Community assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community assessment - Assignment Example Approximately 79% of the learners in the Kingsbridge Heights schools qualify from the state funded or free lunch program. Majority of the schools are good; this is because they realize the Adequate Yearly Progress performance level, which is determined by the New York State Department of Education. The individual school report card for all the schools in the Kingsbridge are illustrated in the education website, http://schools.nyc.gov/daa. The Fellows, who work in the Kingsbridge schools, live within the neighborhoods of entire West and South Bronx, Inwood region of Manhattan, and the upper east and west areas of Manhattan. There are five high schools in the Kingsbridge area. These schools are; Bronx High School of Science, De Witt Clinton High School, High School for Teaching and the Professions, Bronx high School of Music and Discovery High School. Bronx High School of Science has a learners and Fellows population of population of 335 and 8 respectively. The proportion of students who qualify for the free lunch program is 22.4%. De Witt Clinton High School has population of 2,502 and 27 Fellows. 90.8% of the students qualify for the free lunch program; thus majority of learners come from poor backgrounds (Banchero, 2013). High School for Teaching and the professions has the highest student population at 4,410, and the fellows number only 8. The education standards at the school are relatively low because of the overworked teaching staffs. 74.5% of the learners benefit from the free lunch program.364 students learn at Bronx High School of Music, which has a teaching staff numbering 4, and eligibility for free lunch program at 74.5%. Discovery High School has a population of 540, and the teacher number is 9. 25.6% of the students are eligible for the free lunch program. The only secondary school in the region is Walton High School that has 1,067 students and 6 Fellows. 81.2% of the

Evans, Wittkower, Norman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Evans, Wittkower, Norman - Essay Example When you think about it, it is clear in one sense that we have emotional relationships with the things that we use on a regular basis, and which allow us to do our work and to connect with the people we love, or else allow us to do the things that we love doing. For instance, people have emotional connections with their cars and their bicycles, and this is something that advertisers understand so well. When companies market cars, for instance, there is the explicit connection that advertisers try to establish between the car as the product itself, and the way the car represents a range of emotions and relationships with people dear to car buyers. A family sedan advertised, for instance, would highlight the fun and happy things that families can do with the family sedan. The better the emotional connection made between the potential buyer and the car, the higher the prospects of buyers becoming interested enough to give the car a try. In this case, emotions pique interest and elicit r esponse. Where there is ownership of a vehicle for instance, even a bicycle, then the emotional connection is sometimes intense. People sometimes get buried with their most favorite things, with their bicycles, with their Swiss knives, and with their cell phones. Whether the emotional connection is because of the great utility of the thing, or because of something that is designed into the thing in order to elicit hopefully positive emotional connections, it is clear that the things that people own are not just things that are devoid of emotional context. People buy and keep things on the basis of how they feel about using the things that they buy, is something that is so obvious in the way products and services are marketed, that it is absurd to overlook just how important it is to listen to Don Norman talk about imputing emotional characteristics in to the very design of products. It is clear too, from the work ethic and philosophy of the man, that the ability to elicit an emotion al response is a core tenet of his design philosophy (Norman, 2012; Norman, 2012b): My field is Human-Centered Design: making products that people can use, that fit their needs, that excite them and are enjoyable. The United States leads the world in human-centered design. This is true in all domains: computer and cellphone applications, industrial equipment, work tools for professionals, and of course home and consumer electronics. It is not an accident that the entire world relies on our operating systems: Apple, Google, and Microsoft for phones; Apple and Microsoft for computers (Norman, 2012) To put it another way, it makes perfect sense that Norman asserts that it is good design to impute emotional considerations when undertaking the design of products, while also making sure that the most important product attributes as perceived by the consumer are met. For instance, imputing emotional inputs into smart phone design does not mean always that the designs include smileys at the back plates of the phones. It does mean that where the functionalities, the necessary technologies, and such product attributes as sturdiness and reliability are met, then other aspects of design, such as colors and aesthetics, can then impute more ineffable emotional characteristics. Looking at cell phones and computers, for instance, the very robustness of the technology and the excellence of certain products in terms of reliability and build quality are themselves wellsprings of positive emotions for the buyer. Those are positive emotions brought about by the excellence of the engineering. On the other hand, where the design also imputes thoughtful ergonomics and tasteful, positive colors explicitly, to induce certain positive emotions, then those are the design elements that help establish the added pull for a positive relationship between the cell phone

