Roger Durand

Location of in-house organ procurement organization staff in level I trauma centers increases conversion of potential donors to actual donors.

Background. Of 5810 acute care hospitals in the United States, only 3.9% (231) are Level 1 Trauma Centers (L1TCs). L1TCs have a significant number of potential organ donors (PODs). Placement of Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) staff, In House Coordinators (IHCs), directly within the L1TC to increase the number of families who consent to donate and to provide system management for the trauma center’s donation program, was evaluated. Methods. Four OPO staff, IHCs, were placed in offices inside two L1TCs in Houston, Texas. The IHCs were responsible for development of a donation system, donor surveillance, management, and most importantly, family support. Results. Calendar year 2000 data on conversion of PODs to actual donors were compared between the L1TCs with IHCs (IHC-L1TC) (n=2) and trauma centers without IHCs (n=4) within the OPO’s service area. IHC-L1TCs converted 44% more of the PODs to actual donors. Furthermore, the IHC-L1TCs were compared with 85 L1TCs (37% of U.S. L1TCs) without IHCs. IHC-L1TCs had a 28% greater donor consent rate and a 48% greater conversion rate of PODs to actual donors than the national L1TCs. Conclusions. L1TC status is the America College of Surgeons’ highest level of verification for trauma care. To be certified as a L1TC, hospitals must meet strict criteria in both services and patient care. The donation process is often profoundly affected by the burden of demands made on the resources of these institutions and from divergent responsibilities between specialty services within the facility. Dedicated IHCs (OPO staff) are needed to provide early family intervention and to orchestrate the donation process to maximize organ recovery.

Organ Donation among African Americans: Opportunities for Increasing Donor Rates

n the United States the number of African American organ donors continI ues to be low relative to the demand for transplantable human organs. In 1999, for example, African Americans constituted 1 1.2 percent of all cadaveric donors (UNOS 2001a). Yet, in that same year African Americans comprised 25.5 percent of those on the National Transplant Waiting List (UNOS 2001b). Thus, there exists an acute shortage of organs suitable for matching to African Americans needing transplants. This shortage is particularly severe with regard to kidneys: African Americans constitute more than

Leading the flock: organ donation feelings, beliefs, and intentions among African American clergy and community residents

CONTEXT Despite a considerable potential role in organ donation for African American clergy, there has been little investigation to date of the beliefs, attitudes, and personal intentions of such clergy regarding donation. OBJECTIVE To compare the beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation among African American clergy to those of African American residents of the same large US city. DESIGN Focus groups and 3 cross-sectional surveys. SETTING Greater Houston, Tex, metropolitan area. PARTICIPANTS A total of 761 randomly selected African American community residents and 311 African American clergy. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES Beliefs about the importance of organ donation; how comfortable one is in thinking about donation; whether one believes that organ donation is against ones religion; trust in healthcare professionals regarding death declaration; concerns that donation leads to body mutilation; and the likelihood that one will donate ones own organs upon death. RESULTS Compared to general African American residents, African American clergy in the Houston area were found more often to believe in the importance of donation; to be more comfortable with thinking about donation; to feel more certain that donation was not against their religion; to believe that they could trust healthcare professionals regarding death declaration; to feel less often that donation leads to mutilation of the body; and to indicate a greater likelihood of donating their own organs upon death. The same was found to be true among clergy and congregants of the largest religious denomination in Houston, the Baptists.

The uses and potential of biometrics in health care

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the utilization, attitudes, and concerns of health care consumers and providers about biometrics.Design/methodology/approach – Data were analyzed from a survey of 324 adult subjects, including 167 “health care consumers” and 157 “healthcare providers.”Findings – Health care providers were found more accepting of biometric technologies than consumers, a finding that seems to follow from more familiarity and experience with those technologies. Feelings about the potential uses and limitations of biometrics were found to be more differentiated among providers than consumers. Yet, concerns about privacy and the need for information limits were identifiable as important feelings among providers and consumers alike. Finally, demographic characteristics only weakly to modestly distinguished concerns about privacy and confidentiality among health care consumers and providers.Research limitations/implications – The findings reported here suggest...

Evaluation Methodologies for Estimating the Likelihood of Program Implementation Failure.

Despite our best efforts as evaluators, program implementation failures abound. A wide variety of valuable methodologies have been adopted to explain and evaluate the why of these failures. Yet, typically these methodologies have been employed concurrently (e.g., project monitoring) or to the post-hoc assessment of program activities. What we believe to be missing are methods that will lead to the successful prediction of program implementation failures in advance, methods that will lead us directly to the “how” and, especially, the “how likely” of program implementation failure. To that end we propose, discuss, and illustrate three such methods that seemingly hold promise – marker analysis, the wisdom of crowds, and “Big Data.” Additionally, we call for an expanded role for evaluation – explanation, but also prediction without a total embrace of the need to understand why a prediction works.

Exploring the ROI in leadership development: a global energy company case study

Purpose – Leadership development courses are widely used despite lack of general agreement about their payoff or return on investment (ROI). The authors purpose is to explore and document the ROI of leadership development.Design/methodology/approach – The authors used three different but complementary approaches – survey research, participant observation, and a panel study in triangulating on the ROI effects of a leadership courseFindings – The three core findings were that most all respondents (90 percent) reported that the course paid off in terms of ROI; content analysis revealed three broad sources of ROI; and five elements of course design seemed important linkages to ROI pay offs.Research limitations/implications – This research is limited because it is exploratory and breaks new ground. It suggests that the actual experience of participants in leadership development courses and course design should be further studied in research on the bottom line effects of leadership developmentPractical implica...

Fitting and testing a ‘predator‐prey’ model*

Students of political competition and of social influence processes have long recognized the insights afforded by a particular nonlinear, dynamical formalism commonly known as a “predator‐prey” model. Yet, to date there remain relatively few research reports in which this model has been fit to actual observations and used to predict behavior. This is largely attributable to the fact that the predator‐prey cannot easily be fit to observations using such common estimation procedures as ordinary least‐squares. This paper presents a relatively simple method of fitting the predator‐prey to observations. And it illustrates the method using data on Finnish parliamentary elections.

A study of the psycho, social, & economic impact of a US Habitat for Humanity affiliate

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to inform funders and potential funders alike of the likely outcomes of their financial contributions. Additionally, the authors reported on the assessment of the underlying logic model or theoretical underpinnings of what the authors will term the “Habitat Model.” Design/methodology/approach – This study utilized a one-shot case study design to obtain data. In a one-shot case study the experimental group is exposed to the independent variable (X), then observations of the dependent variable (O) were made. No observations were made before the independent variable was introduced. A one-shot case study design was necessary as this is the first impact study conducted by BAHFH because of the changes within BAHFH over the years as well as the lack of consistent archival data on families and operations. Findings – Most of the feedback obtained from stakeholders was positive. Many of the demographic variables showed significant improvement in partner family life style since...

What do adults with ASD desire in their residence

Purpose – Currently, approximately one in 100 Americans meet the criteria for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Males are four-to-five times more likely to be diagnosed than females. Because the demand for ADS community-based services outweigh available resources, applicants are placed on a waiting list until services are available. Some wait for years; many adults with an ASD continue to live with their parents who also often serve as de facto case managers. When the decision of which facility to place a resident comes, most families are unprepared to make the decision. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Community-based participatory research theory was used in designing interviews of family members facing residential facility placement decisions. Ten interviews were conducted with families. Findings – Participant answers were categorized within the topic areas of: physical site, staff, transportation, community, diet, behavior, medical, and faith. Research l...