Bakgrund: Den privata vårdsektorn är en sektor som karaktäriseras av stark tillväxt. Behovet av vård kommer alltid att finnas och i takt med att människan lever längre ökar även trycket på vården. Den privata vårdsektorn har skapat en debatt i samhället där man ifrågasätter att offentliga medel går till vinster i privata vårdföretag. Därav är det av allmänt intresse att analysera vårdföretagens ekonomiska utveckling och risk. Syfte: Att utreda vilka finansiella strategier privata vårdföretag tillämpar och om de byggt upp tillräcklig finansiell styrka (kapitalstruktur) för en långsiktig utveckling. Metod: Uppsatsen bygger på en kvantitativ metod där information baseras på årsredovisningar under en 10-årsperiod. Utifrån den finansiella informationen beräknas nyckeltal för att beskriva företagens kapitalstruktur och prestation. Därefter görs en ingående analys av resultat- och balansräkning för respektive företag. Uppsatsen använder sig av hävstångsformeln som huvudsakligt analysverktyg för att analysera om företagen vinstmaximerar eller om de har en mer långsiktig finansiell strategi för att uppnå finansiell styrka. Resultat, slutsatser: Genom vår analys av vårdföretagens rörelserisk har utredningen funnit att en rimlig balans mellan rörelserisk och finansiella styrka uppnås vid en soliditet på 40 % som är genomsnittet för bolag på Stockholmsbörsen. De små vårdbolagen (som är den dominerande företagsformen) uppnår mer än väl balans mellan rörelserisk och finansiell styrka. Deras soliditet uppgår i regel till ca 50 %. Företagen har hög lönsamhet och som finansiell strategi väljer de att inte vinstmaximera genom att belåna sig och utnyttja hävstångseffekten. Tre av de marknadsledande företagen har en dålig lönsamhet och en soliditet som är betydligt lägre än börsgenomsnittet. Den låga soliditeten kompenseras helt eller delvis av att företagen har starka ägare med möjlighet att tillföra kapital via aktieägartillskott och nyemissioner vid behov. Den fjärde av de marknadsledande större vårdföretagen har hög lönsamhet och högre soliditet än börsgenomsnittet. Även detta företag väljer att liksom de mindre vårdföretagen att inte belåna sig och utnyttja hävstångseffekten för att maximera vinster. / Background: The private health sector is a sector that is characterized by growth. The need for care will always be, and as the human lives longer it will also increase the pressure on health care. The private health sector has created a debate in the community in which the dividends allocation is being questioned. Hence, it is of general interest to analyze healthcare companies' financial performance and risk. Purpose: To investigate the financial strategies that private health care companies apply and if they have built up sufficient financial strength (capital structure) for long term development. Methodology: The essay is based on a quantitative method where information is based on annual reports over a 10-year period. Based on the financial information financial ratios are calculated to describe firms' capital structure and performance. Thereafter, a detailed analysis of the income statement and balance sheet is made for each company. The essay uses effects of leverage as the main analytical tool for analyzing how firms maximize profits or if they have a more long-term financial strategy. Conclusion: Through our analysis of healthcare companies operating risk, the investigation found that a reasonable balance between business risk and financial strength is achieved at an equity ratio of 40 % which is an average for companies on the Stockholm stock exchange. The small healthcare company (which is the dominant company form) achieve a balance between business risk and financial strength. Their equity ratio is usually around 50 %. Companies have high profitability and as financial strategy they choose not to maximize profits by leveraging themselves and use the effects of leverage. Three of the market leaders have a poor performance and a solvency that is significantly lower than the market average. Their strong owners compensate the low equity ratio with the ability to provide capital through shareholder contributions and new issues as necessary. The fourth of the leading major healthcare companies have high profitability and higher solvency than the market average. This company also chooses to, like the smaller healthcare companies not to use leverage and use the effect of leverage to maximize their profit.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / It is difficult to decide when to replace (major components of) information systems (IS) used in large organisations. Obstacles include not only the cost and the technical complexities but also the fact that the workplace is dependent on the current IS and the users have familiarity with their functionalities. The problems become more complicated with increasing need for IS interconnectivity within and between organisations. Formal guidelines to assist in making replacement decisions are not commonly used. This thesis aims to develop a model of key factors involved in the IS replacement decision and to investigate the role of interoperability in this decision. It concentrates on the healthcare domain in NSW, Australia, which represents a complex distributed multilevel organisation, which has identified interoperability as a problem and has started initiatives to improve it. Research in IS and software engineering has shed light on many of the issues associated with the replacement decision. For example, studies in technology acceptance have explained why organisations delay in moving to new technologies, and modelled the effect of increasing popularity of such technologies. IS success models have explored the factors that contribute to success and failure of deployed systems, providing checklists to assess the appropriateness of current systems from the point of view of the users and other organisational stakeholders. Research into the value of user feedback has helped managers to align user expectations with workplace IS. In terms of software function, metrics have