Sustainable Energy For Buildings Construction Essay

Sustainable Energy For Buildings Construction Essay The above marking profile is for guidance only and is not indicative of your final mark. The minimum aggregate mark for a pass on an MSc module is 50, subject to passing each assessed component with a mark above a threshold of 40%. (3) Coursework submitted after the due deadline is deemed late and is subject to a mark of 0% unless an extension to deadline has been approved by your Course Leader. If an extension has been granted, the pink copy of the completed Extension to Deadline form should be stapled to the work when submitted. If no extension has been granted, the tutor assessing the work will insert a grade of 0% and, for information, indicate the true merit of the assignment. (4) If appropriate, mitigating circumstances should be submitted in writing on the appropriate form with documented evidence to the Course Leader for consideration at the MSc/MEng Examination Boards Charikleia Chelmi, student no: 12835450 Date: 14 November 2012 Subject: Energy demand and supply. 1. Introduction For thousands of years, buildings were designed based on the climate of the area and the physical and social environment (Roaf, Fuentes and Thomas, 2007). The provision of comfort for the dwellers is one of the most important functions of a building; as a result, there is a range of building types and the demand of energy depends on the occupants needs and the activities taking place there (Douglas, 2011). This report is produced in order to present the design of a low carbon building inhabited by a couple. The objectives of the project are to design a low carbon house in a central location of Brighton and Hove, considering the climate and the location, using low carbon construction materials and energy efficient technologies. The potentials for low carbon buildings in the city of Brighton and issues of energy demand and supply for this type of buildings will also be mentioned taking into consideration that over 27 % of the UKs CO2 emissions come from the residential sector. The project is based on information provided by books, case studies, tutorials, television programs and websites. Visits to other low carbon houses and informal interviews with the residents also helped to follow the best practice for the project. 1.1. Climate and background information The low carbon house project is located in the southeast side of the Grand Parade campus of the University of Brighton. The project is about a two-storey house. Since the purpose of making an energy efficient house is its appropriate orientation, the windows of the most habitable room should be located at the south side of the house. A south facing roof will also receive the highest amount of solar radiation (Pitts and Lanchashire, 2011). The surrounding buildings, trees and other types of vegetation will minimize the effects of wind. The weather in Brighton is warmer that in other cities of UK with mild winters and warm summers. The range of average monthly temperatures is 12.5  °C, the highest mean temperatures are observed in July and August (20 °C) and the lowest in February (2 °C). There are around 4.8 sunshine hours per day and 1766 sunshine hours per year. The monthly and annual mean precipitation appears to be 67 mm and 801 mm respectively (Climate and temperature, 2012). 2. Building design, construction and performance specifications The construction of a low carbon building requires us to make a choice of natural, locally sourced with low embodied energy materials. The construction of the building will be carried out using local sources with timber to be the main construction material. According to Pitts and Lanchashire (2011), timber frame is a very good method for construction due to the low embodied energy of timber-products. The house will be constructed using ModCell system (McCloud, 2008). The structure will consist of timber framed wall panels infilled with straw bales. The size of panels will be 3m high x 3.2m wide and 480 mm thick. The straw bales will be packed tightly inside the timber wall frames, plastered on both sides using lime render and finally dried (Tickle, 2010). The final product will be straw panels. The straw bales result in highly insulated walls and have low embodied energy. When plastered, they are airtight and fireproof; in addition lime plasters offer high thermal mass (Jones, 2009). The thermal performance profiles are easily defined when knowing the insulation value of a material. This value is commonly known as the U-value. The lower the U-value, the better thermal performance the house displays (Shomera House Extensions, 2012). ModCell indicates that the U-value for a 480mm straw panel lies between 0.13 and 0.19 W/m2K and the U-value for solid timber frame is 0.134 W/m2K. Pitts and Lanchashire (2011) describe the wooden floor as the ideal place to locate thermal mass because solar radiation strikes it. The structure will consist of timber suspended ground floor suitable for underfloor heating and high insulation. A pitched roof consisting of a pair of rafters formed into a truss, covered then by oak shingles will complete the structure. The rafters will be around 225mm deep and the roof will be insulated using wool and a breathable membrane below. Oak singles are natural materials that do not need a waterproof membrane under them; in addition they match well with straw bale walls (Jones, 2009). The U-value for a timber roof is from 0.15 to 0.10 W/m2K. The roof will slope towards the south and solar panels and collectors will be placed on it. There will also be rooflights to take advantage of natural daylight. Windows influence heat loss, ventilation heat loss, solar heat gain and natural light representing an additional component to think about. A view, expressed by ModCell is that U-values for both glazing and frame of windows should not exceed 0.8 W/m2K. The building will have double glazed windows with a high-solar gain low-emissivity glass with argon-gas fill. The estimated U-Value is 0.30 W/m2K (Efficient Windows Collaborative, 2012). Large south-facing windows will be preferably constructed and timber window frames will reduce thermal bridging. A fine-control slot ventilator will also be established. 3. Monthly energy demand profiles MacDonald (2012, p.45) defines energy demand profile as the pattern of energy use in a building, which varies during the day and over the year. Energy is used in several ways in buildings. According to Douglas (2011), the greatest amount of energy used in British residencies is for space and water heating. Space heating covers more than the half of the energy consumption in a British house. Water heating reaches a percentage of 24% while the energy rate used for cooking and lighting is 3%. A significant amount of the energy used in a house is in the form of electricity which powers electrical appliances and is finally converted into heat. Low carbon buildings aim at low carbon emissions. MacDonald (2012) claims that the measures that occupants have to take in order to achieve the best energy performance specifications are the following: To reduce the energy demand That means that occupants should reduce the consumption of energy and carbon emissions. The house will be appropriately orientated in order to get the best thermal and energy achievements that passive solar heating and passive design features can provide. To use energy in an efficient way The building fabric efficiency plays an important role as the houses components are made of materials of high thermal performance. Precise use and management of high efficiency building services result in suitable energy consumption, as well. To supply energy needs establishing renewable energy sources A great amount of the needed electricity will be provided by renewable energy technologies so that fossil fuels can be limited. The couple, who is out of the house most of the day, is estimated to consume around 7.500 kWh per year. The tenants are estimated to consume the highest amount of electricity, for powering appliances or for lighting early in the morning, during the evening and weekend. From November to February the demand for space and water heating is expected to be much higher than in spring and summer. However, energy requirements are expected to be less due to the houses design, the good insulation and airtightness (0.86m3/hr.m2 @ 50 Pa) (ModCell, 2012). 4. Suitable renewable energy sources and their supply profiles The house will be equipped with the following renewable technologies: Solar thermal glazed flat-plate collectors for water heating. The system will be placed on south facing roof mounted on a slope of between 30 and 40 degrees to the horizontal. It will approximately collect from 1000 to 1300 kWh per year meeting about 50% of annual domestic hot water demand. The average monthly output for the collector is estimated to be: 20kWh in December and January, 45kWh in February, 80kWh in March, 105 kWh in April, 125 kWh in May, 150 kWh in June, 160 kWh in July, 115 kWh in August, 95 kWh in September, 60 kWh in October and 30 kWh in November. There is a back-up boiler to support the solar thermal hot water system, during the periods of low solar radiation. Roof mounted photovoltaic array The southerly facing1.85 kWp PV array will be installed at an angle of 35à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ° and will generate around 1.700 kWh per year. Specifically, the average monthly electricity production of this system is expected to be: 40 kWh in December, in 50 kWh January, 80 kWh in February, 125 kWh in March, 180 kWh in April, 210 kWh in May and June, 220 kWh in July, 200 kWh in August, 150 kWh in September, 105 kWh in October and 65 kWh in November. During periods of low electricity demand, the overplus electricity generation will be exported to the grid. As a consequence, occupants will use grid electricity at night or on cloudy days (Solar Trade Association, 2012). 