Linking hospital security to customer service: making the case for 'world class' security.

The reluctance of many hospitals today to invest money and resources into security and safety while at the same time promoting customer good will is a fallacy that has to be corrected, according to the author. He demonstrates how high customer satisfaction scores, as well as regulatory compliance, can only be achieved if a hospital takes the steps necessary to provide adequate safety and security to patients, visitors, physicians and to all who come to the hospital.

Dynamic model of time-dependent complex networks.

The characterization of the "most connected" nodes in static or slowly evolving complex networks has helped in understanding and predicting the behavior of social, biological, and technological networked systems, including their robustness against failures, vulnerability to deliberate attacks, and diffusion properties. However, recent empirical research of large dynamic networks (characterized by irregular connections that evolve rapidly) has demonstrated that there is little continuity in degree centrality of nodes over time, even when their degree distributions follow a power law. This unexpected dynamic centrality suggests that the connections in these systems are not driven by preferential attachment or other known mechanisms. We present an approach to explain real-world dynamic networks and qualitatively reproduce these dynamic centrality phenomena. This approach is based on a dynamic preferential attachment mechanism, which exhibits a sharp transition from a base pure random walk scheme.

Implementing and securing a tobacco free campus.

Predictions are that the time is not far off when hospitals will be completely tobacco free, removing smoking kiosks and abolishing designated smoking areas. Achieving this goal will not be easy and will require support from the top down, dedicated program participants, and well-formulated plans and their implementation, according to the author, who describes the experiences of a medical center in a major tobacco producing state in becoming tobacco free.

Granular clustering in a hydrodynamic simulation.

We examine the hydrodynamics of a granular gas using numerical simulation. We demonstrate the appearance of shearing and clustering instabilities predicted by linear stability analysis, and show that their appearance is directly related to the inelasticity of collisions in the material. We discuss the rate at which these instabilities arise and the manner in which clusters grow and merge.

Performance improvement in the JCAHO environment of care.

Using security management to demonstrate performance improvement for JCAHO can be a viable option. The article illustrates how a program for reducing theft became the basis for demonstrating performance improvement.