The creation of health care standards by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in a defined area with known events follows a predictable process. A problem area (e.g., hand hygiene) is identified from multiple sources. The JCAHO then calls together experts from around the country, and through debate and the comparison of positions of various people within the...

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), under contract No. HHSO100200700038C. This report would not have been possible without the more than 100 dedicated and committed hospital and state preparedness planners and other experts who contributed their time to provide the Center for Biosecurity project team with critical insight into the state of U.S. hospital preparedness, or wi...

When you reach with your straw for the final drops of a milkshake, the liquid forms a train of plugs that flow slowly initially because of the high viscosity. They then suddenly rupture and are replaced with a rapid airflow with the characteristic slurping sound. Trains of liquid plugs also are observed in complex geometries, such as porous media during petroleum extraction, in microfluidic two...

A nonstandard probabilistic setting for modeling of the risk of catastrophic events is presented. It allows random variables to take on infinitely large negative values with non-zero probability, which corresponds to catastrophic consequences unmeasurable in monetary terms, e.g. loss of human lives. Thanks to this extension, the safety-first principle is proved to be consistent with traditional...

In catastrophic events, the potential of help has grown through new technologies. Voluntary help has many forms. Within this paper different categories of voluntary help are suggested. Those categories are based on properties like organizational structures, helping process, kind of prosocial behavior and many more. A focus is clearly on the organizational structure and motivational aspects of h...

This dissertation abstract outlines some of theoretical frameworks for modeling and simulation of multi-agent planning problems with rare catastrophic events. In particular, this abstract will focus on a wildfire surveillance application using unmanned aircraft. The thesis abstract presents an initial model and results of a preliminary study.

Background. No studies report robust data on the national incidence and risk factors associated with catastrophic medical outcomes following free tissue transfer. Methods. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) multicenter, prospective National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was used to identify patients who underwent free tissue transfer between 2006 and 2011. Multivaria...