A Comprehensive PET-CT Database for Tracking Patient Variables

A Comprehensive PET-CT Database for Tracking Patient Variables Free Online Research Papers Theoretical: A social database was created following segment and assessment data for patients experiencing PET/CT considers. Strategies: A worksheet was first evolved to catch patient and study data which was then gone into a social database. Reports were intended to give authoritative and clinical data. Results: Around 2000 patients and three years of information have been recorded in the database. Reports have been utilized for authoritative and research purposes. End: The database gave reports used to legitimize staffing, consumptions, and development. It has given examination information just as clinical input used to improve the consideration and the executives of our patients. Presentation: In July 2003, the Medical College of Georgia introduced a PET/CT scanner in its Radiation Therapy Outpatient Center. The scanner is utilized to play out an assortment of indicative and oncology-related techniques. So as to have the option to retroactively determine research information, a methods for following patients just as their individual examinations was required. Albeit a formerly existing analytic PET scanner was being used, just radiopharmaceutical records were kept. In the radiation treatment PET/CT condition we felt it imperative to record extra data got from the inside and out patient history and physical. Materials and Methods: A worksheet was created which permits the technologist to record a current clinical history. It was structured by the atomic medication doctor, the on location radio drug specialist, and the lead PET technologist. Worksheet sections straightforwardly relate to the database fields to rearrange information contribution for the technologist. On the off chance that financing opens up for a PC in the brooding region, the technologist will have the option to enter the history straightforwardly into the database. Worksheets are rounded out by the atomic medication specialized staff however so as to decrease mistakes, just the ensured PET technologists perform information passage. Information has been gathered since the origin of the PET/CT unit in August, 2003. The database presently holds roughly 2000 patients every one of whom has had from 1 to 6 PET/CT assessments. As a result of the intricacy of the data to be recorded, it was resolved that a social database instead of a spreadsheet would be the best device. A social database advances precision and adaptability and furthermore improves information input. Instead of the free content fields utilized in spreadsheets, broad utilize was made of drop boxes and radio fastens as appeared in figure 1 which give choice from fixed, pre-built up decisions. Since a patient can and frequently has different assessments, one table was set up for the patient and a related table for methods. There is likewise a table of assessment types. Utilizing the social ability of the database, each system is connected to a particular patient and test type, the two of which are chosen from drop boxes. Tables were additionally created for alluding doctors and test signs. Since data is connected as opposed to entered as free content, exactness is improved and consistency is guaranteed. Ebb and flow departmental exploration intrigues center around a few patient populaces including pediatric lymphoma, cervical and gynecological malignancy, and patients requiring treatment arranging. Explicit database fields were chosen to permit future relationships of infection and hazard factors. Moreover, fields were given identified with persistent socioeconomics so as to give local inclusion documentation to the Certificate of Need. As appeared in figure 2, pre managerial reports incorporate month to month methodology tallies (figure 3), Veteran’s Administration persistent volume, tolerant socioeconomics for the Certificate of Need, and patient referral volume by doctor (figure 4). For research purposes, study information in reports can be separated by assessment signs, kind of test, or patient sex, race, age, or hazard factors. Results: The database is helpful in giving budgetary reports. These reports are utilized to connect contract charging and to screen coding exactness. Reports are additionally valuable in seeing volumes so as to screen efficiency and create future spending plans. Database reports arrange research information on patients and their investigations including socioeconomics, history, and hazard factors. The devices related with a social database give insights valuable in the distribution of contextual investigations, readiness of talks, and following of exploration information. Conversation: The database was planned and organized to give adaptability in the utilization and introduction of data. One of the upsides of an appropriately planned database is that the introduction of data can be promptly altered. Those entering data into the database just as the people who will utilize the outcomes and reports ought to be engaged with the plan procedure. Subsequent to acquiring all conceivably helpful data in the best possible arrangement, reports can be altered to fit the requirements of managers and specialists. The methodology utilized in the turn of events and utilization of this database is versatile to different kinds of organizations. The center ought to anticipate the data required by the particular clients just as improving information passage. All around planned database structure and screens can spare time and lessen or dispense with many info mistakes, in this manner upgrading profitability and precision. When precise data is gathered in a very much structured organization, it is generally basic for somebody capable with databases to deliver tweaked reports. This is particularly significant in light of the fact that clients regularly have changing necessities and interests after some time. The following are instances of reports which directors and clinicians at our organization have discovered valuable: Veteran Patient Volume The repayment division utilizes this information to follow charging cycles. Doctor Referral Base This data is valuable in centering promoting endeavors by distinguishing regions for improvement. Pediatric Lymphomas Following pediatric patients over a time of years will help decide improved clinical pathways for ailment the executives. Gynecological Cancers The gynecological facility is one of our biggest referral bases. This data will be utilized to separate requirements for modified examining, for example, â€Å"dual point† filtering post medical procedure. Tolerant Logs and Volumes Reports give month to month and yearly patient volume information in both literary and graphical organization. Exact volume data permits us to extend staffing requirements and timetable framework upkeep. The printout likewise gives a