Do Clean Common Areas Save Lives?

Do vaccines save lives? Yes they do!

Since their introduction and widespread use, vaccines have been very successful in reducing morbidity and mortality of the diseases they target, at an individual level and through herd immunity. The impact on the mortality has been rapid and easy to measure for some diseases, such as diphtheria, pertussis and measles. For other diseases, including hepatitis B and human papillomavirus infections...

hand hygiene in healthcare settings: clean hands save lives

Do Gun Buybacks Save Lives? Evidence from Panel Data

In 1997, Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households). Using differences across states, we test whether the reduction in firearms availability affected homicide and suicide rates. We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, with no significant effe...

Can lean save lives?

PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to show how over the last 18 months Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust have been exploring whether or not lean methodologies, often known as the Toyota Production System, can indeed be applied to healthcare. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH This paper is a viewpoint. FINDINGS One's early experience is that lean really can save lives. The Toyota Production System is a...

Does Medicare save Lives?

Health insurance characteristics shift at age 65 as most people become eligible for Medicare. We measure the impacts of these changes on patients who are admitted to hospitals through emergency departments for conditions with similar admission rates on weekdays and weekends. The age profiles of admissions and comorbidities for these patients are smooth at age 65, suggesting that the severity of...