7 CFR 252.6 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Miscellaneous provisions. (a) Improper distribution or loss of or damage to donated food. If a processor improperly distributes or uses any donated food, or causes loss of or damage to a donated food through its... commodity related funds, assets, or property in child nutrition programs. Whoever embezzles, willfully...

7 CFR 252.6 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Miscellaneous provisions. (a) Improper distribution or loss of or damage to donated food. If a processor improperly distributes or uses any donated food, or causes loss of or damage to a donated food through its... commodity related funds, assets, or property in child nutrition programs. Whoever embezzles, willfully...

7 CFR 252.6 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Miscellaneous provisions. (a) Improper distribution or loss of or damage to donated food. If a processor improperly distributes or uses any donated food, or causes loss of or damage to a donated food through its... commodity related funds, assets, or property in child nutrition programs. Whoever embezzles, willfully...

7 CFR 252.6 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Miscellaneous provisions. (a) Improper distribution or loss of or damage to donated food. If a processor improperly distributes or uses any donated food, or causes loss of or damage to a donated food through its... commodity related funds, assets, or property in child nutrition programs. Whoever embezzles, willfully...

Suspension and Debarment: DOD Has Active Referral Processes, but Action Needed to Promote Transparency

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

relating to submission of offers, embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery , falsification or destruction of records, federal tax delinquency, and many...debarment period was necessary to protect the government from doing business with this company for its unethical and dishonest practices. Source: GAO

Deepening Corporate Integrity in the Nigerian University System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ejiogu, Aloy; Onyene, Virgy

2008-01-01

The quest and agitation for the enthronement of corporate integrity in the nation's universities by the stakeholders have become almost hysterical given the often alleged, sometimes proven, cases of mal-administration, fund embezzlement and or misappropriation, over bloated or even fake invoicing, unbridled favoritism, sexual harassment, bribery,…

How Do You Manage?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Michael

2004-01-01

This article discusses the events that occurred when Donald J. Olson was arrested for arrested for insider trading and SEC violations. Olson had been arrested for embezzling money from his own company, cooking the books to hide the missing funds, providing insider financial information to friends to boost stock prices, and numerous other offenses.…

50 CFR 660.18 - Certification and decertification procedures for observers, catch monitors, catch monitor...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... designee) will designate a NMFS observer certification official who will make decisions for the Observer... of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false... appeal pursuant to paragraph (c) of this section. (c) Appeals process—(1) Decisions. Decisions on appeals...

Leading in the Community by Making Connections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Steven D.

2012-01-01

Bashing public schools seems to be in vogue these days. Admittedly, some of the bashing is well deserved: inappropriate teacher-student relationships, cheating on standardized tests, embezzlement, and other illegal acts. The reality is that education is a people business and when an individual deals with as many people as educators and…

41 CFR 102-117.290 - What is the difference between temporary nonuse, suspension and debarment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is the difference... Federal or State antitrust statutes; (3) Embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or... Federal agencies. The seriousness of the TSP's acts or omissions and the mitigating factors must be...

5 CFR 919.800 - What are the causes for debarment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false What are the causes for debarment? 919..., and bid rigging; (3) Commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction...; or (5) Violation of the provisions of the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 (41 U.S.C. 701); or (d) Any...

29 CFR 452.34 - Application of section 504, LMRDA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Control Act of 1984, Public Law 98-473, (29 U.S.C. 504) are robbery, bribery, extortion, embezzlement... 29 Labor 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Application of section 504, LMRDA. 452.34 Section 452.34... AND DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1959 Candidacy for Office; Reasonable Qualifications § 452.34 Application of...

34 CFR 85.800 - What are the causes for debarment?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What are the causes for debarment? 85.800 Section 85... customers between competitors, and bid rigging; (3) Commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery... debarment or suspension action; or (5) Violation of the provisions of the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988...

42 CFR 1001.201 - Conviction relating to program or health care fraud.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Conviction relating to program or health care fraud... Permissive Exclusions § 1001.201 Conviction relating to program or health care fraud. (a) Circumstance for... misdemeanor relating to fraud, theft, embezzlement, breach of fiduciary responsibility, or other financial...

