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Copyright of Revista Cientifica de la Facultade de Veterinaria is the property of Universidad del Zulia, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Intensive care unit (ICU) costs account for a great part of a hospital's expenses. The objective of the present study was to measure the patient-specific cost of ICU treatment, to identify the most important cost drivers in ICU and to examine the role of various contributing factors in cost configuration. A retrospective cost analysis of all ICU patients who were admitted during 2011 in a Greek General, seven-bed ICU and stayed for at least 24 hours was performed, by applying bottom-up analysis. Data collected included demographics and the exact cost of every single material used for patients' care. Prices were yielded from the hospital's purchasing costs and from the national price list of the imaging and laboratory tests, which was provided by the Ministry of Health. A total of 138 patients were included. Variable cost per ICU day was €573.18. A substantial cost variation was found in the total costs obtained for individual patients (median: €3443, range: €243.70-€116,355). Medicines were responsible for more than half of the cost and antibiotics accounted for the largest part of it, followed by blood products and cardiovascular drugs. Medical cause of admission, severe illness and increased length of stay, mechanical ventilation and dialysis were the factors associated with cost escalation. ICU variable cost is patient-specific, varies according to each patient's needs and is influenced by several factors. The exact estimation of variable cost is a pre-requisite in order to control ICU expenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Cientifica de la Facultade de Veterinaria is the property of Universidad del Zulia, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses a study which assessed fish productivity increase in four floodplain wetlands in three districts of Asom, India following the adoption of pen culture technology for in situ seed production. Results show that annual fish production of wetlands increased significantly after the adoption of the technology for stocking fingerlings raised in situ. Information on the benefit cost ratio of fish production in wetland and the annual growth rate of wetlands is provided.

Maharashtra has shown a phenomenal growth in sericulture development among non-traditional silk producing states in the country. During 1990s, the average cocoon yield obtained by the farmers was around 25-30 kg/100 dfls, which increased to about 50-55 kg in 2009-10. Considering its potential in silk production, a study was taken up to analyze costs and return from sericulture with other important agricultural crops by the farmers. The study was conducted in Solapur district of Maharashtra during 2009-10. The study has revealed that sericulture is more profitable than wheat. Although, sugarcane cultivation is found to be marginally higher benefit than sericulture, in terms of income periodicity and employment generation, sericulture has been relatively better off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childbirth educators and nurses are educated to provide direct hands on care and education to those they serve. Nursing education does not have a budget and finance focus; therefore, when asked to develop a budget for an in-service program or an educational program for the clients, many nurses feel inadequately prepared in fiscal management. The purpose of this article is to provide basic budget information needed to develop education programs for the public or in-service for nurses. Common programs such as breast feeding and childbirth education for families and nurses will be discussed from a fiscal perspective. Knowledge of basic budget principles will be reviewed to facilitate success in planning a budget for patient education and in-service programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Metalurgia is the property of Fundatia Metalurgia Romana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We review the core issues in managerial accounting for radiologists. We introduce the topic and then explore its application to diagnostic imaging. We define key terms such as fixed cost, variable cost, marginal cost, and marginal revenue and discuss their role in understanding the operational and financial implications for a radiology facility by using a cost-volume-profit model. Our work places particular emphasis on the role of managerial accounting in understanding service costs, as well as how it assists executive decision making. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Value-added forestry has received much attention in the past few decades as a means of generating more output value for a given timber input. The growth in value-added production in the forest industry is directly affected by changing forest output/input prices, technology, investment strategies, government policies, and a host of other factors. Since many of these factors are unique to each forest region and sector in Canada, it is expected that one would observe a number of different value-added and variable cost trends over time. The purpose of this paper is to examine value-added and variable cost trends in five regions and three sectors of the Canadian forest industry over the 1970-95 period in order to shed light on those that are the most promising. A seemingly unrelated regressions technique is employed to the data set and findings reveal that a number of sectors and regions have exhibited favourable value-added/variable cost trends. Others, however, have not. Suggestions are made as to where future industry investments and government policies might be directed to aid in the development of value-added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hospital-wide quality improvement process through a care delivery redesign (CDR) was initiated to improve patient care efficiency, clinical documentation, and length of stay (LOS). The impact of CDR was assessed through LOS, unplanned readmission rates, and hospital financial metrics. The CDR team consisted of the Chief of Vascular Surgery, inpatient nurse practitioner, dedicated case manager, clinical documentation improvement specialist, and vascular surgery residents and faculty. The nurse practitioner facilitated patient care coordination, resident system-based education, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Tools created to track performance and to ensure sustainability included daily discussions of patient care barriers and solutions; standardized order sets; a mobile app for residents containing resident service expectations, disease-specific resources, and vascular surgery journal links; and a weekly inpatient tracker showing real-time patient care data. Outcome measures included LOS, case mix index, contribution margin, and unplanned readmissions. Each outcome was determined for all inpatient admissions the year before and the 12 months after CDR was initiated. Outcomes were compared between the two groups. Implementation of CDR resulted in a 23% decrease in LOS (P =.003), reducing the gap to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services geometric mean LOS from 2.1 days to 0.5 day (P <.001). Clinical documentation resulted in an increase in case mix index of 10% (P =.011). The 30-day unplanned readmission rates did not change in the 12 months after CDR was initiated compared with the year before (P =.92). Financial data demonstrated decreased variable cost and increased revenue resulting in a $1.89 million increase in contribution margin. A CDR predicated on a dedicated service line advanced practitioner, clinical documentation education, weekly service tracker review, and real-time management of system-related barriers to patient care is described. Implementation of the CDR reduced hospital LOS with no change in unplanned readmissions and provided significant financial benefit to the hospital by increasing revenue and decreasing variable cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]