14 k W floor mounted air source heat pump. It will supply underfloor heating, with radiators elsewhere. The seasonal COP will be approximately 2.6. The electricity that PV generates can be used to power and support the pump. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system. It will provide very good quality of indoor air and reach the greatest space heating efficiency (Welsh Government, 2012). 5. Discussion and conclusion The energy balance is based on the proportion of energy that enters the house and is stored and the proportion of energy that exits the house. Feist (2009) states that: the sum of the losses equals the sum of the gains. Heat losses are the fabric heat losses through walls, doors, windows and roof and the natural ventilation heat losses. Passive solar gains and heat from electrical supplies and activities are the heat gains. His calculation shows that the annual energy balance of a passive house is 130kWh / (m2a). The low carbon building in the Grand Parade will be constructed with the use of local and environmental friendly materials and renewable energy systems. The suitable specifications of the components and the supply profiles of the selected technologies aim at an energy efficient house with low carbon emissions during its lifetime. However, weather conditions can be unpredictable; as a result, energy deficiency can be a problem which can be solved with the use of conventional forms of energy. The U.K. government aims at a 60 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. This goal makes the construction of low carbon buildings a necessary strategy that Brighton and Hove City Council must follow. 6. References Andrews, K., 2009. UKs first Straw Bale Holiday Home by Carol Atkinson. Inhabitant, [blog], 25 February. Available at: http://inhabitat.com/yorkshire-straw-bale-cabin-by-carol-atkinson/ [Accessed 28 October 2012]. Climatemp.com, 2012. Climate and temperatures. [Online] Available at: http://www.brighton.climatemps.com [Accessed 27 October 2012]. Douglas, H., 2012. A guide to energy management in building. New York: Spon Press. Efficient Windows Collaborative, 2012. Windows technologies: Low -E coatings. [Online] Available at: http://www.efficientwindows.org/lowe.cfm [Accessed 16 October 2012]. ESRU, 2012. Urban solar water heating. [Online] Available at: http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/01-02/RE_info/active_urban.htm [Accessed 9 November 2012). Feist, W., 2009. Using Energy balances to meet energy efficiency. [Online] Available at: http://www.passivhaustagung.de/Passive_House_E/energybalance.html# [Accessed 30 October 2012]. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt. 1. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt. 2. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt.3. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt.4. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt. 5. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Grand designs live The house that Kevin built; Pt. 6. 2008 [DVD] U.K.: Talkback Thames. Jones, B., 2009. Building with Straw Bales. 2nd ed. Devon: Green Books. MacDonald, M., 2012. Practice Guidance: Renewable and Low Carbon Energy in Buildings, Welsh Government, Wales Planning Policy Development Programme. [Online] Available at: http://www.ihsti.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/tempimg/2DCC707-CIS888614800301505.pdf [Accessed 25 October 2012]. Modcell, 2012. Helping you build a more suitable future. [Online] Available at: http://www.modcell.com [Accessed at 14 October 2012]. Pitts, C. G. and Lancashire, R., 2011. Low-energy timber frame buildings. 2nd ed. Buckinghamshire: TRADA Technology Ltd. Roaf, S., Fuentes, M. and Thomas, S., 2007. Ecohouse: a design guide. 3rd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Shomera House Extensions, 2012. Thermal performance in buildings. [Online] Available at: http://www.shomera.ie/thermal-performance-in-buildings [Accessed at 27 October 2012]. Solar Trade Association, 2012. Solar electricity (photovoltaic). [Online] Available at: http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/solarHeating/photovoltaics.cfm [Accessed at 31 October 2012]. Tickle, L., 2010. Is straw the building material of the future? The Guardian Online, [Online] 13 July. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/13/straw-houses-balehaus-bre [Accessed 25 October 2012]. Welsh Government, 2012. Welch Future Home, case, Cardiff: Welsh Government. [Online] Available at: http://www.ihsti.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/tempimg/3A6AAA5-CIS888614800301508.pdf [Accessed October 2012]. Welsh Government, 2012. Greenwatt way, case, Cardiff: Welsh Government. [Online] Available at: http://www.ihsti.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/tempimg/3A6AAA5-CIS888614800301509.pdf [Accessed 15 October 2012]. Welsh Government, 2012. Mendip place, case, Cardiff: Welsh Government. [Online] Available at: http://www.ihsti.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/tempimg/3A6AAA5-CIS888614800301513.pdf [Accessed 15 October 2012]. The eco experts, 2012. Solar PV panels. [Online] Available at: http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-pv [Accessed at 29 October 2012].