42 CFR 1001.201 - Conviction relating to program or health care fraud.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Conviction relating to program or health care fraud... Permissive Exclusions § 1001.201 Conviction relating to program or health care fraud. (a) Circumstance for... misdemeanor relating to fraud, theft, embezzlement, breach of fiduciary responsibility, or other financial...

Adversary modeling: an analysis of criminal activities analogous to potential threats to nuclear safeguard systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heineke, J.M.

1978-12-20

This study examines and analyzes several classes of incidents in which decision makers are confronted with adversaries. The classes are analogous to adversaries in a material control system in a nuclear facility. Both internal threats (bank frauds and embezzlements) and external threats (aircraft hijackings and hostage-type terrorist events were analyzed. (DLC)

"Feed from the Service": Corruption and Coercion in the State--University Relations in Central Eurasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osipian, Ararat L.

2007-01-01

Education in Central Eurasia has become one of the industries, most affected by corruption. Corruption in academia, including bribery, extortions, embezzlement, nepotism, fraud, cheating, and plagiarism, is reflected in the region's media and addressed in few scholarly works. This paper considers corruption in higher education as a product of…

"Feed from the Service": Corruption and Coercion in State-University Relations in Central Eurasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osipian, Ararat L.

2009-01-01

Education in Central Eurasia has become one of the services most affected by corruption. Corruption in academia, including bribery, extortion, embezzlement, nepotism, fraud, cheating, and plagiarism, is reflected in the region's media and addressed in a few scholarly works. This article considers corruption in higher education as a product of…

Corruption in Myanmar - Holding a Country and its People from Economic Prosperity

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-30

censorship laws and freedom to information by banning independent newspapers thereby repressing efforts towards democracy even further. 6 The SPP... censorship laws, insisting state officials return embezzled funds, signing and ratifying the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and...instill a culture of change. For example, in Malaysia , the government formed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), an independent watch

Korean Affairs Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-09-05

followed by 279 or 31.5 percent for bribery, 228 or 25.7 percent for preparing false official documents, 43 or 4.8 percent for embezzlement and 34 or...declared a cholera contamination area. In the order, the ministry said that the quarantine stations will require passengers entering Korea via Hong...Kong to fill out health check lists in detail and to examine the feces of those suspected of carrying cholera . The quarantine stations will also

Iraq Reconstruction Project Terminations Represent a Range of Actions

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-10-27

included in the FAR, Subpart 9.4. Contractors can be debarred for a number of criminal actions, including fraud, theft, embezzlement, bribery ...Poor performance alone, without any showing of fraud or unethical behavior, will not generally result in the contractor being suspended or debarred...taken in one instance but not in another. In the first instance, an Iraqi construction firm was debarred in June 2006 for allegations of bribery

Advancing crime scene computer forensics techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hosmer, Chet; Feldman, John; Giordano, Joe

1999-02-01

Computers and network technology have become inexpensive and powerful tools that can be applied to a wide range of criminal activity. Computers have changed the world's view of evidence because computers are used more and more as tools in committing `traditional crimes' such as embezzlements, thefts, extortion and murder. This paper will focus on reviewing the current state-of-the-art of the data recovery and evidence construction tools used in both the field and laboratory for prosection purposes.

[Extramural research funds and penal law--status of legislation].

