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Chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDLs) are on the increase in South Africa and appears to be increasing the financial burden on the economy. Biokinetics is a health profession addressing CDL, with exercise as the treatment modality. The scope of practice includes the prevention and treatment of CDL. Biokinetics as a profession has been registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), previously the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC), since 1983. In this period of 25 years, the profession has only been practising in the private health care sector of South Africa. There have been no investigations to determine the market demand for this health profession. Therefore the purpose of this investigation is to determine the potential market demand for biokinetics in the private health care sector of South Africa. This investigation will take into account the potential market demand based on the patients that can be treated for CDL by biokinetics, and not the number of persons that are at risk of developing CDL. For this investigation secondary data from a pharmaceutical benefit management company (PBM) were analysed to determine the prevalence of chronic diseases in the private health care sector based on chronic medication usage in 2007. These numbers were linked to the postal codes that made it possible to determine the medication usage at municipality level. Telephonic interviews provided information about the average number of patients treated per biokineticist per month, while the number of biokineticists with active practice numbers were obtained from the Board of Health Care Funders (BHF). The results indicate that about 56% (911,212 out of 1,600,000) of the subscribers managed by the PBM were treated with medication for CDL. The prevalence of non-steroid anti-inflammatory medication (20.8%) gave an indication of medication prescribed mostly for chronic musculo-skeletal injuries. Cardiovascular diseases (13.1%), bronchodilators (10.95%) and hypertension (9.8%) were the most prevalent chronic diseases treated with medication. In 2007, the profession consisted of 284 biokinetic practices with 625 actively practicing biokineticists. The majority of the practices were located in Gauteng (130) with 63 in the Western Cape. The sub-sample of 50 biokineticists indicated that an average of 100 patients can realistically be treated by one biokineticist per month. The potential market demand calculated from these figures indicate that 9,112 biokineticists are needed in the private health care sector. These numbers indicate that in 2007, only an estimated 6.2% of CDL could potentially be treated by the number of registered biokineticists. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that there is an immense potential market for biokinetics in the private health care sector. This study has only investigated the diseased persons and has not taken into account those who are at risk of developing a chronic disease of lifestyle, which are also treated by biokinetics intervention with exercise as modality. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDLs) are on the increase in South Africa and appears to be increasing the financial burden on the economy. Biokinetics is a health profession addressing CDL, with exercise as the treatment modality. The scope of practice includes the prevention and treatment of CDL. Biokinetics as a profession has been registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), previously the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC), since 1983. In this period of 25 years, the profession has only been practising in the private health care sector of South Africa. There have been no investigations to determine the market demand for this health profession. Therefore the purpose of this investigation is to determine the potential market demand for biokinetics in the private health care sector of South Africa. This investigation will take into account the potential market demand based on the patients that can be treated for CDL by biokinetics, and not the number of persons that are at risk of developing CDL. For this investigation secondary data from a pharmaceutical benefit management company (PBM) were analysed to determine the prevalence of chronic diseases in the private health care sector based on chronic medication usage in 2007. These numbers were linked to the postal codes that made it possible to determine the medication usage at municipality level. Telephonic interviews provided information about the