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The aim of this study is to understand how performance management systems (PMS) affect the strategy development process. The research examines PMS implementation and evaluates how the implementation of PMS links measures with rewards, i.e., financial and non-financial, to influence strategy formation. This qualitative study is based on 74 semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews with board members, mid-level managers, and other employees in nine organizations. Theory-building is comprised of the transcribed and analyzed interviews using MAXQDA 12 software. Theory-testing, i.e., a verificatory stage, consisted of analyzing previously identified phenomena. Results suggest that PMS affects strategy development processes by influencing both employee relational and calculative trust in their superiors. It also indicates a direct behavioral effect on employee knowledge sharing and manager trust in their subordinates. As a result, this may determine the extent to which managers exploit shared knowledge while formulating a strategy. The research demonstrates there is a trade-off between PMS implementation and strategy development. A gap in the literature is filled by integrating relational and calculative trust with PMS implementation and showing how such changes in trust mediate knowledge sharing behavior and strategy development.

Background: Person-Centered Care (PCC) is a promising approach towards improved quality of care and cost containment within health systems. It has been evaluated in Sweden and England. This feasibility study examines initial PCC implementation in a rehabilitation hospital for children in Poland. Methods: The WE-CARE Roadmap of enablers was used to guide implementation of PCC for patients with moderate scoliosis. A multi-disciplinary team of professionals were trained in the PCC approach and the hospital Information Technology (IT) system was modified to enhance PCC data capture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the nine health care professionals involved in the pilot study and three patients/parents receiving care. Transcribed data were analyzed via content analysis. Results: 51 patients and their families were treated via a PCC approach. High proportions of new PCC data fields were completed by the professionals. The professionals were able to implement the three core PCC routines and perceived benefits using the PCC approach. Patients and their families also perceived improved quality care. The WE-CARE framework enablers facilitated PCC implementation in this setting. Conclusions: This feasibility pilot study indicates that the Gothenburg PCC approach can be successfully transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in Poland with favorable perceptions of implementation by both professionals and patients/their families.

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation among medical students, doctors, and nurses in two countries – Ukraine and Poland. As a secondary aim, gender differences were considered as well. During 2019, until the beginning of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic started, healthcare professionals from two hospitals and medical students from one university in Poland and healthcare professionals from two hospitals and medical students from one university in Ukraine were recruited to participate in the study. The Wilcoxon test for paired samples was used to compare each participant’s score on the intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation sub-scales. Differences were examined by country, gender, profession, and combinations of these factors. In Poland, 142 doctors, nurses, and medical students were recruited. In Ukraine, 126 doctors, nurses, and medical students were recruited. Respondents completed an anonymous paper-and-pencil survey that required minimal socio-demographic information (age, gender, profession, and years of experience) so that the respondent would remain unidentifiable. The results show that male doctors were more extrinsically vs. intrinsically motivated (p=0.003), while female doctors and students were more intrinsically vs. extrinsically motivated in both Ukraine and Poland (p=0.023). Male students and nurses from both countries were equally motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Polish female doctors were more intrinsically vs. extrinsically motivated than Ukrainian ones (p=0.001), whereas Ukrainian and Polish male doctors were more extrinsically vs. intrinsically motivated (p=0.002). There were statistically different motivational patterns concerning gender, occupation, and nationality, which may have important implications for the construction of motivational systems in both organizational and healthcare systems

Background This study empirically evaluates the influence of medical information on patient trust at the physician level, the medical profession, hospitals, and with the payer. Restoring patient trust in a medical setting in Poland appears to be significantly affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient trust improves results from medical treatment, raises perception of healthcare performance, and smoothens the overall functionality of healthcare systems. Methods In order to study trust volatility, patients took part in a three-stage experiment designed via: (1) measured level of trust, (2) randomly dividing participants into two groups—control (i.e., re-examination of level of trust) and experimental (i.e., being exposed to a piece of certain manipulative information), and (3) checking whether observational changes were permanent. Results Results indicate that in the experimental group the increase of trust was noticed in the payer (27.7%, p  < 0.001), hospitals (10.9%, p  = 0.011), and physicians (decrease of 9.2%, p  = 0.036). Conclusion The study indicated that in Poland medical information is likely to influence patient trust in healthcare while interpersonal and social trust levels may be related to increases of trust in hospitals and in the payer versus decreases in physicians.

