Examining organisational complexity and clinical risk to improve hospital patients' safety. Improving communicative practices will reduce the massive rate and cost of medication errors and hospital-acquired infections. Current costs of hospital-caused incidents are around AU$2 billion per year. These costs are likely to rise further because hospitals are becoming busier, more culturally and linguistically diverse, less generously resourced per patient, and more technologically capable of keeping ....Examining organisational complexity and clinical risk to improve hospital patients' safety. Improving communicative practices will reduce the massive rate and cost of medication errors and hospital-acquired infections. Current costs of hospital-caused incidents are around AU$2 billion per year. These costs are likely to rise further because hospitals are becoming busier, more culturally and linguistically diverse, less generously resourced per patient, and more technologically capable of keeping sicker patients alive for longer, leading to increased clinical risk and more incidents. This project could save around 20% of the total cost of hospital operations by reducing lengths of stay, lowering re-admission rates and ensuring better deployment of clinical resources.Read moreRead less
Can technology make communication in complex systems safer and more efficient? Evaluation of an electronic test management system in health care. In many industries poor communication has a major impact on safety; in health, missed test results have impacts ranging from inappropriate antibiotic therapy to missed cancer diagnoses. This research will evaluate new information technology which can improve health outcomes and communication between clinicians, laboratories and patients.
Work related road safety countermeasures in a large fleet (QFleet). Despite accounting for more than 20% of the road crashes, relatively little research has been conducted on fleet safety in Australia. This research will develop guidelines for current best practice and design, implement and evaluate several new countermeasures. More importantly, it will develop a comprehensive model for future design, implementation and evaluation of fleet safety that will extend the frontier of knowledge in cra ....Work related road safety countermeasures in a large fleet (QFleet). Despite accounting for more than 20% of the road crashes, relatively little research has been conducted on fleet safety in Australia. This research will develop guidelines for current best practice and design, implement and evaluate several new countermeasures. More importantly, it will develop a comprehensive model for future design, implementation and evaluation of fleet safety that will extend the frontier of knowledge in crash analysis and prevention. By working closely with QFleet, current fleet safety thinking will be advanced to reduce the frequency and severity of road crashes thereby reducing road trauma and increasing business effectiveness.Read moreRead less
Examinations of the relationship between accreditation and clinical and organisational performance. Accreditation of organisations is now commonplace. It involves assessing organisations against pre-defined standards. This is a highly significant issue because of the millions of dollars of investment in accreditation. We do not know if we achieve value for money or whether positive change is associated with accreditation. Few studies have examined this in detail. We aim to do so in this stud ....Examinations of the relationship between accreditation and clinical and organisational performance. Accreditation of organisations is now commonplace. It involves assessing organisations against pre-defined standards. This is a highly significant issue because of the millions of dollars of investment in accreditation. We do not know if we achieve value for money or whether positive change is associated with accreditation. Few studies have examined this in detail. We aim to do so in this study. We will examine organisational and individual performance associated with accreditation status in order to illuminate the process and uncover any associations between accreditation and organisational culture, consumer participation and clinical (individual) performance indicators.
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Work process change in hospital services. This project will compare how process re-engineering methods, such as Lean Management and Six Sigma, are implemented in hospitals in Australia and Canada and how they impact on staff and patient care.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100548
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$298,000.00
Summary
Conceptualizing and Measuring Digital Service Quality. The project aims to understand customer quality perceptions of digital services, and the factors, such as customer's own skill-levels, that help people to optimise their experiences. Public and private organisations are pushing customers from face-to-face to digital service and self-service models, sometimes offering no alternatives (eg many travel visas can only be obtained online). E-commerce research suggests up to 80 per cent of service ....Conceptualizing and Measuring Digital Service Quality. The project aims to understand customer quality perceptions of digital services, and the factors, such as customer's own skill-levels, that help people to optimise their experiences. Public and private organisations are pushing customers from face-to-face to digital service and self-service models, sometimes offering no alternatives (eg many travel visas can only be obtained online). E-commerce research suggests up to 80 per cent of service users will sometimes struggle with online transactions. In the worst case, people may be excluded from accessing important services. Insights from this research are expected to help public and private organisations to deliver high-quality digital services that empower service users.Read moreRead less
A Simulation-Based Approach to Understanding Alternative Supply Chain Configurations. The research developed in this project has value to the broader Australian community because it will lead to the development of a decision support system for configuring more strategic, cost effective and efficient supply chains. The modelling techniques developed in the project together with the crucial training and experience in large scale experimental and survey techniques will help to establish a high qual ....A Simulation-Based Approach to Understanding Alternative Supply Chain Configurations. The research developed in this project has value to the broader Australian community because it will lead to the development of a decision support system for configuring more strategic, cost effective and efficient supply chains. The modelling techniques developed in the project together with the crucial training and experience in large scale experimental and survey techniques will help to establish a high quality centre for supply chain research. The decision support system and other techniques utilised in the project have potential for commercialisation for the benefit of Australian commerce. Read moreRead less
A Framework for Software Component Conformance Testing. This research aims to establish a framework - a method, set of tools and business process - within which Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software components can be tested for conformance to client user requirements. There currently exists no general method for validating COTS components without access to source code. We will ?wrap? components in human readable and executable requirements specifications that will be the basis for: client/s ....A Framework for Software Component Conformance Testing. This research aims to establish a framework - a method, set of tools and business process - within which Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software components can be tested for conformance to client user requirements. There currently exists no general method for validating COTS components without access to source code. We will ?wrap? components in human readable and executable requirements specifications that will be the basis for: client/supplier negotiation about component functionality; generating conformance test cases; documentation for integration testing; advertising component capabilities. Outcome: a universally applicable component conformance framework directly beneficial to SMEs, and supporting the development of a robust component marketplace.Read moreRead less
Anchoring preventive health care to positive learning: an exploration of local methods of organising and improving clinical practices. Safe health care is the most important treatment factor for patients and families. This project focuses on how clinical professionals achieve quality and safety in their daily practices, by investigating their team processes and communications. The project produces methods and approaches for enhancing the social, organisational and clinical conducts that best rea ....Anchoring preventive health care to positive learning: an exploration of local methods of organising and improving clinical practices. Safe health care is the most important treatment factor for patients and families. This project focuses on how clinical professionals achieve quality and safety in their daily practices, by investigating their team processes and communications. The project produces methods and approaches for enhancing the social, organisational and clinical conducts that best realise high quality and safe care.Read moreRead less
From Compliance to Mindfulness. Safety in hazardous organisations does not simply depend on compliance with safety rules. It depends on a more elusive quality, organisational mindfulness. The aim of this project wil be to identify ways in which rule based culture can be transformed into a culture of mindfulness.The focus will be on a power station which is seeking to trasform a rule-based culture into a culture of mindfulness. If this can be done it will not only enhance safety at this po ....From Compliance to Mindfulness. Safety in hazardous organisations does not simply depend on compliance with safety rules. It depends on a more elusive quality, organisational mindfulness. The aim of this project wil be to identify ways in which rule based culture can be transformed into a culture of mindfulness.The focus will be on a power station which is seeking to trasform a rule-based culture into a culture of mindfulness. If this can be done it will not only enhance safety at this power station but it will identify the way other organisations can make the same transition.
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