average number of patients treated per biokineticist per month, while the number of biokineticists with active practice numbers were obtained from the Board of Health Care Funders (BHF). The results indicate that about 56% (911,212 out of 1,600,000) of the subscribers managed by the PBM were treated with medication for CDL. The prevalence of non-steroid anti-inflammatory medication (20.8%) gave an indication of medication prescribed mostly for chronic musculo-skeletal injuries. Cardiovascular diseases (13.1%), bronchodilators (10.95%) and hypertension (9.8%) were the most prevalent chronic diseases treated with medication. In 2007, the profession consisted of 284 biokinetic practices with 625 actively practicing biokineticists. The majority of the practices were located in Gauteng (130) with 63 in the Western Cape. The sub-sample of 50 biokineticists indicated that an average of 100 patients can realistically be treated by one biokineticist per month. The potential market demand calculated from these figures indicate that 9,112 biokineticists are needed in the private health care sector. These numbers indicate that in 2007, only an estimated 6.2% of CDL could potentially be treated by the number of registered biokineticists. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that there is an immense potential market for biokinetics in the private health care sector. This study has only investigated the diseased persons and has not taken into account those who are at risk of developing a chronic disease of lifestyle, which are also treated by biokinetics intervention with exercise as modality. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

MFamMed, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2010

Ένα από τα εργαλεία της χρηματοοικονομικής διαχείρισης είναι και η ανάλυση των ισολογισμών των επιχειρήσεων με αριθμοδείκτες για την λήψη αποφάσεων. Σκοπός της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η αποτύπωση μιας ολοκληρωμένης εικόνας για την οικονομική θέση των εταιρειών του κλάδου ιδιωτικών μονάδων υγείας το χρονικό διάστημα 2007-2011 αξιοποιώντας τους αριθμοδείκτες από τους δημοσιευμένους ισολογισμούς των εξεταζόμενων επιχειρήσεων. / -

Introdução - A Agência Nacional de Saúde Suplementar determinou, em 2008, que os planos de saúde oferecessem seis consultas anuais com nutricionista. Objetivo - Avaliar os determinantes da demanda por consultas de nutrição em uma operadora de autogestão em saúde entre 2009 e 2011. Métodos - Trata-se de um estudo retrospectivo realizado a partir dos registros administrativos dos beneficiários da Sabesp Previdência. A demanda foi estimada por meio de um modelo tobit para os gastos com consultas de nutricionista. Foram incluídas variáveis demográficas, socioeconômicas, de estado de saúde e de influência familiar. Resultados - A influência familiar, o sexo, o estado civil, a escolaridade e o estado de saúde no período e passado foram os principais determinantes do gasto com consultas de nutrição. A elasticidade renda da demanda, embora estatisticamente significante (p<0,1), foi pequena em relação ao efeito das demais variáveis e a idade não teve impacto significativo. A baixa probabilidade estimada de realizar gastos mostrou que ele é subutilizado. Conclusão - Os resultados evidenciaram a necessidade de estímulo à utilização, numa perspectiva de prevenção de doenças, promoção da saúde e redução dos custos assistenciais no setor de saúde suplementar. / Introduction - The Brazilian private health sector regulatory agency determined, back in 2008, that the insurance plans should offer six nutrition consultations. Objective - To assess the nutrition consultations demand determinants in health insurance plan between 2009 and 2011. Methods - This is retrospective study performed using data from Sabesp Previdência. We used Tobit model to analyze the expenditure on nutritional consultations and tested demographic, socioeconomic, health status and family influence variables. Results - Family influence, sex, marital status, education and health status were the expenditure main. Income elastic of demand, although statistically significant, wasn\'t expressive when compared to other variables effects. Age had no significant impact on individual nutrition consultation expenditure. The low probability of having expends with nutrition consultations showed it is an underutilized service. Conclusion- The results highlighted the need to stimulate the demand for nutrition consultations, in concordance with a disease prevention, health promotion and healthcare care reduction perspective in private health care sector.