been developed to measure a range of factors including performance, usability, efficiency and reliability that help determine how well the systems are performing from a technical perspective. Additional research has identified important points to consider when comparing custom made systems versus buying off-the-shelf systems, such as skill availability and after sale support. Maturity models and life cycle analyses consider the effect of age on IS, and Lehman’s laws of software evolution highlight the need for maintenance if an IS is to survive. Improvements in interoperability at the information level have been achieved through domain specific standards for data integrity, and modular approaches for partial changes in IS. In particular, the healthcare domain has developed a number of standardised terminological systems such as SNOMED, LOINC, ICD and messaging standards such as HL7. Template high level data models have also been trialled as a way to ensure new IS remain compatible with existing systems. While this literature partially covers and contributes to the understanding of when and how to replace IS and/or components, to our knowledge there has been no attempt to provide an integrated model identifying factors to be considered in the replacement decision. The thesis adopts a multi method approach to build a model of IS replacement and to explore aspects of interoperability. Preliminary factors and their potential interactions were first identified from the literature. In depth interviews were conducted with 10 experts and 2 IS users to investigate the validity and importance of the factors and interactions and to elicit further potential items. The analysis of the transcripts guided review of further literature and contemporary data, which led to the development of a final model and insights into the role of interoperability. A member check was used to validate both the model and the researcher’s conclusions on interoperability. The final model is centred about the change request, that is, any request made by or on behalf of an executive officer in order to maintain or replace part or all of an IS. The change request is informed by user feedback but our research distinguishes the two factors because the change request factor filters and manages requests for change from multiple sources. Other factors that have an important direct or indirect effect on generating change requests include: the extent of system specialisation, that is, how the system is tailored to satisfy organisational requirements; popularity, the degree to which an IS or a component is liked or supported by its user community; the prevalence and severity of errors and failures in the systems; the usability and performance of the systems; and the adequacy of support, including training, documentation, and so on. The dependent factors are maintenance and replacement, determined through the change requests. The validation through member checking showed that IS practitioners found our model useful in explaining the replacement process. The model provided an interpretation of the change requests. By exposing and clustering reasons behind the change requests, the complexity of deciding whether to maintain or replace system components can be reduced. Individual factors can be addressed more specifically. Formal guidelines on whether to maintain or replace components or entire IS can be drawn up using this understanding. The factors and their interactions as explained in the model could be the basis of a decision tree, which would be customised for organisational jargon and priorities. The requirement for interoperability is an aspect of system specialisation. An important finding from the research was that one of the most significant reasons to change a system is when problems are encountered in exchanging data and information. Conversely, as long as systems can exchange data, there is less pressure to replace them. Organisations benefit more from systems that provide more support for interoperability. Findings on interoperability in the health domain were that existing messaging standards (mostly HL7) used in the information exchange between subsystems including legacy databases are useful and are used. Also, ambiguities are diminished with vocabularies (mostly SNOMED, LOINC and ICD are used in NSW health domain). However, a methodology known as Interoperability Framework supported by government funding bodies for comparing data models has not been adopted and is not given any significant credit by the users. Likewise, a government proposal to use an overarching high level data model has not been adopted, in part because it is too complex. To guide use of such a data model requires a methodology for comparing data models: an example of such a methodology is developed in this thesis. The thesis research found that replacement decisions in the healthcare domain are affected by the existing quasi-monopoly of large vendors which tend to use proprietary standards that limit interoperability. The research concludes that interoperability should be achieved by increased use of vendor-independent messaging and terminological standards. In order to get the co-operation of individual health institutions within the domain, initial investments should be concentrated on simple and easy to adopt standards. A primary limitation of this thesis is the extent of testing of the findings. Data from a broader range of organisations, in different sectors and different countries, is needed to validate the model and to guide development of decision making tools that are based on it. Particularly valuable would be case studies of IS replacement decision making and the process which executives use in determining change requests. The priorities of the factors and their attributes as well as the strengths of the relationships in the model need to be tested empirically using tailored survey instruments. Another interesting research avenue which was only touched on in the thesis was the effect of policies and legislation on interoperability and on replacement decisions.