printed version back-up of important information. Radiation Treatment Planning By following the convention utilized for every patient, results are improved by reflectively examining clinical patient administration. End: This database has given medical clinic organization exact and ideal reports to legitimize staffing, consumptions, and development. It has given our doctors a plenty of exploration information and has furnished our technologists with a technique for correlative intuition in the consideration and the executives of our patients. As volume builds, the requirement for precise, effectively available data turns out to be progressively significant. The database is by and large consistently changed and new reports are being created to improve the executives and exploration capacities. Utilization of a PET/CT following database ought to demonstrate accommodating to different offices to misuse the capability of this innovation. References: 1. Gardner WD. Bosom Cancer Database Provides Faster Access To Patient Records. InformationWeek Web webpage. 2005. Accessible at: informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=NBXENMVY3EP5AQSNDBGCKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=174400322. Gotten to April 28, 2007. 2. Johnson S, Paul T, Khenia A. Conventional Database Design for Patient Management Information. American Medical Informatics Association Web webpage. Accessible at: amia.org/bars/symposia/D004062.PDF. Gotten to April 28, 2007. 3. Friedman C, Hripcsak G, Johnson SB, Cimino JJ, Clayton PD. A Generalized Relational Scheme for an Integrated Clinical Patient Database. Procedures of the Fourteenth Annual Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care. Washington, D.C. 1990. 4. Essin DJ, Lincoln TL. Actualizing a Low-cost Computer-based Patient Record: A controlled jargon decreases database plan unpredictability. In: Gardner R, ed. Nineteenth Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care. Philadelphia: Hanley and Belfus, 1995:431-5. Exploration Papers on A Comprehensive PET-CT Database for Tracking Patient VariablesArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)The Project Managment Office SystemRiordan Manufacturing Production PlanResearch Process Part OneThe Fifth HorsemanInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThree Concepts of PsychodynamicOpen Architechture a white paper

Behavioural Aspects of Budgeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Social Aspects of Budgeting - Essay Example Be that as it may, before whatever else, it is a smart thought to comprehend something about the picked organization. The Southeast Asia (S.E.A.) Olympus Marketing Incorporated is one of the offshoots of S.E.A. Olympus Group of Companies, which was established in the Philippines in 1983. Different subsidiaries are SPARKO, merchant of imported surface coatings and SCADE Industrial Corporation, an assembling plant of spotless water tanks, for example, stockpiling water tanks and hydro pneumatic weight tanks. The S.E.A. Olympus Marketing Incorporated is both an exchanging and assembling organization which works across the nation in the Philippines. It has branches in the three significant islands of the Philippines. The S.E.A. Olympus Marketing Incorporated is answerable for the dissemination of items created by different partners. Initially, the organization was a wholesaler of composite materials, for example, tar and fiber glass to the angling and style enterprises. Today, the S.E.A. Olympus Marketing Incorporated is having a connection with its primary providers in Singapore, Taiwan and China. This year, it is intending to extend in the whole nation and later in the Southeast locales in Asia. As existing apart from everything else, it has sub-specialty units (SBU) in the significant urban areas in the Philippines as a feature of its vital situating. This year, its will likely extend, however some portion of it is to painstakingly deal with its funds. At the national level, the S.E.A. Olympus Incorporated may seem to have a convoluted authoritative working structure of working divisions. To take a gander at the smaller scale level of the organization’s action, this paper looks at the working specialty units in the nation. S.E.A. Olympus Marketing Incorporated is made out of sub-specialty units cooperating for one objective. Every one of this sub-specialty unit is made out of general care group and cutting edge gathering. The general care group is made out of the Accounting

United Nations Essay Example for Free

Joined Nations Essay â€Å"The UN is comprised of 191 countries from around the globe. It is as often as possible called the UN. It was built up in 1945 not long after the Second World War as a methods for uniting individuals and to stay away from war. The UN logo portrays the world held in the olive parts of peace†. (CBBC Newsround) United Nations: Post Cold War Era The United Nations is viewed as a universal element that has â€Å"struggled with the difficulties of globalization for quite a while, particularly since the Asian monetary crisis† (Ruggie, 2003, p. 1); it has power, as indicated by one individuals, to tackle the global issues, for example, wars; anyway to another gathering of individuals, the United Nations has its own specific restrictions past which it can't work or appears not to be working. The absolute first proof in such manner when the United Nations is seen totally incapacitated in spite of energetically is the Cold War period that extended more than 40 years. In this association, Holmes (1993) illuminates us that â€Å"For more than 40 years, the Cold War strife between the United States and the Soviet Union incapacitated the peacekeeping elements of the United Nations. With hardly any exemptions, the United Nations and other worldwide associations were incapable in settling significant clashes as a result of the lose-lose nature of the Cold War†. In 1993, Holmes fundamentally explored the United Nations’ activity in the situation of the Post Cold War time and that opportunity he thought of the perception that the United Nations had an overwhelming hand put by the United States of America. He discloses to us that the United Nations tasks like peacemaking, harmony implementation, and military inclusion were restricted for specific reasons, for example, the immense financial guide, the soldiers commitment by world states to back up the United Nations’ power. These constraints, as per Holms, kept United Nations a body that was not freely incredible to take activities against any pandemonium going on the planet. He lets us know of the U. S. policymakers that how they would search for the escape clauses where they could make a path into the controlling of the United Nations so the national sway could be made sure about: â€Å"The challenge for U. S. approach creators is to recognize these conditions and to create rules for guaranteeing that U. S. interests