This dissertation is a study of the public policy-making process, the role of ideas and relationships in this process, and their effect on social economy enterprises, in particular co-operatives. It is concerned with a central problem in all social economy organizations today: understanding the impact of public policy on funding, decision-making and strategy. The relationship between Saskatchewans co-operative Community Clinics and the provincial government is of particular interest. In spite of a seeming congruence between the goals of the Community Clinics and the government, the Clinics have not been allowed to play a significant role in reforming the delivery of health care services in the province.<p> The dissertation draws on models and concepts from the literatures on businessgovernment relations, public policy and the policy-making process, the role of ideas and ideology in public policy, the social economy and public policy, and governmentco-operative relations. A case study of the Community Clinics is elaborated through key informant interviews and supported by examination of primary and secondary literature.<p> This research shows that the Community Clinics are unique organizations and that a new understanding can be developed if the Clinics are viewed as hybrids some combination of co-operative, public, and perhaps even private organizations. The ambiguity in the relationship arises at least in part from the differing and conflicting ways that the Community Clinics have been conceptualized by the politicians, government officials, the health regions, and even the Clinics themselves. The research also shows that the dominant idea at play in the health care policy domain in Saskatchewan remains that of private medical practice, with fee-for-service remuneration, and that the conditions necessary for a major policy change with respect to the role of the Community Clinics do not exist.

This dissertation is a study of the public policy-making process, the role of ideas and relationships in this process, and their effect on social economy enterprises, in particular co-operatives. It is concerned with a central problem in all social economy organizations today: understanding the impact of public policy on funding, decision-making and strategy. The relationship between Saskatchewans co-operative Community Clinics and the provincial government is of particular interest. In spite of a seeming congruence between the goals of the Community Clinics and the government, the Clinics have not been allowed to play a significant role in reforming the delivery of health care services in the province.<p> The dissertation draws on models and concepts from the literatures on businessgovernment relations, public policy and the policy-making process, the role of ideas and ideology in public policy, the social economy and public policy, and governmentco-operative relations. A case study of the Community Clinics is elaborated through key informant interviews and supported by examination of primary and secondary literature.<p> This research shows that the Community Clinics are unique organizations and that a new understanding can be developed if the Clinics are viewed as hybrids some combination of co-operative, public, and perhaps even private organizations. The ambiguity in the relationship arises at least in part from the differing and conflicting ways that the Community Clinics have been conceptualized by the politicians, government officials, the health regions, and even the Clinics themselves. The research also shows that the dominant idea at play in the health care policy domain in Saskatchewan remains that of private medical practice, with fee-for-service remuneration, and that the conditions necessary for a major policy change with respect to the role of the Community Clinics do not exist.

Medical cosmeceutical business, combining medical and cosmetic profession, is considered one of the booming sectors among self-provided services under the National Health Insurance program in Taiwan. In the past, dermatological clinics had the advantages of medical profession; however, without strict law restrictions, numerous medical ¡§cosmeceutical centers¡¨ have emerged rapidly and intensified the market competition significantly. This research investigated and analyzed the current status of medical cosmeceutical industry in detail by collecting the second source data and studying the case of C Dermatological Clinic. The SWOT and five-force analysis are used to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of C Dermatological Clinic, thereby, business strategies are provided. The results indicate that minimally invasive treatment is the trend of medical cosmeceutical business in the future. Due to the excellent location, professional medical teams, advanced equipments, individual proprietorship and strong marketing task force, C Dermatological Clinic, has built up a great reputation in this industry and now provides its customers total solution packages by incorporating plastic surgeon into the services. Catching the opportunities of the continuous progress in biotechnology and growing public awareness of cosmeceutical therapy, C Dermatological Clinic has successfully become one of the most important players in the growing medical cosmeceutical market. However, after the Taiwan high speed rail in operating (which broke the entry barrier of distance between cities), the threats of new entrants including medical laser suppliers, cosmetic or salon shops, and other special medical institutes, the medical cosmeceutical market becomes more competitive. Facing the emerging medical tourism demand and the pervasion of internet, We suggest that C Dermatological Clinic should aggressively improve its weaknesses such as poor computer knowledge, lack of service attitude and bad decision quality, strengthen its customer service training, pay more attention to the customer relationship management, make best use of internet to promote the clinic, and ally with tourist bureaus or hotels to expand its share in this market and develop a sustainable business model.

