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Objective:To analyze and explain the influences of the professional background of the directors of public hospitals on the economic operation of the hospital,and to provide research support for training compound hospital management talents and improving the relevant policies of public hospital director management.Methods:The fixed effect model was used to conduct a quantitative analysis based on the data of individual directors and hospital economic performance of public hospitals in Guangdong from 2005 to 2018.Results:Compared with hospitals whose directors without clinical medical backgrounds,the medical income,the number of admissions and medical expenditure of the hospitals whose directors with clinical medical backgrounds were lower,and turnover of bed rate was higher,the differences were statistically significant(P＜0.05).Compared with hospitals where the directors had not obtained a degree related to management and did not participate in management training,the asset-liability ratio and management cost of the hospital where the directors had obtained a degree or participated in the training were lower,and the liquidity ratio was higher,with statistical significance(P＜0.05).Conclusion:For the economic operation indicators closely related to clinical work,directors with clinical medical background have a more significant impact because of their advantages in clinical front-line learning and work experience.For the economic operation indicators closely related to asset management,administration and cost management,directors with management learning experience can better reveal and exert their advantages in applying advanced management concepts,methods and tools,and have a more significant impact.
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BackgroundThe outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, while several key epidemiological parameters of the disease remain to be clarified. This study aimed to obtain robust estimates of the incubation period, upper limit of latent period (interval between infectors exposure and infectees exposure), serial interval, time point of exposure (the day of infectees exposure to infector relative to the latters symptom onset date) and basic reproduction number (R0) of COVID-19. MethodsBetween late February and early March of 2020, the individual data of laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 were retrieved from 10728 publicly available reports released by the health authorities of and outside China and from 1790 publications identified in PubMed and CNKI. To be eligible, a report had to contain the data that allowed for estimation of at least one parameter. As relevant data mainly came from clustering cases, the clusters for which no evidence was available to establish transmission order were all excluded to ensure accuracy of estimates. Additionally, only the cases with an exposure period spanning 3 days or less were included in the estimation of parameters involving exposure date, and a simple method for determining exposure date was adopted to ensure the error of estimates be small (< 0.3 day). Depending on specific parameters, three or four of normal, lognormal, Weibull, and gamma distributions were fitted to the datasets and the results from appropriate models were presented. FindingsIn total, 1155 cases from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, Germany and Malaysia were included for the final analysis. The mean and standard deviation were 7.44 days and 4.39 days for incubation period, 2.52 days and 3.95 days for the upper limit of latent period, 6.70 days and 5.20 days for serial interval, and -0.19 day (i.e., 0.19 day before infectors symptom onset) and 3.32 days for time point of exposure. R0 was estimated to be 1.70 and 1.78 based on two different formulas. For 39 (6.64%) cases, the incubation periods were longer than 14 days. In 102 (43.78%) infector-infectee pairs, transmission occurred before infectors symptom onsets. In 27 (3.92%) infector-infectee pairs, infectees symptom onsets occurred before those of infectors. Stratified analysis showed that incubation period and serial interval were consistently longer for those with less severe disease and for those whose primary cases had less severe disease. Asymptomatic transmission was also observed. InterpretationThis study obtained robust estimates of several key epidemiological parameters of COVID-19. The findings support current practice of 14-day quarantine of persons with potential exposure, but also suggest that longer monitoring periods might be needed for selected groups. The estimates of serial interval, time point of exposure and latent period provide consistent evidence on pre-symptomatic transmission. This together with asymptomatic transmission and the generally longer incubation and serial interval of less severe cases suggests a high risk of long-term epidemic in the absence of appropriate control measures. FundingThis work received no funding from any source.