The South African health industry can be divided into public and private health institutions. The public health institutions are subsidised by the South African government, whereas the private institutions generate income from medical aids and out-of-pocket payments. Three major groups currently control the private health sector and include Medi-Clinic, Life Healthcare and Netcare. Due to the competitiveness of the private health sector with limited role players, institutions need to differentiate themselves on the service quality provided by these institutions. The purpose of the study was to measure service quality in a private hospital. This was done by setting the following objectives: Determining the importance of service quality, determining the current standard of service quality, determining the gap between the importance and satisfaction of service quality dimensions as well as the influence of gender on the perception of service quality. The literature consisted of two topics, which included the private healthcare sector and the standards of service quality. The private health care sector lightens the load on the current overburdened public sector, but in doing so utilises the majority of qualified personnel as well as half of the financial resources available. Medical schemes are the main contributor the private institutions and are only available to the individuals privileged enough to afford these schemes. Service quality pertains to the ability of the service provider to meet or exceed the expectations of the customer. Thus, the importance of such ability lies in the fact that institutions can use this to differentiate them from other role players in this highly competitive market. Several models exist to evaluate service quality, but the SERVQUAL model has been utilised in various health institutions. Furthermore, gender could also have an effect on the manner in which customers perceive service quality. The study made use of the SERVQUAL model, with a 38-item survey questionnaire forming the basis of the data collecting technique. The 38 items were divided into seven sections, which included premises/employees, doctors‟ medical services, diagnostics, nursing medical services, admissions, meals and wards. A response rate of 71% was obtained. The demographic profile of the study resembled the current demographic of the town and 35.85% of the respondents were male with 64.15% being female. The validity and the reliability of the study were confirmed by means of an exploratory factor analysis and Chronbach alpha coefficients. The analysis of the difference in means of the various factors indicated that tangibles 2 and responsiveness 1 required attention from management to improve customer satisfaction. The analysis of data pertaining to gender indicated that no difference in satisfaction levels was evident. In conclusion, management needs to focus on the factors highlighted during the study, with proper maintenance and improvement of the appearance of the facility and providing training to staff to promote patient relationships. Furthermore, the recommendations include that the model is used in all institutions to evaluate service quality levels to highlight possible shortfalls, thus providing management with ability to address these shortfalls, in an effort to improve the level of service quality across the whole health sector. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The South African health industry can be divided into public and private health institutions. The public health institutions are subsidised by the South African government, whereas the private institutions generate income from medical aids and out-of-pocket payments. Three major groups currently control the private health sector and include Medi-Clinic, Life Healthcare and Netcare. Due to the competitiveness of the private health sector with limited role players, institutions need to differentiate themselves on the service quality provided by these institutions. The purpose of the study was to measure service quality in a private hospital. This was done by setting the following objectives: Determining the importance of service quality, determining the current standard of service quality, determining the gap between the importance and satisfaction of service quality dimensions as well as the influence of gender on the perception of service quality. The literature consisted of two topics, which included the private healthcare sector and the standards of service quality. The private health care sector lightens the load on the current overburdened public sector, but in doing so utilises the majority of qualified personnel as well as half of the financial resources available. Medical schemes are the main contributor the private institutions and are only available to the individuals privileged enough to afford these schemes. Service quality pertains to the ability of the service provider to meet or exceed the expectations of the customer. Thus, the importance of such ability lies in the fact that institutions can use this to differentiate them from other role players in this highly competitive market. Several models exist to evaluate service quality, but the SERVQUAL model has been utilised in various health institutions. Furthermore, gender could also have an effect on the manner in which customers perceive service quality. The study made use of the SERVQUAL model, with a 38-item survey questionnaire forming the basis of the data collecting technique. The 38 items were divided into seven sections, which included premises/employees, doctors‟ medical services, diagnostics, nursing medical services, admissions, meals and wards. A response rate of 71% was obtained. The demographic profile of the study resembled the current demographic of the town and 35.85% of the respondents were male with 64.15% being female. The validity and the reliability of the study were confirmed by means of an exploratory factor analysis and Chronbach alpha coefficients. The analysis of the difference in means of the various factors indicated that tangibles 2 and responsiveness 1 required attention from management to improve customer satisfaction. The analysis of data pertaining to gender indicated that no difference in satisfaction levels was evident. In conclusion, management needs to focus on the factors highlighted during the study, with proper maintenance and improvement of the appearance of the facility and providing training to staff to promote patient relationships. Furthermore, the recommendations include that the model is used in all institutions to evaluate service quality levels to highlight possible shortfalls, thus providing management with ability to address these shortfalls, in an effort to improve the level of service quality across the whole health sector. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Current day organisations must revert to many measures to survive in the very competing business environment. One of these measures is to reduce the number of employees. This leads to perceptions of job insecurity, not only in the employees who are not made redundant but also in employees in so-called stable organisations who are aware of these measures being implemented in other organisations. Researchers found conflicting results of job insecurity regarding performance of employees experiencing job insecurity. On the one hand it was reported that job insecurity leads to higher job performance and on the other that it leads to lower job performance. To reconcile these conflicting findings Jordan, Ashkanasy and Hartel (2002) developed a model. In their two stage model in which they postulate that perceptions of job insecurity could lead to lower affective organisational commitment and higher job-related stress and this in turn could lead to negative coping behaviour (stage one). They then include emotional intelligence (EI) as moderator of all the links between the above mentioned constructs (stage two). They are of the opinion that employees with high EI will experience higher affective organisational commitment and lower job-related stress than employees with low EI when perceptions of job insecurity are experienced. They also postulate that employees with high EI will be less inclined to revert to negative coping behaviour. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether this model would be applicable to employees of private health care organisations in Gauteng. In the first article a literature review was conducted to determine how job insecurity, affective organisational commitment, job-related stress and coping were conceptualised as well as the relationships between these constructs. This was done to investigate the first stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002). In the second article a literature review was conducted to determine how job insecurity, affective organisational commitment, job-related stress, coping and EI were conceptualised. The relationships between these constructs and the role of EI as moderator of these relationships were also determined. This was done to investigate the second stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002). A non-experimental correlation research design was used. Employees of private health care organisations were the participants. The Job Insecurity Inventory, the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire, the Experience of Work Life and Circumstances Questionnaire, the Cope Questionnaire and the Emotional Intelligence Scale were used, as well as a biographical questionnaire. The SPPS program and partly STATISTIKA were used to perform the statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Cronbach alpha coefficients and factor analyses were used to assess the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the moderating influence of emotional intelligence. It was determined that, in this specific research group, job insecurity has a negative correlation with affective organisational commitment. Job insecurity has a positive correlation with job-related stress levels. A positive correlation was found between job-related stress levels and certain negative coping behaviours, such as denial, behavioural disengagement and mental disengagement. A negative correlation was found between affective organisational commitment and negative coping behaviour, specifically the use of drugs or alcohol. All of these correlations were statistically and practically significant. It was found that job insecurity as independent variable explains 12.1% of the total variance in affective organisational commitment. It was also found that job insecurity as independent variable explains 21.1 % of the total variance in the job -related stress levels. These findings indicated that the first stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002) could be supported. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the moderating effect of EI as discussed above. The results indicated that EI had only a slight but significant moderating effect on the job insecurity -affective organisational commitment relationship and no effect on the job insecurity - job-related stress relationship. The results also indicate that EI moderates the strength of the relationship between affective organisational commitment and coping behaviour to such an extent that affective organisational commitment's predictive value is reduced to closely insignificant whilst EI emerges as the primary predictor of coping behaviour (both positive and negative). This may imply that emotionally intelligent employees will tend to use more problem-focused coping behaviour irrespective of the affective organisational commitment that they experience. Although to a lesser extent in this study, it was found that emotionally intelligent employees also make use of emotion-focused coping behaviour appropriate for managing affective states associated with experienced stress. Concerning avoidant coping strategies EI significantly negatively moderates alcohol-drug disengagement as a coping strategy, meaning employees with high EI will tend not to revert to the use of drugs or alcohol as coping strategy. It was concluded that EI does not buffer employees against the emotional consequences of job insecurity in this research group, as proposed by the model of Jordan et al. (2002), but rather enables them to cope with these emotional effects using problem-focused- and emotion- focused coping strategies, but not avoidant strategies. The latter finding is in line with the proposed model of Jordan et al.