Case Analysis of Sutton Health

CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 1 Case Analysis of Sutter Health CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 2 Sutter Health is a non-profit network that is made up by community-based health care providers based in Northern California. This network introduced an interface that was aimed at enhancing revenue collection of the facilities from the self-pay patient.This network identified that traditional payment processing system had limitations that hindered the effective collecting of revenue. What with the recession, healthcare organizations have seen an increase in the inability to collect debt from the self-pay, the uninsured and underinsured patients. This has caused a lot of struggle when it comes to the organizations to meet the operational margins and the profits.I find there are a number of reasons for the new increase in patient’s debts, the most common are, poor accounting practices, lack of patient information and correct demographics. There is new governance that is designed to p rovide more coordinated care to said patients (Gleeson,2010). There are five geographic regions that reflects the health care access to the customers of Northern California. Each of the five regions will have governance structure and it will oversee many of the Sutter affiliated medical facilities and also the hospitals. In its effort to increase point of service collections and improve the overall revenue cycle Sutter health took steps to measure performance using a handful of specific primary benchmarks, empowering PFS staff to assume responsibility for every individual account they handle, ensure each registration is analyzed using a rules engine to identify problems before patients leave the registration desk and ensure PFS staff receive appropriate comprehensive training to excel under the new system† (Souza, McCarty, 2007).Obtaining the correct patient information plays a large part on non-collectable debt because patients are not able to be reached. These limitations we re associated with limited access to accurate information by the account representatives, ineffective performance measures and fragmented centers of the service provision. The Sutter Health program developed a system that was comprised of solutions that were geared towards overcoming these limitations. I will be CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 3 discussing the new system that was created by Sutter Health.The key problems and issues, is that the United States healthcare system is characterized by huge upkeep from collecting revenue from patients. This situation is brought about by a health care insurance system which entails high deductible pay health plans and as well as higher co-payments plan. (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This situation has been made worse through the large proportion of the population not having healthcare coverage. The traditional health care system has had a hard time meeting their target revenue collection.This is due to several problems that attached along with the traditional payment system. Unlike when dealing with the payments through insurance claims but also dealing with the up-front payments that are required by the hospital for payment of services before the patient could even receive the service (Souza, Mccarty, 2007). So this means that the patient services staff (PFS) has to have complete and accurate information about above said client. This presented a problem for the traditional payment system where much of the customer payment system was processed in the back end.This system also required that the PFS staff ask for money from self-pay patients, but the PFS were not accustomed to this under the traditional system. The PFS staff found it hard to wait for the back end section to process customer information and to provide a breakdown of the patients payment details. So this became a tedious task for hospital accounting departments as well as for patients that had to wait a longer period before receiving services. The inefficiency o f the traditional system not only resulted in low quality services, but also in low revenue collections.The system provides such a broad range of health care services, which include acute, sub- acute, home health, long term, outpatient care as well as physician delivery systems. These services are provided through an integrated health care delivery approach that gives the system the ability to deliver a full range of healthcare products and services. CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 4 Sutter also identified that PFS staff could not get ahold of real time information in operational and financial indicators such as cash collections and A/R (Souza, McCarty, 2007).So in the long run this meant that the managers and staff had to wait until the end of the month in order to identify the benchmarks. Sutter also recognized that the traditional system did not provide a means for analyzing selected data nor did it generate required detailed report on demand. This led to more cost as the hospital had to rely on programmers to generate such reports. The front desk staff also lacked real time information which hindered their ability to serve the client without consulting the back end staff.It also meant that the front desk staff could not monitor the patients progress (Souza, McCarty, 2007). Another challenge was that the PFS members were not empowered enough to be held accountable for each patients accounts they dealt with and it reduced the amount of accountability among the staff. These are some of the key challenges that the Sutter system were meant to address. The solutions that were employed by Sutter Health was an attempt to overcome the challenges stated above. Sutter Health implemented certain changes in the fore mentioned system that would make their operation more efficient.The strategies identified by the Sutter program entailed transferring