PubMed

Ulsenheimer, Klaus

2005-04-01

After decades of smooth functioning, the cooperation of physicians and hospitals with the industry (much desired from the side of the government in the interest of clinical research) has fallen in legal discredit due to increasingly frequent criminal inquires and proceedings for unduly privileges, corruption, and embezzlement. The discredit is so severe that the industry funding for clinical research is diverted abroad to an increasing extent. The legal elements of embezzlement assume the intentional violation of the entrusted funds against the interest of the customer. Undue privileges occur when an official requests an advantage in exchange for a service (or is promised one or takes one) in his or somebody else's interest. The elements of corruption are then given when the receiver of the undue privilege provides an illegal service or takes a discretionary decision under the influence of the gratuity. The tension between the prohibition of undue privileges (as regulated by the penal law) and the granting of extramural funds (as regulated by the administrative law in academic institutions) can be reduced through a high degree of transparency and the start of control possibilities--public announcement and authorization by the officials--as well as through exact documentation and observance of the principles of separation of interests and moderation. With the anti-corruption law of 1997, it is possible to charge of corruption also physicians employed in private institutions. In contrast, physicians in private practice are not considered in the above criminal facts. They can only be charged of misdemeanor, or called to respond to the professional board, on the basis of the law that regulates advertising for medicinal products (Heilmittelwerbegesetz).

78 FR 53168 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Reinstatement, Without Change, of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-28

...The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This information collection relates to NCUA rules and regulations, which require a federal credit union (FCU) to monitor its eligibility to qualify for a higher fidelity coverage deductible and to notify the NCUA if its financial condition changes resulting in the loss of that eligibility for the higher deductible. This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. This requirement enables NCUA to monitor the FCU's financial condition for safety and soundness purposes and helps to assure that FCUs are properly and adequately protected against potential losses due to insider abuse such as fraud and embezzlement.

Spy the Lie: Detecting Malicious Insiders

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Noonan, Christine F.

Insider threat is a hard problem. There is no ground truth, there are innumerable variables, and the data is sparse. The types of crimes and abuses associated with insider threats are significant; the most serious include espionage, sabotage, terrorism, embezzlement, extortion, bribery, and corruption. Malicious activities include an even broader range of exploits, such as negligent use of classified data, fraud, cybercrime, unauthorized access to sensitive information, and illicit communications with unauthorized recipients. Inadvertent action or inaction without malicious intent (e.g., disposing of sensitive documents incorrectly) can also cause harm to an organization. This review article will explore insider threat,more » specifically behaviors, beliefs, and current debates within the field. Additionally particular focus is given to deception, a significant behavioral component of the malicious insider. Finally, research and policy implications for law enforcement and the intelligence community are addressed.« less

78 FR 43231 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Reinstatement, Without Change, of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-19

...The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection relates to 12 CFR part 713 which requires a federal credit union (FCU) to monitor its eligibility to qualify for a higher fidelity coverage deductible and to notify the NCUA if its financial condition changes resulting in the loss of that eligibility for the higher deductible. This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. This requirement enables NCUA to monitor the FCU's financial condition for safety and soundness purposes and helps to assure that FCUs are properly and adequately protected against potential losses due to insider abuse such as fraud and embezzlement.

[Social and legal problems in the so-called poriomania, with special reference to desertion and AWOL].

PubMed

Dieckhöfer, K; Vogel, T

1974-01-01

Following a synopsis of the main bibliography and a number of own cases it could be pointed out that the so-called poriomania is accompanied with punishable acts in about one-third of all cases. An analysis of the different delicts yielded as result a clear preponderance of larcency of money, fraud and embezzlement - in comparison with desertion and absence without official leave. Only 20% of all cases with punishable acts were denounced. In former times, up to the first world war, about a percentage of 74 of all criminal cases in connection with poriomania was exonerated on the erroneous assumption that the behaviour of the so-called poriomania would be caused by epilepsy. About one third of all persons with poriomania are feebleminded. There is a high inclination to fraud, pseudologia, abuse of alcohol and prostitution. An enlarged inclination (15%) to suicide is also remarkable. A familiar accumulation of poriomania does not justify the supposition of an endogenous factor. Therefore criminal acts in connection with poriomania connot be exonerated. The personality of men with poriomania is characterised by unsteadiness, unstableness and velleity.

U. S. statutes of general interest to safeguards and security officers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cadwell, J.J.

