COVID-19 staycations and the implications for leisure travel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the re-emergence of staycations to the fore, as many people were forced to spend their vacations at or close to home due to travel restrictions. This phenomenon first went mainstream during the 2008 financial crisis, and has now been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated the growth and practice of staycations during the first two years of the pandemic by analyzing social media and internet search data using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling and Google Trends analytics. Key findings suggest that, while spatially close to home, people tried to achieve a psychological distance away from home. This was demonstrated by a strong global search interest in spending staycations at hotels close to home. The optimal LDA topic model produced 38 topics which were classified under four aggregate dimensions of antecedents, attributes, activities, and consequences of staycations. The findings provide useful insights to managers and policymakers on boosting revenue through this practice, and the role of staycations in promoting leisure activities close to home and sustainable tourism.

#CoronavirusCruise: Impact and implications of the COVID-19 outbreaks on the perception of cruise tourism.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Diamond Princess became the center of the largest outbreak outside the original epicenter in China. This outbreak which left 712 passengers infected and 14 dead, followed by subsequent outbreaks affecting over one-third of the active ships in the cruise industry's global fleet, quickly became a crisis that captured public attention and dominated mainstream news and social media. This study investigates the perception of cruising during these outbreaks by analyzing the tweets on cruising using Natural Language Processing (NLP). The findings show a prevalent negative sentiment in most of the analyzed tweets, while the criticisms directed at the cruise industry were based on perceptions and stereotypes of the industry before the pandemic. The study provides insight into the concerns raised in these conversations and highlights the need for new business models outside the pre-pandemic mass-market model and to genuinely make cruising more environmentally friendly.

Six Sigma for workplace safety improvement: improving hazards and unsafe conditions in a metallic packaging manufacturing company.

Six Sigma has been applied as a business process improvement strategy in many companies worldwide with great results. On the other hand, workplace safety constitutes a key issue for company managers due to their responsibility. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how using Six Sigma can reduce accidents. A case study is conducted on a large European metallic packaging manufacturing company. As a result, the company presented a reduction of lost time accidents from 97 to 30 that saved a lot of time and cost. The σ value achieved was 4.24. This project shows the effectiveness of Six Sigma as an improvement tool in the human resources area, despite most of the previous Six Sigma research being focused on manufacturing aspects. The case studied can be useful either for large companies or small and medium-sized companies interested in improving safety.

Is Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Coming out on Top? A Comparison with Activity-Based Costing in the Health Field.

The cost of health is a recurrent topic that has generated much research, as it affects all of society. Both public and private agents need to know the real cost of treatments, services, and products for decision-making. This article aims to compare the use and research impact of two cost systems widely used in health: ABC and TDABC, which is an evolution of ABC. For doing so, a bibliometric review in Scopus and Medline was carried out encompassing the years 2009-2019. The results show a great increase in publications using TDABC, while publications on ABC stabilized. On the other hand, the TDABC articles presented higher research impacts in traditional and alternative metrics. Articles on TDABC are more frequently cited, published in better journals, and more visible in academic social networks. The findings suggest that scholars and practitioners should focus on TDABC rather than ABC for addressing cost in health for its simplicity, projection, and research opportunities.

Improving healthcare performance through Activity-Based Costing and Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing.

Improving healthcare performance has become a need for resource optimisation in a field where they are scarce. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) has been applied for more than 30 years to allocate costs and provide information for decision-making. This paper seeks to review previous literature in the health field that analysed this cost system and its new version, TDABC (Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing). Five hundred ninety articles published from 1989 to 2019 were retrieved from Scopus and Medline. The review includes descriptive, relational and content analyses. Results show that the interest in applying these cost systems is growing, especially in journals focusing on the financial aspects of health, policy and planning, and radiology. However, there is a difference in the application of ABC and TDABC. ABC is more related to efficiency and more used in laboratories. In contrast, TDABC is primarily used in hospitals and addressing the value of health rather than cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, the findings suggest that TDABC present greater opportunities for publication compared with ABC. Its progression is higher and gets more citations. The current article contributes to broadening the field's vision and encourages authors for further research.

Six Sigma in Health Literature, What Matters?