most of the back end tasking to the front desk; providing accurate and complete information to managers and upfront staff; p roviding more effective performance evaluation and integrating all data elements within the system (Souza, McCarty, 2007). Allowing front desk staff to handle much of the payment process was deemed to have an effect on the efficiency of the process. Various solutions were employed to ensure that this is achieved.One of these solutions entailed using benchmarks to measure performance by the Patient Service Staff (PFS). Sutter identified a handful of primary benchmarks which included; Unbilled A/R days, Gross A/R days, Major A/R days, Cash Collection, Billed A/R days, and CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 5 percentage of A/R over 90, 180, 360 days (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This benchmark introduced shorter periods with which staff performances could be evaluated. This move was timely especially when onsidering that the industry has changed and things happen in terms of hours and days but not months. Another solution involved empowering the PFS members to have full responsibility over the a ccounts they are dealing with. This move was meant to increase a sense of responsibility and accountability as each individual members will be responsible for his or her own account (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This also gave the PFS members more autonomy to act as they saw fit and this improved the speed and efficient of service delivery by these staff members.The program also provided the PFS members with tools, that enabled them to automate their accounts, sort out their accounting using various means and seen their performances based on the achievement of the target. PFS and other accountant representatives were presented with individual dashboards that helped in the tracking of their progress in meeting targets. This also helped in enforcing the benchmarks set by this program. Sutter’s health program also introduced a front end collecting system as means of overcoming the mentioned problems.The pint of access collecting system introduced an opportunity for the health care fac ilities to reduce claims and denials. Though this system the patient records are analyzed before the patient leaves the registration desk. This enables the front desk staff to identify problems such as bad debt, patient or invalid patient type early enough and take the necessary corrective action. The Sutter health program also embarked on a comprehensive training program that was designed to support the existing PFS members and the registration staff. This gave staff the necessary competence to deal with the tools provided by this system.The training program also eliminated the need to hire formally educated staff to operate the system that would CASE ANALSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 6 demand more than the $10-$20 an hour paid to current registration and PFS staff. For example, registration staff who were not used to asking patients for money were trained in effective communication skills. The training was also designed to introduce autonomy and effectiveness which acted as a motivator to the employee.The Sutter system allows staff to act with more independence which has made them active in owning the system. Autonomy is a critical element that enables workers to work effectively and deliver the best when it comes to their ability. The efficiency of the system has also made the work of the staff easier, acting as a further motivating factor for the staff. Another solution involved getting patients on board with this program. The POS collection system is not only beneficial to hospitals but also to the health care customers as well. (Souza, McCarty, 2007).This system provides a patient friendly billings which ensures transparency in the way customers are asked to pay for health care services. The payment system that is in force in other parts, bills the patient after he or she has already received the services and has already left the hospital. However, the Sutter program introduced transparency as the patient then gets to know what the services will cost him or her b efore they receive the services. It has become evident that patients would love to know how much the care they receive will cost them and this is what the Sutter program has provided.This system also offers a simplified system of settling hospital bills thereby making things easier for customers using said hospital system, customers are usually compelled to produce a lot of records and documentations in order to have their payment processed which introduces a lot of inconveniences. There is more accounting practices that are used by Sutter in identifying and solving problems, such as Sutter was discontented with the amount of revenue being collected from the self-pay patients (Souza, McCarty, 2007).The management team understood that the self-pay CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 7 patients were capable of meeting their medical expenses and therefore the problem was in their system. Sutter then resorted to evaluate the accountability and transparency in the process involved in the coll ection of revenue. It is through this evaluation that most of the traditional system did encourage responsibility and accountability to the people handling the revenue collection. Another accounting practice that was adopted was cost reduction.Accounting principles dictate that there are two major ways for increasing the margin; increasing profits or reducing costs. After exhausting all the avenues they could use in increasing revenue, Sutter embarked on a campaign that would reduce the cost of operation. This saw the collection process being integrated into a unified system. The methods used were also cost conscious, is why they opted for comprehensive training of their existing PFS and registration staff rather than hiring specially trained