Title from PDF of title page. / Professional research project (Au.D.)--University of South Florida, 2000. / Document formatted into pages; contains 19 p. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Eligibility reform in the VA and the resulting increased caseloads have brought about unacceptable wait times for new audiology appointments. Mandates to decrease wait times without increased resources have brought new demands on audiology clinics. One proposed solution is the addition of audiology technicians to VA audiology clinic practice. The first purpose of this study was to survey the attitudes of VA audiologists and service chiefs regarding the use of technicians. The second purpose was to ask the survey respondents to assign as generally appropriate or inappropriate, job duties which might be accomplished by an audiology technician. Following a pre-survey to pilot the questionnaire, the final survey was e-mailed to all members of a national e-mail group. Ninety-three acceptable responses were analyzed. The survey responses indicate that a large majority of the respondents hold positive attitudes concerning the use of technicians, believe technicians can accomplish some duties now done by audiologists and believe technicians can help reduce current appointment backlogs. The respondents assigned a number of clerical, assistive, minor hearing aid repair and other duties as appropriate for technicians and many testing, evaluation, programming, and perceived professional duties as inappropriate for technicians. There were several items which were not clearly assigned as either appropriate or inappropriate technician duties. Open-ended responses indicated that strong feelings, both positive and negative, exist within the audiology and service chief community. The survey results will be used to develop an audiology technician job description and to identify specific training needs for establishing audiology technician positions throughout the VA healthcare system. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Children become diagnosed with neuropsychiatry diagnostic. The diagnostic of children is critiqued from. The national board of health and welfare because the child psychiatric clinics differ in the reliability of diagnostic. This is a problem both in the same clinic and between clinics. The purpose is to investigate if parents of children with neuropsychiatry diagnostic consider that the diagnostic criteria were met when the child was diagnosed. The method was first a pilot study with surveys and interviews. The study was a telephone survey with parents of diagnosed children. The result indicates that the parents didn’t experience that the diagnostic criteria was met. The discussion suggests that communication between parents, child psychiatry and school needs to improve. / 0761777843

The scope of this dissertation covers two intangible cultural practices of the Chinese traditions: martial art and bone setting. The research will be on the combination of these two practices in the context of Hong Kong. 　　　Martial art through a system of apprenticeship, aims at passing the traditional techniques to the apprentice; and bone setting is a trade intending to help and cure people. They are traditionally human-oriented but not profit-oriented. The combined martial art school and bone setting clinic of Master Wong Fei-hung (黃飛鴻) is a perfect example. Master Wong Fei-hung is one of the most impressive Chinese martial art practitioners in the recent Chinese history and culture. He has a remarkable status in the practice of Chinese martial art cum bone setting in Southern China, who is also a hero in many people’s eyes. As this dissertation is about the intangible cultural heritage of martial art and bone setting, a well-known character in the recent Chinese history has therefore been selected to showcase the macro significance of this heritage. Through Master Wong, who practiced martial art and bone setting, the relationship between martial art and bone setting can be more clearly explained. 　　　The focus of this dissertation will be on the practice of this living heritage via a martial art Master cum bone setter, Master Li Chan-wo (李燦窩師父), as a case study. The reason for applying Master Li as the case study in this dissertation is that he is the student of Master Wong's wife (Master Mok Kwai-lan), from whom he inherited the martial art and bone setting techniques. This background and connection could help enrich the findings of this research and increase the credibility of the research findings in this dissertation. Whether this tradition of martial art school cum bone setting clinic can be preserved, it rests on how well we respect our living heritage. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

An understanding of both the determinants of health care access and the implications of that access is of crucial importance because it enables us to learn about policies and institutions that are welfare enhancing in health outcomes. The first chapter of my dissertation explores how access to sanitaria aided in tuberculosis control in the time before antibiotics. Results indicate that access to an additional sanitaria bed reduced the death rate from tuberculosis for white residents by nearly .695 per 100,000 and had no impact for black residents. The next two chapters investigate the retail health clinic. First, I construct a choice model of clinic location that accounts for both demand and competition effects. I find that clinics are more likely to locate in areas that are populous, wealthy, educated, and white, and that they are less likely to locate in traditionally underserved communities. Second, I combine the results of my predictive model with data on ED visits to determine if clinics help direct patients away from receiving treatment at expensive emergency rooms. I find that access to retail clinics causes a substantial decrease in the number of ED visits for bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. The savings associated with retail clinic induced ED diversion is conservatively estimated to be at least $88 million in 2012 alone. In California, counterfactual analysis suggests that relaxing the barriers to clinic entry would result in $10.5 million in annual health care savings.