(2002). Conclusions, the limitations of this research and recommendations for private health care organisations and for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Current day organisations must revert to many measures to survive in the very competing business environment. One of these measures is to reduce the number of employees. This leads to perceptions of job insecurity, not only in the employees who are not made redundant but also in employees in so-called stable organisations who are aware of these measures being implemented in other organisations. Researchers found conflicting results of job insecurity regarding performance of employees experiencing job insecurity. On the one hand it was reported that job insecurity leads to higher job performance and on the other that it leads to lower job performance. To reconcile these conflicting findings Jordan, Ashkanasy and Hartel (2002) developed a model. In their two stage model in which they postulate that perceptions of job insecurity could lead to lower affective organisational commitment and higher job-related stress and this in turn could lead to negative coping behaviour (stage one). They then include emotional intelligence (EI) as moderator of all the links between the above mentioned constructs (stage two). They are of the opinion that employees with high EI will experience higher affective organisational commitment and lower job-related stress than employees with low EI when perceptions of job insecurity are experienced. They also postulate that employees with high EI will be less inclined to revert to negative coping behaviour. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether this model would be applicable to employees of private health care organisations in Gauteng. In the first article a literature review was conducted to determine how job insecurity, affective organisational commitment, job-related stress and coping were conceptualised as well as the relationships between these constructs. This was done to investigate the first stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002). In the second article a literature review was conducted to determine how job insecurity, affective organisational commitment, job-related stress, coping and EI were conceptualised. The relationships between these constructs and the role of EI as moderator of these relationships were also determined. This was done to investigate the second stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002). A non-experimental correlation research design was used. Employees of private health care organisations were the participants. The Job Insecurity Inventory, the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire, the Experience of Work Life and Circumstances Questionnaire, the Cope Questionnaire and the Emotional Intelligence Scale were used, as well as a biographical questionnaire. The SPPS program and partly STATISTIKA were used to perform the statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Cronbach alpha coefficients and factor analyses were used to assess the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the moderating influence of emotional intelligence. It was determined that, in this specific research group, job insecurity has a negative correlation with affective organisational commitment. Job insecurity has a positive correlation with job-related stress levels. A positive correlation was found between job-related stress levels and certain negative coping behaviours, such as denial, behavioural disengagement and mental disengagement. A negative correlation was found between affective organisational commitment and negative coping behaviour, specifically the use of drugs or alcohol. All of these correlations were statistically and practically significant. It was found that job insecurity as independent variable explains 12.1% of the total variance in affective organisational commitment. It was also found that job insecurity as independent variable explains 21.1 % of the total variance in the job -related stress levels. These findings indicated that the first stage of the model of Jordan et al. (2002) could be supported. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the moderating effect of EI as discussed above. The results indicated that EI had only a slight but significant moderating effect on the job insecurity -affective organisational commitment relationship and no effect on the job insecurity - job-related stress relationship. The results also indicate that EI moderates the strength of the relationship between affective organisational commitment and coping behaviour to such an extent that affective organisational commitment's predictive value is reduced to closely insignificant whilst EI emerges as the primary predictor of coping behaviour (both positive and negative). This may imply that emotionally intelligent employees will tend to use more problem-focused coping behaviour irrespective of the affective organisational commitment that they experience. Although to a lesser extent in this study, it was found that emotionally intelligent employees also make use of emotion-focused coping behaviour appropriate for managing affective states associated with experienced stress. Concerning avoidant coping strategies EI significantly negatively moderates alcohol-drug disengagement as a coping strategy, meaning employees with high EI will tend not to revert to the use of drugs or alcohol as coping strategy. It was concluded that EI does not buffer employees against the emotional consequences of job insecurity in this research group, as proposed by the model of Jordan et al. (2002), but rather enables them to cope with these emotional effects using problem-focused- and emotion- focused coping strategies, but not avoidant strategies. The latter finding is in line with the proposed model of Jordan et al.(2002). Conclusions, the limitations of this research and recommendations for private health care organisations and for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.