professionals, who would have demanded higher pay.Another alternative would be that Sutter’s strategies focused on improving accountability and autonomy of the staff in order to enhance revenue collection. Sutter health relied on solutio ns such as setting benchmarks and the empowering of staff. What they found to work was a full cycle of the amount payable. Amount payable refers to money owed to the institution by other parties while the full cycle refers to the amount of time it takes for the patients to settle their debt. (Rauscher, Wheeler, 2008).Reducing the full cycle may help to reduce the number of bad debts that a health institution suffers from. Traditionally a patient cycle followed procedures such as organizing schedule, registration, treatment, billing and collection (Solomon, 2011). The collection part is why the health institution is able to recover the debt owed to it by the patients. This section comes along after the treatment process is concluded and therefore increases the chances for bad debt. This paper proposes a system where bills are settled on a pre-service basis.The pre-service CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 8 system will be enabled by developing a system that standardized serves to make b illing before the client receives services easier (Trans Union, 2007). A per item standardized billing is advised. This is why a standard is set for each and every hospital procedure and the patient is billed by summing up the cost of all service items he or she has utilized. In my informed opinion the approach used by Sutter Health was effective. This is because their approach was able to address the concerns raised by the network.Sutter health was concerned with the growing number of self-pay payments and the diminishing of the amount of revenue. The need to increase the amount of collecting from this section of market was the primary objective of developing this strategy. The success of every strategy is able to deliver the set goals. When it comes to Sutter Health it is estimated that revenue collection from the self-pay patients increased by an additional $78 million after the implementation of the strategy (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This is a clear indicator of the programâ€℠¢s success. One of the benefits is improved quality of care for the patient.One of the solutions identified by Sutter was bringing the health customer onboard. This system did this by factoring the customer’s needs into the system, making it customer friendly. The customer’s now spend less time processing payment while at the same time, the patient’s get to know of the cost they will incur before receiving the services. The system has also reduced the number of patients being denied treatment as a result of a streamlined inventory system. In conclusion Sutter Health is a non-profit network based in California and is made up of community based health care providers.This case discussed how Sutter developed a system that was able to improve revenue collection from the self-pay patients. Sutter recognized that the number of bad debts was rising along with the rising number of self-pay patients, This network conducted an evaluation on its facilities and identified th at the problem of low revenue collection was linked to a disintegrated system of collection, in adequate accurate information CASE ANALYSIS OF SUTTER HEALTH 9 and poor performance indicators.Sutter Health employed solutions that entailed setting new benchmarks, empowering employees, factoring the customer’s interest and compressive training. References Rauscher, S. & Wheeler, J. (2008). Effective Hospital Revenue Cycle Management. Journal of Healthcare Management Robertson, K. (Oct, 16, 1995). Sacramento Business Journal 12, 30: 3 Solomon, P. (2011). State of Healthcare Reform Revenue Cycle Retrieved from http://philcsolomon. om/2011/04/the-state-of-healthcare-revenue-cycle-an-insi ders- perspective-part-2/ Souza, M. & McCarty, B. (2007). From bottom to top: How one provider retooled collection. Healthcare Financial Management 61 (9). 67-73 Trans Union (2007). Healthcare Collections: How Full Cycle Improvements Reduce Bad Debt. http://www. tranunion. com/docs/healthcare/busin essneeds/healthcarecollectionsWP. pdf

Linear Technology Essay

Linear Technology is a technology company that focuses on the different elements of semiconductors. The company mostly focuses on analog products within the semiconductor portion of the electronic industry. Linear Technology was unique in their payout policy in the sense that they started with announcing dividends and then continued onto repurchasing. Linear started dividends to gain the respect of investors as well as show that buying shares in the company of Linear was less risky than all the other technology companies. Additionally, they repurchase stocks to offset the employee stock options that the company had as a large component of the employee compensation, which helped Linear in the years of low or slow sales. As stated in the case description, Linear has a strong cash flow as a company. In the basis of the financial needs for Linear Company, as a whole they need to make sure they are able to cover the executive stock option costs, as well as their capital investment in the fabrications facilities. In the case it is stated that Linear spent $200 million for new analog fabrication facilities, so therefore that expense would be a large and important financial need. Additionally, they need to keep some money set aside for expansion in the future. Since they don’t appear to be focusing on acquisitions at this point in time, they do not need to consider that in the financial needs, however if acquisitions do appear in the future they will be needed to take under consideration. Companies are supposed to drive value by growing the value of the company and the stock or by returning cash to shareholders. In the case of returning case to shareholders, it would