How should the “management of things” be? We carried out a questionnaire survey to find out the facts about the stock control of medical supplies and inventory management system in hospitals affiliated with the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives for Health and Welfare. Questionnaires were sent out to 98 hospitals with not less than 100 beds. Fifty-one hospitals responded. The number of effective replies was 49. We made analyses of the data as best we could, especially the data on the operation of the inventory management system and stock control.(1) After the adoption of an inventory management system, 41% of the hospitals took more than half a year before the system was put on the right track. (2) The system has turned out to be conductive to the streamlining of such work as placing orders, delivery, storing and stocktaking. (3) Concerning the management of the master file in the system, many respondents gave the accuracy of data, prompt processing and working efficiency as the problems yet to be addressed. (4) In the hospitals using an inventory management system, the in-hospital type SPD took 17.7 days in terms of the holding period in the case where users are supposed to control the consumption of medical materials as against 8.3 days in the case where clerks in charge of warehousing deliver medical materials and take on consumption control. (5) About 80% of the hospitals have introduced their own inventory management system in an effort to promote the standardization of materials, purchase materials in proper quantities, carry out inventory and consumption control, and create an efficient supply system.
control ; Consumption of goods ; Management ; Control brand of phenylpropanolamine ; System

The most common method of evaluating beneficial impacts of environmental policies is cost-benefit analysis (CBA). In the present review, CBA methods for air pollution impacts are reviewed. Three types of air pollution effects are identified, including health, productivity, and amenity. Market valuation, stated preference methods, and revealed preference methods are identified for valuing benefits. Three types of costs are described, including private sector costs, societal costs, and governmental regulatory costs. A benefits valuation approach based on Freeman’s principals is described. A costs valuation approach based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Dixon et al. principals is described. Limitations associated with estimates of benefits and costs are summarized. Input assumptions and results are compared for several existing air pollution control analyses. The importance of CBA in environmental policy studies is discussed. Our conceptual approaches should be useful in analyses of urban air pollution impacts and air pollution prevention policies.
Air Pollution ; Review [Publication Type] ; benefits ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Control brand of phenylpropanolamine

HbA1c is used for assessing glycaemic control in patients with diabetes. It is also used for treatment goals and as a target for therapeutic intervention. The Direct Control and Complications Trial in the USA showed that HbA1c can be used to predict the risk of complications. Hence, it is important for HbA1c assays to be standardised. The National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) in the USA was formed in 1996 so that HbA1c results from different laboratories would be comparable to those reported in the DCCT study. There were also HbA1c standardisation programmes in Sweden and Japan. These three standardisation programmes are, in fact, direct comparison methods (DCMs), and yield different HbA1c results. In 1994, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) established a Working Group on Standardisation of HbA1c. This working group has developed a global HbA1c reference system with very much improved intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation. Recommendations have been made to report HbA1c results as IFCC-HbA1c values in SI units (mmol HbA1c/mol Hb) and NGSP-HbA1c (%) as well as estimated average glucose (eAG), once a tight relationship has been shown to exist between eAG and HbA1c.
Glycosylated hemoglobin A ; Global ; assay ; Control brand of phenylpropanolamine ; Direct type of resin cement