1988-01-01

A handbook of enforcement provisions of Federal law and regulations was prepared for use by U.S. DOE Security Inspectors. This handbook provides security inspectors for the U.S. Department of Energy, security officers at Nuclear Regulatory Licensee facilities, and others with a single document containing most of the Federal law provisions available to assist them in enforcing agency regulations. The handbook contains selected enforcement provisions of Titles 18, 42 and 50 of the United States Code (USC). Topical coverage of Title 18 includes Espionage and Misrepresentation or Impersonation; Theft and Embezzlement; Malicious Mischief; Conspiracy; Search and Seizure. A miscellaneous section dealsmore » with explosives, blackmail, firearms, and other subjects. Certain enforcement sections of Title 42 of the USC (The Atomic Energy Act) and of the Internal Security Act of the United States Code (Title 50) are also provided. Finally, relevant parts of the Federal Property Management Regulations of Title 50, Chapter 101 of the Code of Federal Regulations are presented. A comprehensive index is provided based on key words.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hayden, Patrick; Winter, Andreas; Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB

We study the amount of communication needed for two parties to transform some given joint pure state into another one, either exactly or with some fidelity. Specifically, we present a method to lower bound this communication cost even when the amount of entanglement does not increase. Moreover, the bound applies even if the initial state is supplemented with unlimited entanglement in the form of EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) pairs and the communication is allowed to be quantum mechanical. We then apply the method to the determination of the communication cost of asymptotic entanglement concentration and dilution. While concentration is known to requiremore » no communication whatsoever, the best known protocol for dilution, discovered by H.-K. Lo and S. Popescu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1459 (1999)], requires exchange of a number of bits that is of the order of the square root of the number of EPR pairs. Here we prove a matching lower bound of the same asymptotic order, demonstrating the optimality of the Lo-Popescu protocol up to a constant factor and establishing the existence of a fundamental asymmetry between the concentration and dilution tasks. We also discuss states for which the minimal communication cost is proportional to their entanglement, such as the states recently introduced in the context of 'embezzling entanglement' (W. van Dam and P. Hayden, e-print quant-ph/0201041)« less

[Hospital pharmaceutical practice in prison].

PubMed

Harcouët, L

2010-09-01

Since 1994, hospital pharmaceutical teams have been in charge of pharmaceutical tasks in "unités de consultation et de soins ambulatoires" (UCSA), which are hospital consulting care units in French prisons. In 2008, pharmaceutical team in Parisian prisons received 6500 prescriptions and prepared 85,000 nominative bags containing drugs. Prisoners were 1.3% to receive treatments against HIV, 8.2% cardiovascular drugs, 7.2% opioid substitution treatments, and 52.9% psychoactive drugs, including 39.3% hypnotics, 40.5% anxiolytics, 11.3% antidepressants and 12.2% neuroleptics. In prison, the dichotomy between somatic and mental care is marked, attitudes of prisoners about their medicines are complex (important claims, embezzlement, etc.) and it is difficult for law defendants to maintain treatment confidentiality and to prepare prison outing in terms of health. To attenuate the heterogeneity of drug distribution systems in French prisons, we propose pharmaceutical analysis of prescriptions and nominative dispensation, computerization in UCSA in coordination with hospitals, a better contribution of prison medical and pharmaceutical staff in hospital "drug committees" and the redaction of pharmaceutical guidelines. Acting in concert with multidisciplinary medical staff in UCSA, pharmaceutical teams have to develop epidemiological studies to improve knowledge in prisoner's health and also prevention and health care in prison. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Corruption and the Other(s): Scope of Superordinate Identity Matters for Corruption Permissibility.

PubMed

Pisor, Anne C; Gurven, Michael

2015-01-01

The decision to engage in corruption-public and private corruption, nepotism, and embezzlement-is often attributed to rational actors maximizing benefits to themselves. However, the importance of reciprocal relationships in humans suggests that an actor may weigh the costs of harms of her corrupt behavior to individuals who may generate future benefits for her. We hypothesize that actors who have a larger circle of actual and potential social partners will have more individuals to consider when generating harms and will thus be less likely to find corrupt acts permissible than actors with smaller circles of valued others. Using data from the World Values Survey and European Values Study (WVS), we explore whether participants with a larger geographic identity or a greater number of group memberships (i.e. a larger scope of actual and potential social partners) are less likely to find accepting bribes permissible. We find mixed support for our hypotheses, but consistently find that WVS participants with local, country, continent, or world geographic identities are less likely to find accepting a bribe permissible than those with regional identities-that is, actors whose primary identities that encompass more than their region find corruption less permissible. We discuss the importance of considering an actor's valuation of others when modeling corruption persistence, noting that establishing scopes of positive valuation is a precursor to predicting where actors will target benefits and shunt costs.

