...Decision-Making Case Study The looming changes in health care are a frequent topic in many meetings with health care providers. Budget cuts are not just a speculation but are a reality. Decision-making to provide quality patient care with less money is a challenge at best. The Informed Decisions Toolbox can assist administrators and managers with evidence-based decisions that will allow patients to receive the quality care they deserve while reducing expenses. The Informed Decisions Toolbox The Informed Decisions Toolbox (IDT) is the result of a research study to aid managers with making evidence-based decisions that improve organizational performance. The IDT has an approach of six steps to decision-making (Rundell, et al, 2007): (1) framing the management question, (2) finding sources of information, (3) assessing the accuracy of the information, (4) assessing the applicability of the information, (5) assessing the actionability of the evidence, and (6) determining if the information is adequate (p. 325). As a facilitator for the use of evidence-based research in decision-making, the IDT assists decision-makers with estimating how operational and strategic decisions will have an effect on the organization. Evidence-based decision-making is not new to the health care industry. Clinicians have incorporated evidence-based research for years when making patient treatment determination. The use of evidence-based research for decision-making in other realms of healthcare...
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...Decision-making Case Study Tammy Paramore HCS/514 March 25, 2013 Norma Wright Decision-making Case Study Making decisions in the rapidly changing world of health care is stressful, possessing the correct information is crucial, determining the validity of information even more crucial. In addition, knowing where to obtain accurate information for making informed and reliable determinations will help make these decisions easier. A well informed decision made using the informed decision tool box increases the reliability for producing correct and profitable decisions. These actions will improve the efficiency of provided health care, increase stability, increase production, and decrease the amount spent on health care, in addition, improving the outcomes for both the organization and the patient. The Informed Decision Toolbox The informed decision toolbox (IDT), according to Rundell, et al, (2007), has six major steps to use when approaching difficult decisions. 1) framing the management question, 2) finding sources of information, 3) assessing the accuracy of the information, 4) assessing the applicability of the information, 5) assessing the actionability of the evidence, and 6) determining if the information is adequate (p. 325). The IDT system stems from a formal study to find ways to assist management in an efficient and more scientific approach to decision...
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...Human Trafficking United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking as “the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them”. UNODC notes that every country of the world is affected by human trafficking crimes. Therefore, the United States is not an exception. Smuggling of migrants is also often labelled as human trafficking although there are certain distinctions between them. At the same time, Chacon (2986) fairly points out: “the line between smuggling and trafficking is becoming increasingly blurry”. The United States is an attractive country for migrants from all over the world. Illegal migration is one of the major concerns of the US government. This illegal migration is a part of a broader problem which is human trafficking. This paper is an attempt to explore how human trafficking affects the US economy, and specifically how it affects Houston. Migrant smuggling refers to assistance to individuals to cross borders illegally. Usually such assistance is provided for financial gain. Individuals may illegal cross border for various purposes such as performing labour, including sex services (Chacon, 2981). Migrant smuggling is usually conducted under the coercive conditions (Chacon, 2981). The United States is majorly a destination or a transit territory for human trafficking ("Humantrafficking.org "). By different estimates, 4,500 to 17,500 people per year are trafficked to the country ("Humantrafficking...
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...Introduction For offenders reentering the community the transition can be very difficult. Offenders face hardships in securing employment and housing to receiving adequate treatment for mental and physical illnesses and substance abuse. The number of offenders reentering society from prison and jail is steadily increasing yearly. States are diligently working to identify methods to help offenders successfully reintegrate into society. Some initiatives available in Harris County, TX include prison education programs, life and job skills training and counseling services. This paper focuses on the educational opportunities available for offenders in Harris County, TX. The education opportunities are structured to assist offenders with incarceration related factors and attempts to help offenders with successful reintegration with family, the community and society as a whole. I will discuss several educational initiatives available to offenders and how these initiatives correlate to our text. Harris County, TX . On March 12, 2004 the CEA unanimously voted to grant accreditation to Harris County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Education Program. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office became the first county jail in the U.S. to receive the Correctional Education Association (CEA) accreditation for its Inmate Education Program (Albers, 2006:15). This recognition sets Harris County Sheriff’s Office to a high standard to be compared with. The educational facility is located on Crites Street...