This study focuses on records management in support of service delivery in the public health sector of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study sought to investigate whether the current records-keeping practices support or undermine service delivery and the e-health readiness level. Mixed methods were used for the survey. Questionnaires, observation and interviews were used to collect data. Purposive sampling method was used to identify interview participants and stratified random sampling for questionnaire participants. The total population of the study was 324 from which 210 participants were sampled. The response rate was 77% (162). The study discovered that records management negatively affected timely and effective health care services. This resulted in long patient waiting times and patients being treated without their medical history records. The study recommended the introduction of an electronic records management system capable of capturing and providing access to a full patient record and tracking paper record movement. / Information Science

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a política de combate à pobreza brasileira o Programa Bolsa Família e adota como estratégia para discussão do tema uma postura qualitativa. O PBF é uma política de transferência condicionada de renda que se insere no cenário internacional, em um momento de expansão da utilização da renda mínima, e no contexto nacional, no movimento de reformulação nas políticas de combate à pobreza brasileiras. Como principais características desta política se destacam a unificação de programas anteriores, a focalização como princípio, a abrangência nacional, e a contrapartida como via de acesso a direitos sociais básicos. O objetivo do estudo reside em discutir criticamente o Programa Bolsa Família do Governo Federal, buscando identificar algumas das possibilidades e contradições nele existentes, a partir das percepções de seus beneficiários freqüentadores de unidades de saúde do município do Rio de Janeiro, sobre o PBF e suas condicionalidades de saúde. Para tal, foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com estes beneficiários, além de observação participante nas unidades de saúde onde foi realizada a construção do material da pesquisa. Os dois principais eixos de análise giraram em torno das representações sociais dos entrevistados sobre o programa em si e suas condicionalidades de saúde. Levantamos como principais categorias teóricas/analíticas para trabalhar o material da pesquisa: a contradição, o consenso e as representações sociais. Já a partir da análise do material, elencamos como categorias de conteúdo a ajuda enquanto dimensão do benefício, a organização dos serviços de saúde e a relação construída com as condicionalidades. Foi percebido diante de vários elementos do programa que um dos pontos frágeis desta política reside na concretização da dimensão estruturante prevista por ela. Identifica-se que é preciso reestruturar modelos de construção das propostas se a provisão de políticas de cunho estruturante é um objetivo mais amplo desta política de transferência de renda. / This dissertation has as objective to study the policy of Brazilian poverty - the Family Grant Program - and adopts a strategy for a discussion of the topic qualitative approach. PBF is a policy of conditional cash transfer that falls on the international scene in a moment of expansion of the use of minimum income, and national context, the move to recast policies to combat poverty in Brazil. The main characteristics of the policy to emphasize the unification of previous programs, targeting in principle, the national coverage, and counterparts to access basic social rights. The objective is to critically discuss the Family Grant Program of the Federal Government, seeking to identify some of the possibilities and contradictions in it, through the perceptions of beneficiaries who attend health units in Rio de Janeiro, on the PBF and its conditionalities in the health sector. To this end, we carried out semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries, as well as participant observation at health units to build the research material. The two main axes of analysis revolved around the social representations of those interviewed on the program itself and its conditionalities health. Raise such categories theoretical / analytical work for the research material: the contradiction, the consensus and social representations. Already from the analysis of the material, listed as categories of content to "help" as a dimension of benefit, the organization of health services and the relationship built with the conditionalities. It was noticed on several elements of the program that one of the weak points of this policy is the implementation of planned structure dimension for it. Is identified that we must restructure building models of the proposals if the provision of policies of a structuring is broader purpose of this policy transfer income.