are secured. The United States should, in such manner, be touchy to three factors: (1) how a peacekeeping activity influences American national security; (2) the amount it expenses; and (3) how much it disintegrates American sovereignty† (Holmes, 1993, p. 1). The portion point to Holmes (1993) is that the United Nations is certainly not a free body to work without pressure from a nation (the U. S. ) so â€Å"if it endeavors to exceed its forces, and professes to be an autonomous power in universal governmental issues, the United Nations will without a doubt flop in keeping up any sort of world harmony and stability† (Holmes, 1993, p. 1). Pushing forward we witness a comparable comment made by O’Brien (2003) that â€Å"The United Nations was brought about by the United States 60 years back to communicate, exemplify and expand American ideals†; yet there is another perception by Goff (2003) that the United Nations is just as solid similar to the desire of the states which run it: â€Å"The United Nations framework depends on the group will of every one of its individuals. It is these part expresses that set its needs. The United Nations can't act without their assent. It falls, in this way, upon every one of us to make the United Nations important in todays world† (2003, p. 1). Honestly, practically speaking the United Nation has not created as was first envisioned at first it was made chiefly out of the Allies of World War II, to a great extent European significant nations, , and countries of the Americas and Commonwealth nations. It was envision as an association of â€Å"peace-loving† countries, who were joining to stop future animosity and for other helpful reasons. Nonetheless, Close participation among individuals was anticipated; and the Security Council particularly was anticipated to work in relative unanimity. Trusts in fundamental accord were before long slammed by the grindings of the â€Å"cold war†, which affected the working of both the Security Council and other UN organs. The United Nation has assumed a similarly optional job in the most world emergencies, including 1973; the Pakistan-India War of 1971; the Afghanistan war and Vietnam Israeli-Arab Wars of 1967. Anyway in the very asking of 1970s the assembled country intensified its movement in the improvement of less prevailing nations. (Schuijt, 2005) â€Å"Even as the U. N. is approached to handle huge issues like ethnic, state and strict clashes and feasible utilization of normal assets, the association mirrors the irregularity of intensity that exists among amazing and feeble nations† (Schuijt, 2005) Certainly, it is consistent with state that some prevailing nations are utilizing the United Nations as a vehicle for their own advantage and rule over the world. David Shorr refered to the extraordinary model on this thing in â€Å"world have the UN they merit by saying that the â€Å"The UN is just as solid or as week as governments need it to be. Part states should quit utilizing the UN as a â€Å"scapegoat† for governments’ inability to accomplish worldwide accord. The UN can't change all alone; the duty lies with governments to actualize change to the greatest advantage of the UN†. (Shorr, 2006) Many creating countries’ pioneers opine that the UN in each perspective segregates among creating and non-creating nations. Also, the UN is assuming a double job for various nations in each perspective, regardless of whether legislative issues, social standards, wellbeing, security and so on. for example, Bahamas keeps on accentuating the requirement for greater and increasingly thorough conversation of globalization and its consequences for the prosperity of concerned federations, with the United Nations given a job in understanding these issues. Further they cited that, we have persistently communicated perilous worries over specific choices by the United Nations or its organs that were not rational with the points and expectations of the Charter. Notwithstanding, nothing was done to right an inappropriate. At the point when blunders are found, it turns into our commitment to address them. They further accentuated, that UN ought to go over the legitimate political premise of its own endeavors in the time of 1950s and 1960s comparable to the cardinal privileges of our Melanesian sisters and siblings in the Asia-Pacific district, particularly in West Papua and the UN must not in this â€Å"The United Nations can't and should not, in this new thousand years, carry on to choose to disregard all alone past disappointments, which has driven UN to three long, anguishing many years of bad form, catastrophe and guerrilla fighting in West Papua. It is ethically, strategically and legitimately wrong to do as such. The Organization has skilled bodies, for example, the Special Committee on decolonization or the International Court of Justice, which should investigate the issue. The Netherlands - †the previous pioneer Power â€- ought to perceive a lot of the obligation in assisting with settling the circumstance of West Papua in a tranquil and straightforward way. †(World Leaders Adopt, 2000) In any case, then again, creating nations part like the US and UK regretting this reality that they are utilizing the UN for their own advantages and they likewise accept that being a ground-breaking individual from the UN they need to counterbalance things in a news paper article distributed in June 16,2005 in Los Angles Times US put US changes first and announced that â€Å"United States †a veto-holding individual from the committee alongside Britain, France, Russia and China †accepts that a greater gathering would not really be better†. (Farley, 2005) Another model is the Republic of Paula who without a doubt accepts that the UN will endeavor hard to grasp the remaining non-part countries around the world. Furthermore, in this perspective, they trust that the UN will change his thorough demeanor towards creating nations. Other than this, they are sure that these objectives at a specific degree are reachable like through the assistance of 2000 UN changes. They further uncovered the realities that, â€Å"The United Nations has empowered littler, creating and least created nations, for example, my own, to add to world harmony in our own yet little manner. While there have been quantifiable advantages from enrollment of the Organization, it likewise has the positive extension to convey considerably more fair changes†. (World Leaders Adopt, 2000) United Nations’ Reforms However, after 2000 the United Nations met serious analysis for its activities and apparently reliance over the United States of America. In addition, there were issues of better dealing with the in-association matters, for example, security, subsidizing, etc. Along these lines, a progression of change scenes began making its place in the pages of United Nations’ history. It was sped up after the Iraq attack by the United States of America as the â€Å"oil-for-food† turned into the family expression of global governmental issues. For instance, President Bush’s much of the time cited comment â€Å"America will never look for a consent slip to guard the security of our country† is something that helps us to remember the outright force days when subjection was polished. (Schaefer and B. Kim, 2004) In this manner, all these pandemonium drove individuals, for example, Annan to think of some strong state that would, at any rate on a superficial level, ensure the fair job of the United Nations on the planet and the through some strong changes. As such Annan concocted the three significant territories that should have been reclassified for the better tasks of the United Nations. These were: improvement, security, and human right. These opened up for people in general in the year 2005 and â€Å"The secreta