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...District, the heart of our community whose passion is excellence, will educate and empower every student to excel academically and as a confident, compassionate citizen with impeccable character and a global perspective through engaging, personally challenging, and relevant experiences that inspire learning for life”. Live Honorably Act Humbly Model Dignity Change Concept How cuts in the Texas budget will affect the students, teachers and substitute teachers in Alamo Heights Independent School District. The budget cuts were originated of three main components: • 2006 the state lowered property taxes (school taxes by 1/3). • The state used Federal stimulus money to pay raises all teachers’ salaries in the state. • The current recession has cause lower tax revenue. How badly it is? The state of Texas is projected to have a $27 billion deficit for the next two year, the US House of Representative bill was unveil in January and designate a $10 billion dollars cut in public education state-wide. This cuts will have a significant impact in all schools district in Texas (including Alamo Heights Independent School District) for the next two or three years. Some people talk about why don’t the schools district rely in the lottery count, and the answer is, because the lottery count is less that 2% of the revenue for education and this don’t even goes to schools, goes to the general...
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...Case Study 13-3: Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard Case Context: Texas Instrument (TI) and Hewlett Packard (HP) are two companies famous for introducing Electric and electronic products. Although competing in similar industries, their strategies are very much different. Problem Definition: Given the differences in strategy between two firms, what would you expect would be the differences between TI & HP in their planning and control system; strategic planning systems; budgeting systems; reporting systems; performance evaluation systems and incentive compensations systems. Inferred from the case, we expect some differences in planning and control system between Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard. This paper will discuss and propose some strategic planning systems, budgeting systems, reporting systems, performance evaluation systems and incentive compensation system for each company. . Strategic Planning Systems: In term of corporate level strategy, both firms have the same definition of business in which the firm will participate. TI and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are both in high-technology electric and electronics. But, the second aspect of corporate level strategy, which is deployment of resources among the business, may be different for each firm depends on the objectives that they want to achieve and competitive advantages that they have. I am well known for its first...
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...Case 11.1- Mazda and Syzygy Case Overview Mazda Motor Europe hired an observational company by the name of Syzygy to monitor the consumers that uses their website. Situation Analysis Mazda Motor Europe would like to know details about how consumers are using their website and if the website is user friendly. Questions 1. What could Mazda learn from eye-tracking software that would be difficult to learn? from other observational methods? The eye-tracking software provides Mazda with the ability to observe eye movement and track the amount of time spent looking at a particular area. 2. What are the shortcomings of this method? The shortcomings of using the eye tracking software method are: • The equipment is expensive • Some users can't work with the equipment • Calibrating the equipment takes time 3. Along with the eye-tracking research, what other research methods could help Mazda assess the usability of its website? Summarize your advice for how Mazda could use complementary methods to obtain a complete understanding of its website’s usability. Questionnaires are an effective way of quantifying data from a sample group, and testing emotions or preferences. This method is very cheap and easy, where budget is a problem, and gives an element of scale to opinion and emotion. These figures are arbitrary, but at least give a directional method of measuring intensity. Case 11.2- Texas Instruments and E-Lab Case Overview Texas Instruments hired...
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...and conservative political discourse produced images of ‘welfare queens’ and their dangerous offspring.15 Following Nixonian political strategy, Reagan campaigned for the presidency using this same coded anti-black strategy which appealed directly to the ideological right-wing of the Republican party and confounded liberals due to the lack of direct racist language during campaign. Reagan campaign speeches consisted of crime and welfare content, and repeated anecdotes were about the story of a welfare queen whose tax-free income netted $150,000. After becoming president, Reagan announced his “War on Drugs” in October 1982 despite the fact that two percent of the U.S. viewed drugs as an important issue facing the nation. Immediately budgets of federal...
