Scripting a holistic Rx for process improvement at Palmetto Health imaging centers
Constrained by the technical nature of patient treatment, the special physician-patient relationship, and the general lack of broader perspectives of performance improvement, the health-care sector has generally lagged behind the manufacturing industry and other service sectors, such as banking, in the systematic application of process-improvement approaches. This article details a systemwide project to improve Palmetto Health Richland's network of imaging centers in the Columbia, South Carolina, metropolitan area. Begun as a narrowly focused, internal process-improvement project, it concluded with strategic decisions affecting the hospital's marketing and capacity management. The lessons from this case should alert hospital administrators and process-improvement specialists about the critical importance of identifying the correct goals and scope of a specific project; listening to the voice of the customer, the business, the process, and the resources; encouraging fact-based solutions through holistic and creative thinking; and using the right analytic tools to gauge and ensure real performance improvements. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cottage industry to postindustrial care--the revolution in health care delivery.
U.S. health care is broken. Although other industries have transformed themselves using tools such as standardization of value-generating processes, performance measurement, and transparent reporting of quality, the application of these tools to health care is controversial, evoking fears of “cookbook medicine,” loss of professional autonomy, a misinformed focus on the wrong care, or a loss of individual attention and the personal touch in care delivery. We believe that public reporting of performance with regard to appropriately designed clinical standards can overcome these concerns. The application of improvement tools is not only essential to modernizing care delivery but also the key . . .
Haemopoietic activity and effect of crude fruit extract of phoenix dactylifera on peripheral blood parameters.
Aim: Phoenix dactylifera (date palm), has been reported to posses a variety of pharmacological activities which indicate its usefulness in various kinds of diseases and disorders. The present study was aimed at investigating the haemopoietic activity of crude fruit extract of Phoenix dactylifera (P. dactylifera) and its effect on peripheral blood parameters. 
Method: Fifty (50) Wistar rats weighing 100 to 200 grams and aged 2 to 3 months obtained from the Animal House of College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus were acclimatized for two weeks. They were divided into 10 groups of 5 rats per group labeled A1 ,A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1 and E2. The first 5 groups were orally administered with graded doses of the crude Aqueous Extract of P. Dactylifera (AEPD) (A1=0.4, B1=0.1, C1=0.52, D1=0.90 mg/kg body weight and E1 [control]= 0.24ml Dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) while the second 5 groups were orally administered with graded doses of the crude Methanolic Extract of P. Dactylifera (MEPD) (A2=0.4, B2=0.1, C2=0.52, D2=0.90 mg/kg body weight and E2[control]=0.24ml DMSO). The administrations were once daily for 112 days. On Day 113, 2.5ml of blood samples were collected from each rat through the retro bulbar plexus of the median canthus of the eye into tri-potassium- Ethylenediamine tetracetic acid (K3-EDTA) anticoagulant container and bone marrow was also collected for the analysis using stantard operative procedure. 
Results: The results revealed dosage dependent significant increase in Absolute values, Red Blood Cell (RBC), Haemoglobin (Hb), Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Reticulocytes and Platelet count in both aqueous and methanolic extract when compared with the controls (p 0.05). 
Conclusion: The observed changes in this study has demonstrated that P. Dactylifera has haemopoietic effect when orally administered in Wistar rats.