The second laws of quantum thermodynamics.

PubMed

Brandão, Fernando; Horodecki, Michał; Ng, Nelly; Oppenheim, Jonathan; Wehner, Stephanie

2015-03-17

The second law of thermodynamics places constraints on state transformations. It applies to systems composed of many particles, however, we are seeing that one can formulate laws of thermodynamics when only a small number of particles are interacting with a heat bath. Is there a second law of thermodynamics in this regime? Here, we find that for processes which are approximately cyclic, the second law for microscopic systems takes on a different form compared to the macroscopic scale, imposing not just one constraint on state transformations, but an entire family of constraints. We find a family of free energies which generalize the traditional one, and show that they can never increase. The ordinary second law relates to one of these, with the remainder imposing additional constraints on thermodynamic transitions. We find three regimes which determine which family of second laws govern state transitions, depending on how cyclic the process is. In one regime one can cause an apparent violation of the usual second law, through a process of embezzling work from a large system which remains arbitrarily close to its original state. These second laws are relevant for small systems, and also apply to individual macroscopic systems interacting via long-range interactions. By making precise the definition of thermal operations, the laws of thermodynamics are unified in this framework, with the first law defining the class of operations, the zeroth law emerging as an equivalence relation between thermal states, and the remaining laws being monotonicity of our generalized free energies.

The second laws of quantum thermodynamics

PubMed Central

Brandão, Fernando; Horodecki, Michał; Ng, Nelly; Oppenheim, Jonathan; Wehner, Stephanie

2015-01-01

The second law of thermodynamics places constraints on state transformations. It applies to systems composed of many particles, however, we are seeing that one can formulate laws of thermodynamics when only a small number of particles are interacting with a heat bath. Is there a second law of thermodynamics in this regime? Here, we find that for processes which are approximately cyclic, the second law for microscopic systems takes on a different form compared to the macroscopic scale, imposing not just one constraint on state transformations, but an entire family of constraints. We find a family of free energies which generalize the traditional one, and show that they can never increase. The ordinary second law relates to one of these, with the remainder imposing additional constraints on thermodynamic transitions. We find three regimes which determine which family of second laws govern state transitions, depending on how cyclic the process is. In one regime one can cause an apparent violation of the usual second law, through a process of embezzling work from a large system which remains arbitrarily close to its original state. These second laws are relevant for small systems, and also apply to individual macroscopic systems interacting via long-range interactions. By making precise the definition of thermal operations, the laws of thermodynamics are unified in this framework, with the first law defining the class of operations, the zeroth law emerging as an equivalence relation between thermal states, and the remaining laws being monotonicity of our generalized free energies. PMID:25675476

The very real dangers of executive coaching.

PubMed

Berglas, Steven

2002-06-01

A personal coach to help your most promising executives reach their potential--sounds good, doesn't it? But, according to Steven Berglas, executive coaches can make a bad situation worse. Because of their backgrounds and biases, they ignore psychological problems they don't understand. Companies need to consider psychotherapeutic intervention when the symptoms plaguing an executive are stubborn or severe. Executives with issues that require more than coaching come in many shapes and sizes. Consider Rob Bernstein, an executive vice president of sales at an automotive parts distributor. According to the CEO, Bernstein had just the right touch with clients but caused personnel problems inside the company. The last straw came when Bernstein publicly humiliated a mail clerk who had interrupted a meeting to ask someone to sign for a package. At that point, the CEO assigned Tom Davis to coach Bernstein. Davis, a former corporate lawyer, worked with Bernstein for four years. But Davis only exacerbated the problem by teaching Bernstein techniques for "handling" employees--methods that were condescending at best. While Bernstein appeared to be improving, he was in fact getting worse. Bernstein's real problems went undetected, and when his boss left the company, he was picked as the successor. Soon enough, Bernstein was again in trouble, suspected of embezzlement. This time, the CEO didn't call Davis; instead, he turned to the author, a trained psychotherapist, for help. Berglas soon realized that Bernstein had a serious narcissistic personality disorder and executive coaching could not help him. As that tale and others in the article teach us, executives to be coached should at the very least first receive a psychological evaluation. And company leaders should beware that executive coaches given free rein can end up wreaking personnel havoc.