Six Sigma has been widely used in the health field for process or quality improvement, constituting a quite profusely investigated topic. This paper aims at exploring why some studies have more academic and societal impact, attracting more attention from academics and health professionals. Academic and societal impact was addressed using traditional academic metrics and alternative metrics, often known as altmetrics. We conducted a systematic search following the PRISMA statement through three well-known databases, and identified 212 papers published during 1998-2019. We conducted zero-inflated negative binomial regressions to explore the influence of bibliometric and content determinants on traditional academic and alternative metrics. We observe that the factors influencing alternative metrics are more varied and difficult to apprehend than those explaining traditional impact metrics. We also conclude that, independently of how the impact is measured, the paper's content, rather than bibliometric characteristics, better explains its impact. In the specific case of research on Six Sigma applied to health, the papers with more impact address process improvement focusing on time and waste reduction. This study sheds light on the aspects that better explain publications' impact in the field of Six Sigma application in health, either from an academic or a societal point of view.

Quality improvement in healthcare: Six Sigma systematic review.

Six Sigma has been widely used in the healthcare sector as a management tool to improve patient quality and safety. The objective of this study is to identify opportunities for its implementation through literature analysis. A literature review has been carried out since the first publication of Six Sigma in the sector appeared until 2017, 20 years in all. To this end, it has been used three databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science (Core Collection) and Scopus. Accordance with the 196 articles of our database, it is found that: (1) Six Sigma publications in healthcare sector have been carried out mostly in the USA, (2) multiple specialities and services have used this tool, among them, we can emphasize the operating room and radiology service, (3) the case study has been the most used methodology and, (4) the objectives are focused mainly on achieving reductions of time, costs and errors, for the improvement of the quality and the satisfaction of the patients. This review seeks to serve healthcare professionals to know the benefits that Six Sigma can generate in processes that take place in a health center, hospital or other organizations in the sector.

Costes de las terapias de las enfermedades neurodegenerativas: aplicación de un sistema de costes basado en las actividades / Cost of therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. Applying an activity-based costing system

Objetivo: Aplicar el modelo de costes basado en las actividades (ABC) para calcular el coste de las terapias de las enfermedades neurodegenerativas, información que debería ser un instrumento para mejorar la gestión del hospital y conseguir una asignación de recursos más eficiente. Métodos: Se utilizó el método del estudio de casos (tomando como caso estudiado el hospital de día del Centro Sociosanitario Francolí). Se aplicaron todas las fases de un sistema ABC. Se identificaron 60 actividades y se trató la información correspondiente al mes de junio de 2009 para determinar el coste de las terapias aplicadas en dicho centro. Resultados: El sistema ABC permite realizar un cálculo promedio del coste por paciente vinculado a las terapias que se le aplican. Para el caso analizado, la terapia de psicoestimulación es la más costosa y, al mismo tiempo, la más aplicada. Incidir en ella y en las actividades relacionadas con el proceso de ingreso podría comportar un ahorro importante de recursos. Conclusión: La aplicación del sistema ABC para el cálculo de costes se adapta a la estructura de los centros sanitarios y al funcionamiento basado en protocolos de actuación. Permite determinar costes de cada actividad y terapia, o combinación de terapias, y facilita las actuaciones para mejorar la gestión (AU)

Objective: To apply the activity based costing (ABC) model to calculate the cost of therapy for neurodegenerative disorders in order to improve hospital management and allocate resources more efficiently. Method: We used the case study method in the Francolí long-term care day center. We applied all phases of an ABC system to quantify the cost of the activities developed in the center. We identified 60 activities; the information was collected in June 2009. Results: The ABC system allowed us to calculate the average cost per patient with respect to the therapies received. The most costly and commonly applied technique was psycho-stimulation therapy. Focusing on this therapy and on others related to the admissions process could lead to significant cost savings. Conclusions: ABC costing is a viable method for costing activities and therapies in long-term day care centers because it can be adapted to their structure and standard practice. This type of costing allows the costs of each activity and therapy, or combination of therapies, to be determined and aids measures to improve management (AU)

[Cost of therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. Applying an activity-based costing system]. / Costes de las terapias de las enfermedades neurodegenerativas: aplicación de un sistema de costes basado en las actividades.

OBJECTIVE: To apply the activity based costing (ABC) model to calculate the cost of therapy for neurodegenerative disorders in order to improve hospital management and allocate resources more efficiently. METHOD: We used the case study method in the Francolí long-term care day center. We applied all phases of an ABC system to quantify the cost of the activities developed in the center. We identified 60 activities; the information was collected in June 2009. RESULTS: The ABC system allowed us to calculate the average cost per patient with respect to the therapies received. The most costly and commonly applied technique was psycho-stimulation therapy. Focusing on this therapy and on others related to the admissions process could lead to significant cost savings. CONCLUSIONS: ABC costing is a viable method for costing activities and therapies in long-term day care centers because it can be adapted to their structure and standard practice. This type of costing allows the costs of each activity and therapy, or combination of therapies, to be determined and aids measures to improve management.