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... Background Dallas Chamber of Commerce………………..……………….4 Cinemark…………………………………………………………4 Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.......................................5 Event Details VIP.........................................................................................6 General Admission................................................................7 Timeline………………………………………………………………...8 Budget..........................................................................................9 Appendix A Case Studies…………………………………………...10 Appendix B Letters of Recommendation..………………..……….11 Appendix C Assumptions....………………………………………...14 Appendix D Citations..…………..………...………….……………..15 Appendix E Stadium Map………………………………………...…16 Appendix F Parking Map…………………………………………....17 Executive Summary Want to see the biggest movie of summer 2012 on the biggest high definition screen in the world? Cinemark Theaters presents a movie premiere featuring Marvel Studios’ “The Avengers”, the most anticipated movie of 2012 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Along with a VIP party before the screening of the movie, this event will be to benefit medical research for Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. The VIP guest list will include prominent figures from around the Dallas area such as Jerry Jones, Nolan Ryan and Mark Cuban, as well as big name Cowboys players such as Tony Romo, Jason Witten and Demarcus Ware. Resources for medical research...
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...York State Darlene R. Muller Policy Implementation: Spring 2013 New York State has been in financial crisis for a long time. Numerous plans, policies and budget cuts have been proposed and enacted to attempt to save money, and no public service or government agency has been overlooked. One of areas where most attention is drawn is to the corrections system. A large portion of New York’s budget is spent on housing, supervising, and rehabilitating inmates. There are many who believe this is wasteful, but what is the solution to the dilemma? Public safety must be ensured, as well as the rights the inmates and accused are entitled to. There are two sides to this problem. There are vast amounts of money spent upon this system, however it also is one of the main sources of employment for those located in the areas that contain these facilities. The loss of jobs and revenue within these areas must be comparable to the savings involved. There is no question policy changes must be made, as the prison population continues to grow and budget constraints are an issue in every state. As policies are enacted to become tougher on crime, the need for corrections services increases. Legislation and policy change has had some success in other states. Kansas had an overwhelming problem with prison population and budget restraints throughout the last few decades. (Rengifo, 2010) At first, with increased prison capacity, in the 1980’s, Kansas simply created more prisons. As financial...
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...Case Study Analysis The complex and dynamic realm of health care has generated a need to focus on cultural change to improve health care quality. To overcome a decade of difficulties and implement a program for improving their quality, the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (UNTHSC) began a journey to change the culture of their organization. Using the change model the new president initiated measures to revise the quality improvement program and strategies for meeting regulatory and accreditation standards. Many barriers interfered with the process but actions were executed to overcome these obstacles (Ransom, Joshi, Nash, & Ransom, 2008). This paper will describe the cultural change journey of UNTHSC through unfreezing their old culture and laying the foundation for a new culture of quality. Measures to Monitor and Revise Quality Program Implementation The measures used to monitor and revise quality program implementation foster changing the organizational structure of an institution. The UNTHSC at Forth Worth decided to institute cultural changes as a form of monitoring and influencing the change process. The initial element of the measurement process incorporated administrative, academic, clinical practice, research application, financial elements, and community goals. A baseline measure was associated with current levels of operations. The management team was held accountable in regard to focusing on four areas of measurement...
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...CASE NO. 2 Janmar Coatings, INC Define the Problem Janmar Coatings, Inc is a seller and manufacturer of architectural paint. While the company is small compared to nationally known brands, the service area reach is big with over 50 counties in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana. Janmar Coatings, Inc headquarters are in Dallas, Texas where even with mass merchandisers holding 50% of the market, are still able to maintain a competitive advantage. Janmar Coatings, Inc is also a seller of OEM, original equipment manufacturing coatings. The problem Janmar Coatings, Inc is facing today is determining where and how to focus marketing efforts in the architectural coatings markets. Currently Janmar Coatings, Inc is the highest price product in the architectural coatings market and could be looking to expand their efforts in order to keep their contribution margin high and better position themselves to consumers. Especially with the do-it-yourself market only buying paint in certain seasons, price sensitivity could be a major factor in their decision making it hard for Janmar to steadily compete. Alternatives During a meeting with the VP’s of Janmar Coatings, Inc each participant had a different opinion on how this particular strategy should be met. Alternatives ranged from maintaining the status quo to drastically cutting prices. First Alternative From the Advertising VP an increase in the advertising budget of $350,000 could bring a higher awareness to consumers...