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a política de combate à pobreza brasileira o Programa Bolsa Família e adota como estratégia para discussão do tema uma postura qualitativa. O PBF é uma política de transferência condicionada de renda que se insere no cenário internacional, em um momento de expansão da utilização da renda mínima, e no contexto nacional, no movimento de reformulação nas políticas de combate à pobreza brasileiras. Como principais características desta política se destacam a unificação de programas anteriores, a focalização como princípio, a abrangência nacional, e a contrapartida como via de acesso a direitos sociais básicos. O objetivo do estudo reside em discutir criticamente o Programa Bolsa Família do Governo Federal, buscando identificar algumas das possibilidades e contradições nele existentes, a partir das percepções de seus beneficiários freqüentadores de unidades de saúde do município do Rio de Janeiro, sobre o PBF e suas condicionalidades de saúde. Para tal, foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com estes beneficiários, além de observação participante nas unidades de saúde onde foi realizada a construção do material da pesquisa. Os dois principais eixos de análise giraram em torno das representações sociais dos entrevistados sobre o programa em si e suas condicionalidades de saúde. Levantamos como principais categorias teóricas/analíticas para trabalhar o material da pesquisa: a contradição, o consenso e as representações sociais. Já a partir da análise do material, elencamos como categorias de conteúdo a ajuda enquanto dimensão do benefício, a organização dos serviços de saúde e a relação construída com as condicionalidades. Foi percebido diante de vários elementos do programa que um dos pontos frágeis desta política reside na concretização da dimensão estruturante prevista por ela. Identifica-se que é preciso reestruturar modelos de construção das propostas se a provisão de políticas de cunho estruturante é um objetivo mais amplo desta política de transferência de renda. / This dissertation has as objective to study the policy of Brazilian poverty - the Family Grant Program - and adopts a strategy for a discussion of the topic qualitative approach. PBF is a policy of conditional cash transfer that falls on the international scene in a moment of expansion of the use of minimum income, and national context, the move to recast policies to combat poverty in Brazil. The main characteristics of the policy to emphasize the unification of previous programs, targeting in principle, the national coverage, and counterparts to access basic social rights. The objective is to critically discuss the Family Grant Program of the Federal Government, seeking to identify some of the possibilities and contradictions in it, through the perceptions of beneficiaries who attend health units in Rio de Janeiro, on the PBF and its conditionalities in the health sector. To this end, we carried out semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries, as well as participant observation at health units to build the research material. The two main axes of analysis revolved around the social representations of those interviewed on the program itself and its conditionalities health. Raise such categories theoretical / analytical work for the research material: the contradiction, the consensus and social representations. Already from the analysis of the material, listed as categories of content to "help" as a dimension of benefit, the organization of health services and the relationship built with the conditionalities. It was noticed on several elements of the program that one of the weak points of this policy is the implementation of planned structure dimension for it. Is identified that we must restructure building models of the proposals if the provision of policies of a structuring is broader purpose of this policy transfer income.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: A growing concern about possible age-related inequities in health care access has emerged in the increasing debate on the challenges of population ageing and health in sub-Saharan Africa. Older persons may experience systematic exclusion from health services. Viewed as one of the poorest, most marginalized groups in SSA societies, older people are deemed to lack access to even basic, adequate health care. There is an assumption, furthermore, that older persons have less access to required health services than do younger age-groups. This suggests an element of age-related inequity. One possible indicator of age-related inequity may be found through measuring the relative availability of essential medicines for chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD), relative to the availability of medicines for communicable diseases (CD). Aim and objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the availability of essential medicines for NCD and CD in Kenya, as an indicator of age-related inequities in access to health care in Kenya. The three study objectives were as follows, in public and mission