The concept of marketing in the public-private partnership in the medical system in Romania.

PubMed

Purcărea, V L; Coculescu, B I; Coculescu, E C

2014-01-01

During the transition period, the Romanian medical system, subject (like other areas) to a process of reform, had to go through a difficult path, not without obstacles (malpractice, underfunding, embezzlement scandals in the media etc.). Consequently, Romania has faced (and unfortunately still is still facing) the massive exodus of health professionals to countries where they can benefit from better working conditions and payment, and those who suffer from health care crisis are the patients. Reform means "the people in the system for the people", which requires a change of mindset within the medical staff, especially in the continuous professional development. However, to talk about the quality of the medical act requires that all those involved in the medical system should create appropriate conditions - i.e. advanced technical equipment and appropriate salaries. In addition, as underfunding is the main cause of failure in the health system, that management remains the only tool that can lead to the appropriate use of the existing resources and the quality of health services. Therefore, the idea of public-private partnership - which occurred as a challenge, especially after the EU accession - can be considered a solution designed to improve the quality and cost of health services. In other words, the cooperation of the private sector with the public authority means increasing the rigor of the medical equipment performance, fostering professional competition, and an increased attention to the patient, in a word: performance. Currently, more and more frequently, the management has studied to identify opportunities for innovation in health care services in an attempt to bring together patients and practitioners in the field by resorting to the identification of the ways they can receive health care services promptly, fairly and efficiently. Therefore, a clear and responsible design in the spirit of ethics and medical ethic will help the marketing manager solve many of the complex issues raised by the marketing activity in the field of health care.

The concept of marketing in the public-private partnership in the medical system in Romania

PubMed Central

Purcărea, VL; Coculescu, BI; Coculescu, EC

2014-01-01

During the transition period, the Romanian medical system, subject (like other areas) to a process of reform, had to go through a difficult path, not without obstacles (malpractice, underfunding, embezzlement scandals in the media etc.). Consequently, Romania has faced (and unfortunately still is still facing) the massive exodus of health professionals to countries where they can benefit from better working conditions and payment, and those who suffer from health care crisis are the patients. Reform means “the people in the system for the people”, which requires a change of mindset within the medical staff, especially in the continuous professional development. However, to talk about the quality of the medical act requires that all those involved in the medical system should create appropriate conditions – i.e. advanced technical equipment and appropriate salaries. In addition, as underfunding is the main cause of failure in the health system, that management remains the only tool that can lead to the appropriate use of the existing resources and the quality of health services. Therefore, the idea of public-private partnership – which occurred as a challenge, especially after the EU accession - can be considered a solution designed to improve the quality and cost of health services. In other words, the cooperation of the private sector with the public authority means increasing the rigor of the medical equipment performance, fostering professional competition, and an increased attention to the patient, in a word: performance. Currently, more and more frequently, the management has studied to identify opportunities for innovation in health care services in an attempt to bring together patients and practitioners in the field by resorting to the identification of the ways they can receive health care services promptly, fairly and efficiently. Therefore, a clear and responsible design in the spirit of ethics and medical ethic will help the marketing manager solve many of the complex issues raised by the marketing activity in the field of health care. PMID:25870689

[Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) in Gambling Disorder and Its Treatment].