Friend Compare and Contrast

A Friend His name Is If you at any point met this Individual you would unquestionably have a fortunate or unfortunate impression of him. I've essentially grown up with him. We went to a similar school all from rudimentary through secondary school, experienced childhood in a similar neighborhood. You could state that we both had a typical thing. I don't know whether meeting this individual was an approach to show me a couple of things or not. I constantly needed to imagine that him and I would get along and be old buddies. Perhaps that is the motivation behind why I have kept him my companion for such a long time. Presently days he dwells as my flat mate, I don't have the foggiest idea whether that meeting was a slip-up or not.Time will tell or possibly it has as of now. His perspectives dislike mine by any means. We we're raised totally extraordinary as was educated under a Latin foundation and him†¦ Well, that is an alternate story. I'll clarify about us: he and have totally va rious characters, extraordinary and same companions and differing morals about instruction. Sick clarify this through. For instance, I accept that character Is one If the fundamental things that drives a relationship, even Just as companions. At the point when you consider somebody you need to be companions with you think about very similar things you may impart to that person.To me, character is one of the primary ones. At the point when I met Matt I was in fourth grade, a small kid, you could state. I didn't generally think a lot about how an individual ought to be or how he should go about as I was Just growing up. He appeared to be an alright child and since we lived In a similar neighborhood and spent time with similar companions I chose to begin conversing with him to perceive how things went. Toward the starting everything was Just dandy yet as time advanced I began to see him being a controlling, grandiose person. His character was totally unique in relation to mine. I was c onstantly a mindful individual however he†¦ Was progressively off â€Å"me first, me second and me third† sort of fellow. For instance, we constantly used to play football at my home, a fast round of 5 on 5. This may appear to be senseless yet when I saw him tackle somebody I constantly used to perceive the amount of a superior individual he needed to be than the one being handled. I could see that he was attempting to show the other the amount of more noteworthy man he was. After he would handle somebody he would slap them and state something impolite or bigot. As per him†¦ Anyone that isn't white isn't anything in any way. It may appear to be cruel to state yet to me that is the thing that he falls off as.I'm the direct inverse. Sure I'm serious as well, however not to that level. If I somehow happened to beat somebody at anything obviously I would brag and such however I could never downfall that individual to where the individual would feel short of what me. It' s an aloof character, me, to a forceful one, him. I wasn't the one in particular who might consider him thusly, there were likewise our companions. Since Matt and I lived in a similar neighborhood and went to a similar school, we will undoubtedly have similar companions. We were all gathering and till this day we despite everything call ourselves â€Å"the ranches boys†.Sharing similar companions brought upon me him talking Enid my back, and others as well. Since we as a whole constantly used to spend time with one another there wasn't a lot of I could do. I couldn't Just leave him and the others behind, I wouldn't have companions! In any case, presently I see that he was no companion by any means. A portion of my companions that were additionally mates of him saw him as I began as well, mean. Sure the child had his 1 OFF great dirts Ana Dad out Nils Dad were much progressively tan Nils great MY Eternal Dalton made was likewise companions with him till this day thinks Matt Ju st has an independent mind. I concur completely.Although we had similar companions, we treated them contrastingly and the other way around. The ones that would spend time with Matt the most, would see him as a predominant you could state yet at the same time observed that forcefulness in him. Presently take in thought this was all during out center school stage where we were all attempting to be â€Å"a cool kid†. He was the child that could state a certain something and turn everybody against you, at any rate everybody in the area. Regardless of whether it was Just talk, attempting to battle your side to demonstrate it wasn't accurate was an agony. So as the expression goes â€Å"keep your companions close, yet your foes closer†.Don't misunderstand me. I don't consider the child an adversary Just an awful seed. In any event, when it came down to instruction, we would have totally extraordinary hard working attitudes about it. Since the time center school, Matt has con sistently been on his school work. He once in a while needed to examine on the grounds that the material we were going over Just came effectively to him. Not with me. I needed to take as much time as necessary and audit, survey and afterward survey some more before I could even consider acing a test. In spite of the fact that he was a keen kid†¦ He generally had an approach to boast about how well he did in school, or how much preferred he was at this over me.While me then again, when I did great on something I would perhaps how him Just to get a feeling that â€Å"him I'm better than him†. I realize it sounds somewhat self-important of me, however that is the means by which I felt. Tangle's hard working attitudes when it came to class could never come close to mine. We had a test in our English class once and obviously he showed signs of improvement grade than me and Just bragged about it. While me, I stayed silent and was Just glad that I got what I merited. It's pract ically similar to he was attempting to demonstrate to me that he could beat me or anybody at whatever he attempted. For this situation it was instruction. At the point