Austerity and fiscal crisis make the search for cost saving reforms in local government more critical. While cost savings from privatization have frequently proven ephemeral, inter-municipal cooperation has been a relatively understudied reform. We analyze the literature on cost savings under cooperation and find savings are dependent on (1) the cost structure of public services, particularly t...

A major motivation for managing the utilization of laboratory testing is to reduce the cost of medical care. For this reason it is important to understand the basic principles of cost accounting in the clinical laboratory. The process of laboratory testing includes three distinct components termed the pre-analytic, analytic and post-analytic phases. Utilization management efforts may impact the...

In this issue of the journal Rudas publishes a review describing the utility and efficacy of ultrasound when used to guide the performance of percutaneous tracheostomy placement. An Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (ASUM) grant funded research completed by the same authors, and presented at the recent 2012 ASUM meeting in Sydney. This demonstrated that ultrasound improves first-p...

AIMS Pre-operative assessment (POA) is now commonplace and follows established protocols. This audit compares the cost-effectiveness of surgeon-directed (SD) POA compared to the standard practice of protocol-driven (PD) POA. METHODS One hundred and fifty-six NHS patients who were referred to a single surgeon during 2009 were allocated to one of three groups. Group 1: SDPOA required no investi...

Gearless mill drives are a well established solution for grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries. The paper describes the functionality and technical features of such drive systems as well as their advantages compared to other drive solutions. Due to the variable speed operation the grinding process can be optimized for ores with varying grinding properties. This leads to si...

OBJECTIVE To analyze variability in urologists' Medicare utilization and payment and estimate potential cost savings of standardized service utilization using information from the recently released Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File (PUF) and to highlight potential limitations of PUF analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Centers for Medi...

The Genetic Resource Center (GRC) is a centralized process for requesting genetic testing that is not available within the province (Alberta, Canada). In order to assess potential cost savings associated with this process, all applications received by the GRC in 2010 were reviewed, and cost savings were recorded for statistical analysis. Seven areas of cost savings were identified: (i) negotiat...