facilities in Kenya: 1. To assess the availability of medicines for the following CD: diarrhoea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia and other infections 2. To assess the availability of medicines for the following NCD common in older populations: arthritis, diabetes, glaucoma, gout, heart disease, hypertension and Parkinson’s disease 3. To compare the availability of medicines for CD and NCD and draw conclusions on possible age-related inequities in access. Study design: Using an adapted version of the HAI / WHO methodology, a cross sectional descriptive survey of medicines availability was conducted. HAI and WHO collaboratively developed a standardized and validated methodology for comprehensively measuring medicines availability, as well as prices, affordability and price components. The survey manual, launched in 2003 and revised in 2008, is available to the public. The methodology involves collecting data on the availability and price of medicines found in a sample of health facilities across sectors of interest within national health systems. If the specific medicine, dose and form being surveyed is available on the day of the survey, then the medicine is documented as being available. Methods: Random sampling was carried out in six of Kenya’s eight provinces, targetting ten facilities per province. Data on availability of the targeted medicines was collected by trained data collectors on pilot-tested data collection forms adapted from the standardized WHO / HAI methodology. The list of medicines included sixteen for communicable diseases to treat infections such as diarrhoea, HIV, malaria, and pneumonia and twelve medicines used to treat non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, gout, glaucoma, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Availability of medicines was noted by physical observation by a data collector, and calculated as the percentage of facilities where a medicine was found on the day of data collection. The availability of brands and generics was not distinguished and were combined to establish availability of each medicine. Overall availability of all CD and NCD medicines was compared, and within each category between rural and urban areas and between mission and public facilities. The Ministry of Health was informed of the survey and provided the data collectors with an MOH endorsement letter. The names of facilities participating in the study were recorded on the data collection forms, but not reported. No data on individual patients was collected, and no patients were interviewed for this survey. Data were entered into an Excel file and exported to and analyzed with SPSS. Results: A total of 56 facilities were surveyed: 49 in the public sector and 7 in the mission sector, giving a facility response rate of 93%. Thirty facilities were located in rural settings and 26 were in urban settings. More CD medicines were available than medicines for NCD. Of a total of 896 individual observations of CD medicines, 632 (70.5%) were recorded as available on the day of visit, compared to 306 (45.5%) of 672 possible individual observations of NCD medicines. These differences were highly significant statistically (chi-square=98.8, p<0.001). Furthermore, comparison of availability between urban and rural areas showed statistically significant differences for NCD medicines (40.6% vs. 51.3%, p=0.007), but not CD medicines (72.5% vs. 68.3%, p=0.190). There were no significant differences in availability of medicines in mission compared to public facilities. Conclusions: This study reveals the low relative availability of medicines for NCDs in Kenya’s public and mission sector. Medicines for NCDs were less available in rural vs. urban facilities, but there was no rural vs. urban difference in medicines for CDs. While more research should be carried out to understand the reasons behind these findings, immediate attention to the supply and financing of medicines for NCDs is urgently needed. The relatively lower availability of medicines for NCDs than for CDs may be an indicator of age-related inequities in access to health care in Kenya and calls for more investigations on equity and access to health for older people in Kenya.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Introduction: Health Sector Reform was initiated as a component of the Structural Adjustment Policies that were imposed on the developing countries by the international monetary organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank during the 1980s and the 1990s. It included three main components, that is, financing reforms, decentralization and introducing competition to the health sector. Changes to the Egyptian health system were introduced in the 1980s through the cost recovery projects, while the Health Sector Reform Program was announced in 1997. This culminated in a change from a Primary Health Care model to a Family Health Model as regards the Primary Health Care sector of the Egyptian health system. Changes in the health systems have profound effects on people, so that it is essential to study the ongoing transformation of the Egyptian health system and its implications. Aim: The aim of the current study was to determine the acceptability of the Family Health Model, which replaces Primary Health Care, as currently implemented in Wardan Village, Giza, Egypt. Methodology: The study was a cross sectional survey utilizing a structured questionnaire that was used to determine the awareness and perception/satisfaction of the community members in an Egyptian rural area (Wardan village, Giza Governorate) towards the transformation from primary health care to family health model. 