when we took our Sat, I showed signs of improvement score than him.His pardon was â€Å"l went out the ay before in this manner I wasn't at my fullest†. I didn't comprehend why he couldn't Just have stated, â€Å"good Job man† or something like that. Albeit one thing that I need to concede is that him and I do have a generally excellent propensity for handing assignments over on schedule and excelling on them. We both like to surpass ourselves on our work. That piece of his hard working attitude is something I can contrast with me positively. More or less, my companion Matt is exceptional. Him and I have our disparities when it comes down to character, companions and education†¦ Then again everybody has their differences.He has a greater amount of a â€Å"l own beginning and end character', while m ine is a mindful and considerate one. We do have similar companions and treat them in an unexpected way, he with an authority demeanor and I with an amicable one. While when it comes down to instruction we both offer some equivalent qualities and properties. We finish our work with an auspicious way regardless of whether he Just gets up the day of and completes while I take seven days to do it. Presently, Matt dwells as my flat mate. Until further notice, I think it was a colossal thought taking this smaller than usual experience with him however the truth will surface eventually in the event that I am correct. All things considered, not every person is great.

Book Riots Deals of the Day for December 23rd, 2019

Book Riot’s Deals of the Day for December 23rd, 2019 Sponsored by Read Harder Journal, a reading log brought to you by Book Riot. These deals were active as of this writing, but may expire soon, so get them while they’re hot! Todays  Featured Deals The Famished Road by Ben Okri for $1.99. Get it here, or just click on the cover image below. The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th Anniversary Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin for $1.99. Get it here, or just click on the cover image below. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict for $1.99. Get it here, or just click on the cover image below. Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Mans Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman for $1.99. Get it here, or just click on the over image below. In Case You Missed Yesterdays Most Popular Deals Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson for $1.99. Get it here, or just click on the cover image below. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie for $2.99. Get it here, or just click on the cover image below. Previous Daily Deals That Are Still Active As Of This Writing (Get em While Theyre hot!): The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for $2.99 Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone for $0.99 The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith for $4.99 Mangos and Mistletoe: A Foodie Holiday Novella by Adriana Herrera for $2.99 They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker for $4.99 Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill for $2.99 What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty for $2.99 The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley for $2.99 Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern for $0.99 We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia for $1.99 The Double: A Novel by José Saramago, translated by Margaret Costa for $1.99 Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older for $1.99 American Royals by Katharine McGee for $4.99 The Secret, Book Scone Society by  Ellery Adams for $1.99 Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler for $1.99 Birthday by Meredith Russo for $2.99 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by  Helene Hanff for $1.99 All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg for $2.99 All About Love by bell hooks for $1.99 The Color of Water by James McBride for $1.99 The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal for $2.99 The Likeness by Tana French for $1.99 The Hole: A Novel by Hye-young Pyun and translated by Sora Kim-Russell for $1.99 The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore for $1.99 Florida by Lauren Groff for $4.99 The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War Book 2) by R. F. Kuang for $2.99. Goldie Vance Vol. 1 by Hope Larson, illustrated by Brittney Williams for $4.49 Guapa by Saleem Haddad for $1.99 The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry for $2.99 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku for $2.99 What Doesnt Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young for $2.99 The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter for $2.99 Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri for $4.99 Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender for $2.99 Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller for $1.99 Travels by Michael Crichton for $1.99 A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole for $1.99 Invasive by Chuck Wendig for $1.99 The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang for $2.99 Slayer by Kiersten White for $1.99 Chasing Down a Dream by Beverly Jenkins for $2.99 The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe for $1.99 I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo for $2.99 Im Telling the Truth, but Im Lying by Bassey Ikpi for $2.99 Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver for $4.99 Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey for $1.99 Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds for $1.99 How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu for $2.99 News of the World by Paulette Jiles for $2.99 A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum for $2.99 Dont Call Us Dead by Danez Smith for $2.99 Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore for $2.99 The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi for $2.99 Fatality in F (A Gethsemane Brown Mystery Book 4) by Alexia Gordon for $4.99 Reckless by Selena Montgomery for $3.99 Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras for $4.99 Black Water Rising by Attica Locke for $1.99 Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds for $2.99 The Ensemble: A Novel by Aja Gabel for $4.99 Cant Escape Love by Alyssa Cole for $1.99 Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson for $5.99 Ark by Veronica Roth for $1.99 Ten Women by Marcela Serrano for $3.99 Flights by Olga Tokarczuk for $4.99 The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith for $0.99 Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma for $3.99 Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather for $3.99 Prophecy  by Ellen Oh for $2.99 Along for the Ride  by Mimi Grace for $2.99 Sign up for our Book Deals newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read.