be recommended as long as it is in line with the future strategic growth plan. As far as this particular case, there is nothing that indicates a specific growth plan in the near future but it can be presumed to have some expansion in the future. Overall, it would be a good recommendation to return cash to shareholders as long as the executive stock options, fabrication investments, and strategic growth plans for the future have all be met. A benefit to paying out cash to shareholders is th at it shows strength in the company as a whole. By showing strength in the company, share prices in turn with will increase because investors seek higher dividends. Companies with higher dividends are seen are more valuable. A disadvantage to returning  cash to shareholders is if Linear is unable to meet their dividend rate, they will be greatly punished and penalized causing their stock price to rapidly decrease. Additionally higher dividend means less cash in the business for future growth, which limits possible expansions in the future. In the terms of tax consequences, they should be relatively minimal since most of their investments are short-term investments. Typically, in the business world, short-term investments usually only have a tax of 1-3% which is nominal compared to others. Linear would only be paying taxes on the cash on the interest earned, which again will be relatively small. If Linear Technology were to pay out its entire cash balance as a special dividend, they would increase their risk of financial distress costs by greatly tightening their financial flexibility; which may also create extra transaction costs for the company. The firm’s value would greatly decrease because by paying out the entire cash balance the company would be significantly diminishing their asset value. As shown in Exhibit A, the overall value of this action would decrease the firm’s value by the total cash times the rate of interest: $1,565,200,000 * (1+3%) = $1,612,156,000. With the special dividend, Linear’s share price will increase by the amount of the dividend paid out. Therefore, with the number of shares outstanding at 312.4 million, there will be an increase of $5.01/share as shown in Exhibit A. The current share price is $30.87, so with the special dividend, share price will increase by $5.10 to $35.97/share. Although share price and the value incurs changes with the payout of the entire cash balance, earnings and earnings per share remain the same. Earnings and earnings per share are not affected by the dividend payout. Another option Linear Technology has to exercise its excess cash balance, they can repurchase shares to increase the value of the firm. This repurchase option is beneficial to the company and shareholders because in an open market share repurchase has no effect on the stock price. In addition, by repurchasing shares the firm’s earnings and earnings per share will increase. As shown in Exhibit B, by calculating the total numbers of shares repurchased (total cash balance/price per share) and subtracting it from the number of shares outstanding will give us the number of shares left outstanding after the repurchase to be 261,703,052. Exhibit B shows how this decrease in the number of shares drove up the earnings per share value by $0.10 from $0.55 to $0.65. When the company repurchases shares instead of paying out in special dividends, the firm’s value will increase and it also allows the firm to retain its cash reserves within the company. In general, companies pay dividends for a number of reasons. Dividends provide certainty about the company’s financial well being. Many investors prefer the steady and secure income that comes with dividends and see dividends as strength in the company and a sign of future positive earnings. Dividend initiators tend to be large and stable firms with low growth rates but emit high profitability ratings. Typically a company is at the mature stage of their business cycles and in turn causes the company to generate a large amount of money in cash. Paul Coghlan should recommend to not raise the dividends but to initiate buybacks. Linear already as higher dividends rates than all of its competitors. As a whole, the company 5 cents while Intel was only at 2 cents per share after the dividends were diluted. Also, if the company were to raise dividends, it would have to be at a level in which they could maintain for a long period of time and Linear does not have the extended amount of cash that Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco have and none of those companies have dividends at the level of Linear. Overall, Linear should do another stock buyback because earnings per share would increase since there will be fewer shares which will bump up the value of the stock.

Counseling For The Elderly Members Of Society - 1148 Words

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Ancient Greek Theatre and Drama - 1648 Words

Ancient Greece, the birthplace of theatre, continues to greatly influence theatre today. Drama is a form of poetry, because dialogue was spoken or sung in verses. Many Greek plays are still relevant today. Some plays survived on their merits, while others were preserved from academic interest or by accident (Peter Arnott). The Great Dionysia was an important yearly religious celebration and festival, honoring Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and fertility. The Great Dionysia is where theatre first began. Also, the actors of ancient Greek theatre were treated much differently than actors are today. They heavily impacted ancient theatre and shaped the way performers act today. Most actors performed in tragedies and comedies, the two main†¦show more content†¦. â€Å"It was the ancient Greeks specifically, the Athenians of the 400s BCE, who perfected the two genres known as tragedy and comedy, which defined European theatre for centuries following† (Sacks, David). 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