PubMed

Moriyama, Nariakira

2016-10-01

Recently, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimated the prevalence rate of gambling disorder to be 4.8 percent of the population. This rate is outstandingly higher than other countries with prevalence rates between 0.25 and 2.0 percent. It is also estimated that no fewer than 5 million Japanese suffer from the disease. In the last two years, 100 new patients visited the author's clinic. On an average, they started gambling at the age of 19.7 years, and incurring debt at the age of 25.8 years. They first visited the clinic at an average age of 38.2 years, and the average amount they had spent on gambling up to that point was 13 million yen. Twenty percent of them had taken some legal measures to reduce their burden from debts before seeking treatment. Sixty percent of pathological gamblers exclusively played pachinko and slot machine games. Patients who did not play on such machines accounted for no less than 2 percent of cases. This is not surprising, considering the fact that Japan has nearly 4.6 million pachinko and slot machines, which account for two thirds of the total electric gaming machines in the world. Japanese legislation does not regard pachinko and slot machines as gambling, but merely as gaming. Therefore, pachinko companies have no restrictions as such to promote their market. They can advertise freely in newspapers and TV commercials. Pachinko halls are filled with lighting, sounds, and visual effects to stimulate and excite gamblers. The harmful effects of gambling disorder include depression, loss of employment and friends, marital discord, fraud, embezzlement, theft in the family, and theft from non-family members. The most helpful therapy involves attending self-help group sessions at least once a week. One of the best-known self-help groups is Gamblers Anonymous (GA); there are 162 GA groups in Japan. The author believes there should be one GA group for every city across the nation. Unfortunately, psychiatrists, who should be taking the lead in providing diagnosis and treatment, are showing little interest in gambling problems. Unless all psychiatrists develop the ability to deal with the disease effectively, there is little hope for patients and families to see a light at the end of the tunnel. It is also time for the administration to implement necessary measures instead of averting its eyes from the harsh reality and promoting publicly managed gambling. Considering the miserable situation, the administration should not lift its ban on the casino industry.

Microeconomic institutions and personnel economics for health care delivery: a formal exploration of what matters to health workers in Rwanda.

PubMed

Serneels, Pieter; Lievens, Tomas

2018-01-26

Most developing countries face important challenges regarding the quality of health care, and there is a growing consensus that health workers play a key role in this process. Our understanding as to what are the key institutional challenges in human resources, and their underlying driving forces, is more limited. A conceptual framework that structures existing insights and provides concrete directions for policymaking is also missing. To gain a bottom-up perspective, we gather qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with different levels of health workers and users of health services in rural and urban Rwanda. We conducted discussions with 48 health workers and 25 users of health services in nine different groups in 2005. We maximized within-group heterogeneity by selecting participants using specific criteria that affect health worker performance and career choice. The discussion were analysed electronically, to identify key themes and insights, and are documented with a descriptive quantitative analysis relating to the associations between quotations. The findings from this research are then revisited 10 years later making use of detailed follow-up studies that have been carried out since then. The original discussions identified both key challenges in human resources for health and driving forces of these challenges, as well as possible solutions. Two sets of issues were highlighted: those related to the size and distribution of the workforce and those related to health workers' on-the-job performance. Among the latter, four categories were identified: health workers' poor attitudes towards patients, absenteeism, corruption and embezzlement and lack of medical skills among some categories of health workers. The discussion suggest that four components constitute the deeper causal factors, which are, ranked in order of ease of malleability, incentives, monitoring arrangements, professional and workplace norms and intrinsic motivation. Three institutional innovations are identified that aim at improving performance: performance pay, community health workers and increased attention to training of health workers. Revisiting the findings from this primary research making use of later in-depth studies, the analysis demonstrates their continued relevance and usefulness. We discuss how the different factors affect the quality of care by impacting on health worker performance and labour market choices, making use of insights from economics and development studies on the role of institutions. The study results indicate that health care quality to an important degree depends on four institutional factors at the microlevel that strongly impact on health workers' performance and career choice, and which deserve more attention in applied research and policy reform. The analysis also helps to identify ways forwards, which fit well with the Ministry's most recent strategic plan.