357 subjects participated in this study. Results: Awareness of the study participants towards the transformation process was 15.6%. The overall satisfaction with the family health unit by the participants was 80.5% compared with 35.7% for the old PHC one. Higher satisfaction was associated with older age (p=0.02), less education (p<0.001), being married in the past or present (p=0.02), working status (p=0.007), and more years of using the unit (p<0.001). Acceptability of the family health model among the participants of the current study was high at 88.3%. Higher score of acceptability were associated with less education (p<0.001), being or have been married (p=0.048), and with working status (p=0.005). 93.8% of the participants think that family health unit services are accessible and 79.9% of the participants think that the family health unit provides quality services. Conclusion: The Family Health Model has achieved successes when implemented but encountered some difficulties that have limited the gains and interfered with some of its aspects. The current study has shown that the Family Health Unit has gained a high score of satisfaction and acceptability by the study participants, although the awareness of the study participants about the transformation of the Primary Health Care Model to a Family Health Model was low.

El presente trabajo propone un modelo para la evaluación de variables en el sector salud utilizando Process Mining y Data Visualization soportado por la herramienta Celonis. Esto surge ante la problemática orientada a la dificultad en la comprensión de las actividades que están involucradas en los procesos negocios y los resultados de este. El proyecto se centra en la investigación de dos disciplinas emergentes. Una de estas disciplinas es Process Mining y se enfoca principalmente en los procesos, en los datos por cada evento, esto con el fin de descubrir un modelo, ver conformidad de los procesos o mejorarlos (Process Mining: Una técnica innovadora para la mejora de los procesos, 2016). La segunda disciplina es Data Visualization, esta permite presentar los datos en un formato gráfico o pictórico ("Data Visualization: What it is and why it matters", 2016). El proyecto implica principalmente investigación, en primer lugar, se analizan las técnicas de Process Mining y Data Visualization. En segundo lugar, se separan las características y cualidades de las disciplinas, y se diseña un modelo para la evaluación de variables en el Sector Salud utilizando Process Mining y Data Visualization, generando un valor agregado, dado que al tener un formato gráfico o pictórico que representa adecuadamente los resultados de usar una técnica de minería de procesos, la comprensión y el análisis en la toma de decisiones es más precisa. En tercer lugar, se valida el modelo en una institución que brinda servicios en el Sector Salud, analizando uno de los procesos core. Finalmente, se elabora un plan de continuidad para que el modelo propuesto se aplique en técnicas de optimización de procesos en las organizaciones. / The present work proposes a model for the evaluation of variables in the health sector using Process Mining and Data Visualization supported by the Celonis tool. This arises from the problem oriented to the difficulty in understanding the activities that are involved in business processes and their results. The project focuses on the investigation of two emerging disciplines. One of these disciplines is Process Mining and it focuses mainly on the processes, on the data for each event, this in order to discover a model, see conformity of the processes or improve them (Process Mining: An innovative technique for the improvement of the processes, 2016). The second discipline is Data Visualization, this allows data to be presented in a graphic or pictorial format ("Data Visualization: What it is and why it matters", 2016). This project mainly involves research, first, Process Mining and Data Visualization techniques are analyzed. Second, the characteristics and qualities of the disciplines are separated, and a model is designed for the evaluation of variables in the Health Sector using Process Mining and Data Visualization, generating added value, given that by having a graphic or pictorial format that adequately represents the results of using a process mining technique, understanding and analysis in decision making is more accurate. Third, the model is validated in an institution that provides services in the Health Sector, analyzing one of the core processes. Finally, a continuity plan is drawn up so that the proposed model can be applied to process optimization techniques in organizations. / Tesis