Customer service Meeting quality and expectations - Free Essay Example

THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE QUALITY AND THE EVALUATION OF MEETING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. BRIEF: 98688 INTRODUCTION Customer research literature traditionally agrees that service quality is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent basis. The delivery of high quality services is one of the most important and most difficult tasks that any service organisation faces. Because of their unique characteristics, services are very difficult to evaluate. Hence customers must look closely at service quality when comparing services. Service quality can be defined as a customers’ perception of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations. In most cases service quality is judged by customers, and not by organisations. This distinction is critical because it forces service marketers to examine their quality from the customers’ viewpoint. For example, a bank may view service quality as having friendly and knowledgeable employees. However, the customers of this bank may be more concerned with waiting time, ATM access and security, as well as statement accuracy. Thus it is important for service organisations to determine what customers expect and then develop service products that meet or exceed those expectations. The Importance of Service Quality The biggest obstacle for customers in evaluating service quality is the intangibl e nature of the service. How can customers evaluate something that they cannot see, feel, taste, or hear? Most consumers lack the knowledge or the skills to evaluate the quality of many types of services. Consequently, they must place a great deal of faith in the integrity and competence of the service provider. Despite the difficulties in evaluating quality, service quality may be the only way customers can choose one service over another. For this reason, services marketers live or die by understanding how consumers judge service quality. The following table defines five dimensions that customers use when evaluating the importance of service quality. They are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Dimensions of service quality Dimension Evaluation Criteria Examples Tangibles: Physical evidence of the service Appearance of physical facilities Appearance of service personnel Tools or equipment used to provide the service A clean and professional looking office. A clean and well dressed lecturer The quality of food in a restaurant The equipment used in a medical examination Reliability: Consistency and dependability in performing the service Accuracy of billing or record keeping Performing services when promised An accurate bank statement A confirmed hotel reservation An airline flight departing and arriving on time Responsiveness: Willingness or readiness of employees to provide the service Returning customer phone calls Providing prompt service Handling urgent requests A waiter re-filling a customer’s glass of wine without being asked An ambulance arriving within three minutes Assurance: Knowledge/competence of employees and ability to convey trust and confidence Knowledge and skills of employees Company name and reputation Personal characteristics of employees A highly trained financial adviser A known and respected service provider A doctor’s bedside manner Empathy: Caring and individual attention provided by employees Listening to customer needs Caring about the customer’s interests Providing personalised attention Also access with regard to approachability and ease of contact from the customer is of importance to issues that may be raised by the customer. A store employee listening to and trying to understand a customer’s complaint A nurse counselling a heart patient Source: Adapted from Leonard L. Berry and Parasuraman, Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality (New York: Free Press, 1991). Of the five, reliability is the most important in determining customer evaluations of service quality. Services managers pay a great deal of attention to the tangibles dimension of service quality. Tangible attributes, or search qualities, such as the appearance of facilities and employees, are often the only aspects of a service that can be viewed before purchases and consumption. Therefore, service managers must ensure that these tangible elements are consistent with the overall image of the service product. Except for the tangibles dimension, the criteria that customers use to judge service quality are intangible. For instance, how does a customer judge reliability? Since dimensions such as reliability cannot be examined with the sense, consumers must rely on other ways of judging service criteria. One of the most important factors in customer judgements of service quality is service expectations. These are influenced by past experiences with the service, word-of-mouth communication from other customers and the service company’s own advertising. For example, customers are usually eager to try a new restaurant, especially when friends recommend it. These same customers may have also seen advertisements placed by the restaurant. As a result, these customers have an idea of what to expect when they visit the restaurant for the first time. When they finally eat out at the restaurant, the quality they experience will change the expectations they have for their next visit and their own comments to friends and colleagues. This is the major reason why providing consistent high service quality is important. If the quality of a restaurant, or any services, begins to deteriorate, customers will alter their own expectations and word-of-mouth communication to others accordingly. Delivering Exceptional Service Quality in Orde r to Meet Customer Expectations If an organisation cannot at least meet its customers’ expectations it will struggle. Ideally, an organisation should exceed its customers’ expectations, thereby, maximising the satisfaction of its customers, and also the credibility of its goods and services in the eyes of its customers. Customers’ normally become delighted when a supplier under-promises and over-delivers. To over-promise and under-deliver is a recipe for customers to become dissatisfied. Providing high quality service on a consistent basis is very difficult. All consumers have experienced examples of poor service: long checkout lines in a supermarket, late airline departures and arrivals, inattentive waiters in a restaurant, or rude bank employees. Obviously, it is impossible for a service organisation to ensure exceptional service quality 100 percent of the time. However, there are many steps that an organisation can take to increase the likelihood of pro viding high quality service. The four factors which a service company needs to