PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of the prevalence rating of depression in nursing homes as flagged on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) quality indicator report. DESIGN AND METHODS Research Staff measured depression symptoms and compared the results with the prevalence of disturbed mood symptoms documented by nursing home (NH) staff on the MDS in two samples of reside...

A process to collect universal, mandatory autotransfusion (ATS) procedure quality indicators to measure and monitor ATS quality improvement was designed and implemented by Fresenius Medical Care Extracorporeal Alliance (FMCEA) an outsource provider of extracorporeal services. The indicator program collected and evaluated data that reflect real-world extracorporeal clinical practices and outcome...

The variable life-adjusted display is a graphical, statistical methodology used in Queensland to monitor patient outcomes of clinical indicators. The quality improvement cycle is a systematic approach employed by patient safety and quality programs worldwide to improve patient care. The quality improvement cycle is beneficial to the review and refinement of indicator definitions. Indicators wit...

INTRODUCTION Hospital readmission rates are increasingly used for both quality improvement and cost control. However, the validity of readmission rates as a measure of quality of hospital care is not evident. We aimed to give an overview of the different methodological aspects in the definition and measurement of readmission rates that need to be considered when interpreting readmission rates a...

BACKGROUND Quality measures should be subjected to a testing protocol before being used in practice using key attributes such as acceptability, feasibility and reliability, as well as identifying issues derived from actual implementation and unintended consequences. We describe the methodologies and results of an indicator testing protocol (ITP) using data from proposed quality indicators for t...

Background: The rainbow trout fish is susceptible to spoilage due to its high content of unsaturated fatty acids. It should be kept at low temperature to reduce microbial, enzymatic, and oxidation reactions. The purpose of this study was to design a packaging that contains a pH indicator for monitoring freshness of the rainbow trout fish during storage at refrigerator. Methods: The indicator co...

Current guidelines in the three water-related areas (drinking water, wastewater and recreational water) assess quality, in microbiological terms, by measuring indicator organisms. This chapter looks at the history and examines some of the methods used to assess the microbiological quality of water, highlighting the current limitations and also possible future developments. Traditionally, indica...

The microbial water quality at two beaches, Hobie Beach and Crandon Beach, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA was measured using multiple microbial indicators for the purpose of evaluating correlations between microbes and for identifying possible sources of contamination. The indicator microbes chosen for this study (enterococci, Escherichia coli, fecal coliform, total coliform and C. perfring...

The Link Quality Indicator (LQI) and Residual Energy have a fundamental impact on the network performance in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and affects as well in the life time of nodes. This paper will provide a comparative of Link Quality Estimator, the Link Quality Estimator with Link Quality Indicator and Link Quality Estimator with Residual Energy. In this paper we develop a Collect Tree ...