El objetivo del estudio fue realizar un análisis bibliométrico de las publicaciones científicas de la base de datos Scielo, para la identificación del estado actual de investigación a nivel Sudamérica en Mobbing. Se realizó una búsqueda de la variable planteada en la base de datos Scielo, en la cual se encontró 18 artículos; siendo seleccionados para la muestra 3 de ellos, a raíz de los criterios de inclusión planteados. Se realizó el análisis de las investigaciones encontradas en cuanto a los datos y metodologías utilizadas. En los resultados, destaca que el 100% de las investigaciones cuentan con método, análisis de datos, resultados y referencias bibliográficas. El 66,66% de los artículos científicos cuentan con resumen, abstract, objetivo, hipótesis, discusión y conclusión. En tanto el 33,33% contienen palabras claves, introducción y recomendaciones. En conclusión, se puede decir que la bibliometría es una herramienta que nos ayuda a medir la producción científica de una variable específica, contribuyendo al desarrollo y avance de futuros estudios científicos. / The objective of the study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the scientific publications in Scielo database, to identify the current state of research at the South American level in Mobbing. A search was made for the variable proposed in Scielo database, in which 18 articles were found; 3 of them were selected for the sample, based on the inclusion criteria proposed. The analysis of the investigations found was carried out, regarding the data and methodologies used. In the results, it stands out that 100% of the investigations have method, data analysis, results and bibliographic references. 66.66% of the scientific articles have summary, abstract, objective, hypothesis, discussion and conclusion. While 33.33% contain keywords, introduction and recommendations. In conclusion, it can be said that bibliometrics is a tool that helps us measure the scientific production of a specific variable, contributing to the development and advancement of future scientific studies. / Trabajo de investigación

Thesis (M.Pharm.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Pharmacy Dispensing Units (PDUs) are automated medicine dispensing systems, which are the first of its kind in South Africa and are operational in the public healthcare sector. At present, the application of automated dispensing technology is still evolving, and it is uncertain how it will impact on pharmacy services and be integrated into different healthcare systems. Aim To determine the attitude and experiences of patients collecting their chronic care medications at various Pharmacy Dispensing Units. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative design using a structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants at three PDU sites; Alexandra Plaza, Ndofaya Mall and Bara Mall. The study encompassed chronic stable patients. Participants were selected based on a simple random sampling method and included 624 participants. The study period was over two months. The researcher recorded the information that was present in the study population, and no variables were manipulated. Data was analysed using the SPSS version 27.0.0. Chi Square Tests, One-way Anova Tests and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze the data. Results Since p<0.05, the results showed that there was an association between responses and demographic information. The difference in distribution of responses seen across the participants at the different PDUs was significant. Most participants (85,4%) found the ATM easy to use as it was a simple system. Majority of the participants (99,6%) were content with the overall service received at the PDU, and 99,3% were pleased with the experience they had speaking through the PDU telephonic system. In comparison to the clinic, 99% of the participants felt they preferred to use the PDU and 99,7% found the PDU system easier to collect their medication from and follow their treatment plan. A few participants (2,7%) did have some negative experiences such as the system being down, network issues, technical challenges, delivery problems and the PDU being too busy. However, all of the respondents stated that they would recommend the PDU to other patients, as well as continue to collect their medicines at the PDU. Conclusion Overall patients had a positive attitude and experience towards the PDU. This research will assist in ensuring pharmacies continue to shift their focus to providing a more holistic approach to healthcare. It will allow for engagement with National and Provincial Departments of Health and NGOs to expand the number of PDUs. Furthermore, it might also help to develop new services and allow for changes to be made within the current models. This study will contribute to the overall improvement in the health sector and prepare for implementation of NHI. / VLIR Foundation