understand in order to met customer expectations are: understanding customer expectations, service quality specifications, employee performance, and managing service expectations. Understanding Customer Expectations: Providers need to understand customer expectations when designing a service to meet or exceed those expectations. Only then can they deliver good service. Customers usually have two levels of expectations, which could be said to be desired and acceptable. The desired level of expectations is what the customer really wants. If this level of expectations is provided, the customer would be very satisfied. The acceptable level is viewed as a reasonable level of performance that the customer considers as being adequate. The difference between these two levels of expectations is called the customer’s zone of tolerance. Service companies sometimes use marketing research, such as surveys and focus groups, as a means of discovering customer needs and expectations. Other service managers, especially restaurants, use comment cards, on which customers can complain or provide suggestions. Another approach is to ask employees. Because customer contact employees interact daily with customers, they are in a good position to know what customers want from the company. Service managers should regularly interact with their employees by asking their opinions on how to best serve customers. Service Quality Specifications: Once an organisation understands its customers’ needs, it must establish goals to help ensure good service delivery. These goals, or service specifications, are typically set in terms of employee or machine performance. For example, a bank may require its employees to conform to a dress code. Likewise, the bank may require that all incoming phone calls be answered by the third ring. Specifications like these can be very important in providing quality service as long as they are tied to the needs expressed by customers. The most critical aspect of service quality specifications is managers’ commitment to service quality. Service managers who are committed to quality become role models for all employees in the organisation. Such commitment motivates customer contact employees to comply with service specifications. It is also crucial that all managers within the organisation embrace this commitment, especially front line managers, who are much closer to customers than higher level managers. Employee Performance: Once an organisation sets service quality standards and managers are committed to them, the organisation must find ways to ensure that customer contact employees perform their jobs well. Contact employees in most service industries like bank tellers, flight cabin crew, waiters, sales assistants, are often the least trained and lowest paid members of the organisation. What service organisations must realise is that contact employees are the most important link to the customer, and thus their performance is critical to customer perceptions of service quality. The means to ensure that employees perform well is to recruit and train them well so that they understand how to do their jobs. Providing information about customers, service specifications and the organisation itself during the training promotes this understanding. The evaluation and remuneration system used by the organisation also plays a part in employee performance. Many service employees are evaluated and rewarded on the basis of output measures such as sales volume (car salespeople) or the lack of errors during work (bank tellers). But systems using output measures over look other major aspects of job performance: friendliness, teamwork, effort and customer satisfaction. Thus customer oriented measures of performance may be a better basis of evaluation and reward. For example, MFI UK has a tied commission to customer satisf action surveys rather than sales volume. This type of system stimulates employees to take care of customer needs rather than focus solely on sales or profits. Managing Service Expectations: Because expectations are so significant in customer evaluations of service quality, service companies recognise that they must set realistic expectations about the service they can provide. They can set these expectations through advertising and good internal communication. In their advertisements, service companies make promises about the kind of service they will deliver. Infact, a company that provides a service is forced to make promises since the intangibility of services prevents it from showing them in the advertisement. However, the advertiser should not promise more than it can deliver; doing otherwise may mean disappointed customers. To deliver on promises made, a company needs to have good internal communication among its departments, especially management, advertising, and oper ations. Assume, for example, that a restaurant’s radio advertisements guaranteed services within five minutes or the meal would be free. If top management or the advertising department failed to inform operations about the five minute guarantee, the restaurant very likely would not meet its customers’ service expectations. Even though customers might appreciate a free meal, the restaurant would lose some credibility and revenue. Word-of-mouth communication from other customers also shapes customer expectations. However, a company that delivers a service cannot manage this advertising directly. The best way to ensure positive word-of-mouth communication is to provide exceptional service quality. It has been estimated that customers tell four times as many people about bad service as they do about good service. Consequently, services providers must provide four good service experiences for every bad experience just to break even. Moments of Truth These are encou nters with customers which cause them to form a view of the organisation based on how they are engaged, particularly compared to their expectations. Expectations can be met, exceeded or disappointed. Moments of truth can therefore be positive, in the case of meeting and exceeding expectations, or negative, in the case of disappointment. Monitoring the moments of truth allows management within an organisation to focus on improving areas responsible for negative customer experiences. Remedial action to prevent repetition is crucial. If managers within firms put things right, customers will see that they are important to them. Putting things right gives the firm an image of an organisation which knows how to manage quality. Organisations that fail to put things right that go wrong, might as well say to customers, ‘you are not important to us’. Failing to put things right and to prevent reoccurrence says of the organisation, ‘we are not capable of managing quality service’. Approaches to managing moments of truth