Background: In May 2021, there was an incident regarding giving patients AstraZeneca vaccines stored improperly. They were stored at room temperature (21 degrees centigrade) for 18 h, 12 h longer than the producer recommends. Aim of the study: The paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the efficacy and safety of the ChAdOx1-S (AstraZeneca) vaccine concerning the requirements for cold supply chain specification. Patients and methods: Improperly stored vaccines were given to 44 patients, and 39 of them decided to take part in the study. The Control group consisted of 56 people vaccinated on the same days by the same medical teams, using properly stored medicines. Results: The concentration of anti-S1 SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein IgG antibodies did not differ significantly between the groups. Examined group median 70 kU/L (20;100). Control group median 66 kU/L (32.75;100), p = 0.751. We did not observe any COVID-19 infections in either the control or examined group for half a year after the incident. People from each group reported that local and systemic adverse events occurred directly after the first and second doses. In the control group, one case of spontaneously subsiding face edema and joint pain was observed. There were no severe or fatal adverse events. There were no significant differences between the groups, besides the fatigue, after the second dose. Conclusion: AstraZeneca vaccine ChAdOx1-S stored at 21 degrees centigrade for 18 h before vaccination has the same safety profile (p < 0.05) and the same efficacy (p < 0.05) as the vaccines stored in conditions recommended by the producer.

The paper is devoted to a review of recent achievements in the field of dynamic analysis of structures and structural elements, such as beams and plates, with embedded viscoelastic (VE) dampers and/or layers. The general characteristics of VE materials, their rheological models, and methods of parameters identification are discussed. New formulations of dynamic problems for systems with VE elements are also reviewed. The methods of determination of dynamic characteristics, together with the methods of analysis of steady-state and transient vibrations of such systems, are also discussed. Both linear and geometrically non-linear vibrations are considered. The paper ends with a review of the methods of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and the methods of optimization, for structures with VE elements.

The new method for the determination of the dynamic characteristics of reticulated domes is proposed. Reticulated domes are built of composite rods. Each rod contains two layers made of elastic and viscoelastic materials, respectively. The viscoelastic material is modeled using the Zener model with fractional derivatives. A new formulation for the composite rod is proposed. The natural frequencies, the non-dimensional damping ratios and the modes of vibration are obtained as a solution to the nonlinear eigenvalue problem, which is solved using the continuation method. Moreover, the frequency response functions are determined in the usual way. The results of representative calculations are also presented and briefly discussed.

Introduction and Objective Recently in Western countries, a new approach to treatment and patient care, called personcentred care (PCC), has gained recognition. In Poland, this approach is not widely known despite its positive results demonstrated in terms of improving the quality of treatment, rehabilitation and care, as well as reducing costs. The aim of the study is presentation of the definition of PCC, and significant differences between diverse types of care, as well as indication of the fundamental routines of PCC. Person-centreed care The fundamental element of PCC is seeing a patient in a broad context, not only through the prism of the illness, but above all perceiving this patient as a person with all capabilities and limitations. The word „patient” tends to objectify and reduce a person to a recipient of medical services. PCC means a departure from the model in which a patient is a passive subject of medical intervention, towards the model where a contractual agreement is made involving the patient as an active partner in own care and the decision-making process. Co-creation of a partnership between the patient, his/her family, and health care professionals is an essential element of PCC. This approach is based on three pillars: partnership, patient narration and documentation. Summary Person-centred care can improve the quality of services provided by healthcare. This approach also presents significant potential in cost containment by better use of the patient›s resources and his/her social network, as well as by creating synergies with support proposed by the healthcare system.

A method for determining the dynamic characteristics of structures made of viscoelastic material is presented. The fractional Zener model is used to the describe the rheological properties of materials. All of the elements of a structure must be built of material with identical rheological properties. The solution to the linear eigenvalue problem for some elastic structure and the solution to a single nonlinear algebraic equation are needed to obtain the dynamic characteristics of a viscoelastic structure. Moreover, the frequency response functions are determined in a very efficient way. The results of a representative calculation are presented and briefly discussed.

This paper concerns the dynamic analysis of composite beams containing elastic and viscoelastic (VE) layers. A method for determination of the dynamic characteristics of multilayered beams with VE layers (i.e., natural frequencies, non-dimensional damping ratios and modes of vibration) is presented. The Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and the Timoshenko theory are used to describe the elastic and VE layers, respectively. To describe the mechanical properties of a VE layer, the four-parameter rheological model with fractional derivative is applied. A number of particular rheological models are particular cases of this general model. The virtual work principle and the finite element method together with the Laplace transform are used to derive the equation of motion in the frequency domain. The dynamic characteristics of a beam with VE layers are obtained as the solution to a properly defined nonlinear eigenvalue problem. The continuation method is adopted for solving the nonlinear eigenproblem. Several conclusions concerning the accuracy of the method and variability of results are presented on the basis of numerical studies.