studies related to national emission inventories for polychlorinated dibenzo–p–dioxins (PCDD) and furans (PCDF) form the first steps of worldwide elimination of these pollutants, consistency between the methodologies applied for emission estimation is of great importance in the aspect of monitoring the changes in emissions. This study presents PCDD/PCDF emission inventory for Turkey estimated using a standardized toolkit developed by UNEP Chemicals. The total emission rate in Turkey was estimated as 723g I–TEQ yr−1. For those source categories without enough information on air pollution control equipment, emissions were calculated as 1 873g I–TEQ yr−1 using the highest emission factors to represent the worst–case conditions. Ferrous–and–nonferrous metal production was ranked first with emissions ranging from 583g I–TEQ yr−1 (min) to 1 419g I–TEQ yr−1 (max). Other important source categories were determined to be coal burning for residential heating and mineral product manufacturing using fossil fuels with emissions of 38g I–TEQ yr−1 and 3.65g I–TEQ yr−1, respectively. The contribution of ferrous–and–nonferrous metal production to the total emission ranged from 76% (min) to 81% (max). In contrast to other industrialized countries, PCDD/PCDF emissions from waste combustion plants were found to be negligible in Turkey.

Which factors drive product sales in OTC markets?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine sales drivers for different OTC product categories.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses data from both consumer and retail panels, which are gathered for various product categories. These long‐term data are analyzed per product category with two specific regression models, mainly time‐series analysis with VAR models and Shapley value regression.FindingsIt is found that purchase intention drives sales a lot in general. Besides, it is very important to distinguish seasonal vs non‐seasonal markets. The trend coefficient, which implies the stage of maturity of the market, indicates more or less saturated markets for the examples. The proposed models can be easily applied to different OTC categories without a lot of customization.Research limitations/implicationsThe study does not take into account different outlets (e.g. online, supermarkets) and does not estimate interaction effects between the single drivers.Practical implicationsThe paper provides the market researcher with a guideline on how to proceed to model OTC product categories, e.g. which data are to be used, which models are to be estimated, which conclusions can be drawn.Originality/valueThe study develops an analysis approach which is readily applicable to different OTC product categories, which exhibit very distinct market characteristics. The advantage of this approach is that it applies a standardized tool kit of methods to analyze highly varying markets.