involve ‘continuous improvement’. This entails processes that continually monitor, check and resolve negative moments of truth by ensuring alterations happen to the customer process, and integrating these changes into business as usual, are key to a successful evaluation of customer expectations. The Kano Model Dr. Noriaki Kano, a recognised Japanese quality engineer and customer satisfaction expert, spent several years studying customer needs and expectations. His ideas regarding attribute importance of services are embodied in the Kano Model which is well known in a wide range of different sectors. The Kano Model classifies product attributes and their importance based on how they are perceived by customers and their effect on customer satisfaction. The model measures the level of satisfaction with a product against consumer perceptions of attribute performance. Kano argues that the attributes can be classified into three categories: Threshold characteristics provide diminishing returns in terms of customer satisfaction. These are essential or must attributes or performance and do not offer any real opportunity for product differentiation. Providing threshold attributes and meeting customer expectations for them will do little to enhance overall customer satisfaction, but removing or performing poorly on them will hurt customer satisfaction, lead to customer complaints, and may result in customer defections. Examples of threshold characteristics include timely delivery of a magazine subscription, the ever-present telephone dial tone, and availability of an automatic teller machine at a bank branch. Performance characteristics exhibit a linear relationship between perceptions of attribute performance and customer satisfaction. Strong performance on these need attributes enhances, while weak performance reduces, satisfaction with the product or service. Adding more attribut e of this type to a product will also raise customer satisfaction. Examples of performance characteristics include the duration of rechargeable battery life of a cellular telephone and automobile fuel economy. Excitement characteristics are unexpected attributes that, when provided, generate disproportionately high levels of customer enthusiasm and satisfaction. When these nice to have attributes are not available in a product, it does not lead to customer dissatisfaction. Examples of excitement characteristics include receiving for the standard rate a hotel room upgrade with free breakfast or a CD player included as standard equipment on an economy car. Kano’s model affirms the role attribute importance plays in understanding how satisfaction evaluations are formed. And making the model operational can draw neatly from existing approaches to attribute importance measurement. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION This paper has looked at the importance of service quality with re gard to tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. It also describes and evaluates the delivery of exceptional service quality in order to meet customer expectations. This is in relation to understanding customer expectations; service quality specifications; employee performance; managing service expectations; moments of truth and the Kano model, which relates to threshold characteristics, performance characteristics and excitement characteristics. As a whole it will be worthwhile to conclude that customers do business on the basis of emotional desire, i.e. they want what they want when they want it. Customers tend to gravitate towards a person or a group of people or firms they like. This is where service quality plays a crucial factor not only to meet customer expectations, but also for the firm to be able to retain already existing customers. The various factors mentioned in the latter do have their limitations, i.e. as human beings we are constantly evolv ing, our tastes and approaches are constantly changing, as this takes place new scenarios and factors will arise in which a different solution would be required to deal with these new issues raised. Therefore nothing is for certain in relation to the various methods and techniques mentioned in the latter. BIBLIOGRAPHY Churchill, G.A., and Suprenant, C., (1982), An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction, Journal of Marketing Research, 19, 491 – 504. Dutka, A., (1994), AMA, Handbook for customer satisfaction, Lincolnwood, ILL: NTC Business Books. Hunt, H.K., (Ed.), (1977), Conceptualization and measurement of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction (Report no. 77 – 103), Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute. King, B., (1994), Techniques for understanding the customer, Quality management in Health Care, 2, 61 – 68. Swan, J.E., (1988), Consumer satisfaction related to the disconfirmation of expectations and product per formance, Journal of consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behaviour, 1, 40 – 47. Berry, L., (1995), On Great Service, (New York: The Free Press) Edvardsson, B., Thomasson, B., and Ovretveit, J., (1994), Quality of Service, Making It Really Work, London: McGraw Hill. Glynn, W.J., and Barnes, J.G., (1995), Understanding Services Management, Integrating Marketing, Organisational Behaviour, Operations and Human Resource Management, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Gronroos, C., (1990), Service Management and Marketing, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books. Dibb, S, Sinkim, L., Pride, W.M., and Ferrell, O.C., (2001), Marketing, Concepts and Strategies, Fourth European Edition, Houghton Mifflin. Zeithaml, V. A., Parasuraman, A., and Berry, L., L., (1990), Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, New York: Free Press. 1

Mark Twain Quotes About Death

Mark Twain  died on April 21, 1910, but he had plenty to say on the subject while he was still alive. Death may be a morbid topic for many. However, Mark Twain chose to make light of the subject. He often joked about how dreadful the world would be if we were to continue to live forever.   Mark Twain Quotes About Death You can develop a new perspective on death through Mark Twains death quotes. Here, you will find Mark Twain embracing the concept of death with his famous wry sense of humor. We never become really and genuinely our entire and honest selves until we are dead -- and not then until we have been dead years and years. People ought to start dead and then they would be honest so much earlier.Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Adam, the first great benefactor of the human race: he brought death into the world.All say, How hard it is that we have to die -- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered -- either by themselves or by others.Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.