In this paper we first consider the expectation of the total discounted claim costs up to the time of ruin, and then, more generally, we study the expectation of the total discounted operating costs up to the time of default, which is the first passage time of a surplus process downcrossing a given level. These two quantities include the expected discounted penalty function at ruin or the Gerbe...

Fixed operating costs draw a sharp distinction between endogenous growth based on horizontal and vertical innovation: a larger number of product lines puts pressure on an economy’s resources; greater productivity of existing product lines does not. Consequently, the only plausible engine of endogenous growth is vertical innovation whereby progress along the quality or cost ladder does not requi...

until recently pet scanning has been available only at major universities or teaching hospitals possessing the necessary resources and expertise to operate a research pet facility. most dedicated pet centers cost several millions of dollars, and include a cyclotron, a radiochemistry laboratory to synthesize pet radiopharmaceuticals, a multicrystal dedicated pet camera, advanced computer facilit...

OBJECTIVES To cost a clinical unit over one month in 1991, to cost treatment of individual patients from audit data, and to compare this costing method with the hospital charging system. DESIGN A financial breakdown was obtained for one month's work. Ward stay, operating time, investigations, and outpatient visits were costed and a formula (episode = days on ward+hours of operating+investigat...

The paper reports the results of a study of the costs and benefits associated with the implementation and operation of HACCP in the Chinese slaughtering and meat product processing industry. The research results suggest that although some kinds of intangible costs are more regularly referred to, the major costs of implementing and operating HACCP in the industry are still relatively tangible, s...

The most common means for disposing of municipal solid waste is burial in a sanitary landfill. However, many landfill are underestimate the total cost of landfill disposal be considering only land and operating costs, ignoring external physical and social costs associated with landfills. This paper pro0oses and approach be estimating (in monetary terms) the external costs arising from the devel...

UNLABELLED Designing a new operating room (OR) suite is a difficult process owing to the number of caregivers involved and because decision-making managers try to minimize the direct and indirect costs of operating the OR suite. In this study, we devised a computer simulation flow model to calculate, first, the minimum number of beds required in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). In a second ...

An anaesthetist-led outpatient pre-operative assessment (OPA) clinic was introduced in our unit in an effort to improve patient care and cost-effectiveness. To assess the efficiency of the clinic, 112 patients who attended the OPA clinic (attendance rate 98%) during the first year were assessed prospectively and compared with 118 patients who did not undergo OPA the year before. There were fewe...

PURPOSE The purpose of this process improvement project was to introduce and evaluate the efficacy of fast-tracking ambulatory surgical patients in a community hospital. DESIGN An observational pre-post design was used, in which patient data from a reference period (pre-fast-tracking) was compared with patient data collected during an implementation period (post-fast-tracking). METHODS Anes...

Recent studies have shown that the variable sampling interval (VSI) scheme helps practitioners detect process shifts more quickly than the classical scheme (FRS). In this paper, the economically and statistically optimal design of the VSI T2 control chart for monitoring the process mean vector is investigated. The cost model proposed by Lorenzen and Vance (1986) is minimized through a genetic a...