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...Document Abstract This document is a proposal to develop a Continuing Care Retirement Community – a kind of senior housing retirement living center – on one (1) contiguous parcel of land located in a northeastern suburb of Houston, Texas by BGG Development, LLC – a Texas Limited Liability Company engaged in the development, capitalization, marketing and operations of senior housing facilities in Texas. BGG Development, LLC’s management has assessed the initial opportunity and believes the total development budget for the initial phase of this project will be approximately $54.1 million, but the project is expected to have three (3) phased stages developed over a 3-year period (if all operations are met with material success). Should BGG Development, LLC be successful in executing its business model, the expected result will be a near-term net profit pool of approximately $6.2 million and BGG Development, LLC will be seeking to acquire approximately $1.2 million in pre-construction phase capital financing to address this business opportunity. To these ends, the company is providing this proposal for the purposes of entertaining discussions with qualified institutions, businesses and accredited investors regarding the potential investment preferences. This document is not an offer to sell securities of any kind, nor does it constitute a guarantee or warranty as to future performance of any kind. This Document is For Discussion Purposes Only. Northeast Houston Senior Housing...
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...Worldly Scholars Marketing Plan Shelley Barnett DeVry University Marketing Management MKTG-522-62102 Dr. Scott Eckert March 17, 2013 Worldly Scholars Marketing Plan Marketing Plan Outline 1.0 Executive Summary 2.0 Situation Analysis 2.1 Market Summary 2.2 SWOT Analysis 2.3 Competition 2.4 Product (Service) Offering 2.5 Keys to Success 2.6 Critical Issues 3.0 Marketing Strategy 3.1 Mission 3.2 Marketing Objectives 3.3 Financial Objectives 3.4 Target Markets 3.5 Positioning 3.6 Strategies 3.7 Marketing Mix 3.8 Marketing Research 4.0 Controls 4.1 Implementation 4.2 Marketing Organization 4.3 Contingency Planning 5.0 Conclusion Executive Summary Worldly Scholars to span across the U.S.; inspiring girls, boys, women, and men to find their passion, create a goal; use their motivation and drive to conquer their dreams and obtain their desires; to assist and touch the lives of others. Worldly Scholars is geared towards assisting students including; 8th graders with preparation for high school, high school students prepare for college, and college students prepare for the corporate world. We offer various services from mentoring programs tailored for each student which includes; searching for scholarships that match up with their background, searching for the right schools for their field of interest, researching and networking to seek the job/career and title of interest in their field related to their major...
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...The University of Texas at Arlington – Department of Accounting Course Description: Introduction to concepts, purposes, problems, methodology, and terminology of managerial accounting. Prerequisite: ACCT 5301 or equivalent. Course Objectives: 1. Discuss the nature of management accounting 2. Explain the basic concepts of management accounting 3. Explain the basics of managerial cost analysis 4. Identify and discuss “real world” implications of management accounting information 5. Work in groups. Objectives 1, 2 and 3 will be assessed through successful completion of homework and two exams. Objectives 4 and 5 will be assessed through an evaluation of class participation. Class Policies: The class policies on attendance, grades, and withdrawals will follow the rules and regulations set forth in the current UTA graduate catalog. Students are expected to behave in a professional manner. The instructor reserves the right to dismiss anyone from the class who is violating the right of the other students to receive the full benefit of the class instruction. Attendance and participation in class discussions of the material are important aspects of the course. You must participate in classroom discussions to receive credit for class participation. A sign-in sheet will be passed around during each class period. This is the only record of...
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