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Mini-dissertation in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Homoeopathy, in the Department of Homoeopathy at the Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Within healthcare, patient satisfaction is a combination of need, expectation and the experience of care being provided. Patient satisfaction is an intermediate outcome, and is an important measure of the quality of the overall care provided. Healthcare which does not satisfy the patient is usually less effective, because less satisfied patients tend not to comply with instructions, they take longer to follow up with appointments and they have a poor understanding of their medical condition (Wilkin, Hallam and Dogget, 1994; AI-Assaf, 1998). The provision of overall quality healthcare for patients is a key motivation for many service providers. Therefore, determining the level of patient satisfaction forms a very important part of managing and fulfilling the patients' healthcare needs (Smith, 2001a). Furthermore, surveys of patient satisfaction form an essential role in assessing public opinion of the service provided. Thus, the evaluation of the service provided by a clinic can be reflected in the degree of satisfaction perceived by individuals receiving the services as elicited by a patient perception survey. This study assess patient’s perception of the service provided at the Homoeopathic Day Clinic (HDC) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). The use of a self-administered questionnaire to establish patient satisfaction was applied. No names were required and all data has been kept strictly confidential. This information will subsequently be used to improve the quality of the service offered at this facility and increase the degree of patient satisfaction experienced. The sample group of the first 100 patients that consulted the HDC at the DUT between July and November 2007 that voluntarily participated in this study were included in the study by means of convenience sampling.In this study there is generally a high degree of satisfaction with the healthcare and services provided. Areas of particularly high satisfaction are related to patients’ arrival to the clinic where they were both promptly and politely greeted, as well as in relationship to the approachability/friendliness of the Homoeopathic student, and the instructions given on how to take the medicine. Areas that revealed lower degrees of satisfaction are advertising, both in media and by signage, as well as the accessibility of the clinic for disabled patients.

The purpose of this study was to assess the sources of referrals of children with psychological instabilities and the types of problems referred for treatment to the Five County Mental Health Clinic in Warsaw, Indiana.The research was planned to answer two questions: (1) Will the distribution of referral sources be the same for five comparable counties? (2) Will a similar occurrence of delinquent and neurotic behavior be recognized and referred for treatment ineach county?The research was based on the records of 461 children representing all the referrals made to the Clinic in 1973 and 1974. The chi-square test was used to measure factual data quantitatively and to determine significant differences in observed and expected occurrences.The findings show that similar professional groups in comparable counties varied significantly in their utilization of clinic services. No epidemiological studies were done to account for these differences in the sources of referrals from one county to another. It is hypothesized that a difference in knowledge of available services and necessary procedure for establishing contactwith the clinic, a need for specific mental health information to aid in the detection of childhood maladjustments, and stigma attached to psychiatric help are responsible factors.Secondly, the research revealed that unique county characteristics did not influence reasons for referrals to the clinic significantly. For example, one might have expected Kosciusko County, which received national attention as a source of a wild marijuana crop, to show more referrals for drug abuse. This assumption was not supported.Additional examination of the findings also pointed out the need for creating an awareness of the importance of earlier detection and treatment of emotional instabilities. Clinical experience indicates that prognosis is more favorable the earlier a psychiatric problem is treated. This data, however, showed that about one-half of the referred children were in their teens before professional assistance was explored.Finally, the groups of caregivers such as physicians, guidance counselors, ministers, courts, and social welfare agencies who referred few children were isolated in this study. Strengthening appropriate communication channels with these professionals and agencies could increase the effectiveness of the consultative services provided by the clinic and more adequately fulfill regional needs.Since a caregivers's decision to make a referral is a high subjective one and may be threatening to this individual in terms of reflecting his professional competency, the consultative services provided by the clinic are of vital importance.