Experiences of managerial accountability in Ethiopia’s primary healthcare system: a qualitative study

Background Despite calls for improved accountability in global health systems, and a set of clear and consistent theoretical accountability frameworks, empirical descriptions of how accountability is experienced and enacted in low- and middle- income country (LMIC) settings is limited. Therefore, we sought to characterize how managers at all levels of Ethiopia’s primary healthcare system experience accountability in their daily practice. Methods We conducted in-depth key informant interviews with 41 key stakeholders across 4 regions (Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples, and Tigray) in the context of the Primary Healthcare Transformation Initiative (PTI). Consistent with the principles of grounded theory, our team used the constant comparative method to identify emergent themes related to concrete areas that could be targeted to allow an overall culture of accountability to flourish. Results Emergent themes were: development of a shared understanding of system-wide accountability, streamlining of managerial reporting lines, strengthening of medico-legal knowledge and systems, and development of mechanisms for bottom-up accountability. Conclusions Findings may be valuable to policymakers seeking to create more effective national accountability frameworks; practitioners and development partners seeking to strengthen implementation of evidence-based accountability systems and practices; and researchers aiming to develop meaningful, practical measures of accountability in public health.

Is Artificial Intelligence Ready to Assess an Enterprise’s Financial Security?

This study contributes to the literature on financial security by highlighting the relevance of the perceptions and resulting professional judgment of stakeholders. Assessing a company’s financial security using only economic indicators—as suggested in the existing literature—would be inaccurate when undertaking a comprehensive study of financial security. Specifically, indices and indicators based on financial or managerial reporting calculated at any particular point in time, provide only a superficial understanding—and may even distort the overall picture. It has also been suggested that expert assessment is the most objective method, although it has disadvantages related to individual cognitive limitations. These limitations are not particular to artificial intelligence, which could assess an enterprise’s financial security in a less biased way. However, by only imitating human behavior, it is not able to perceive and evaluate with intuition the dynamics of the company’s development and holistically assess the financial condition—despite the possibility of learning and forecasting—because artificial intelligence is not able to think and predict, which, in an enterprise, is the most important skill of a manager. Therefore, the risk of developing artificial intelligence to assess a firm’s financial security lies in a biased assessment of the enterprise’s activities in general—and its financial security in particular.

Whole Care Home Testing for Covid-19 in a Local Authority Area in the United Kingdom

Objectives: To describe the point prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in care homes reporting low numbers of cases of COVID-19. Design: A cross-sectional study of care homes, ascertaining perceived disease burden using interviews with care home managers and SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in residents and staff using nose and throat swabbing. Setting: 15 Care homes in Essex, United Kingdom, all of which had reported either zero or one case of COVID-19 to the Health Protection Team. Participants: 912 residents and staff of care homes were tested. Residents were eligible to be tested regardless of symptoms. Main outcome measure: Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in residents and staff. Results: In the 15 care homes studied, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 23 (5.2%)of 441 residents. Of these 23, 21/23 (91%) were asymptomatic as reported by the care home managers. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 8/471 (1.7%) of staff. This differs from that in residents (p=0.003). Conclusions: The findings of the study suggest that symptoms, as reported by care home managers, are an insensitive method of defining the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection in nursing homes. Viral detection from residents is more common than from staff. Microbiological screening is a more sensitive method for defining the extent of SARS-CoV-2 in care homes than managerial reporting of resident symptoms.

Adapting to Crisis: Accounting Information Systems during the Weimar Hyperinflation

German corporations are characterized as having been adaptable in the face of numerous traumatizing events during the twentieth century. This article explores how firms adapted their accounting information systems during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. It suggests that responses to the crisis focused on system elements identified as key to continuing operations. Initially, firms amended selling and purchasing arrangements, modified financial reporting, and shifted managerial reporting to nonmonetary information. As inflation accelerated, human resources were diverted to maintaining critical functions, especially those related to remunerating labor. While some elements of accounting systems fell into disrepair, there were also examples of innovation.

Managerial reporting by food production companies in Slovakia in 2017

Corporate reporting on non-financial information has been currently gaining much more interest compared to the past. Most food enterprises believe that performing responsibly and showing an interest in society and the environment will produce a profit and benefit them as well as society. Such cases, in which enterprises report on non-financial information, were the subject of this research. The study aims to discover the managerial reporting of 2017 on the social and environmental effects of food companies in Slovakia to better understand problems in this regard. 2017 was the first year when enterprises were required to draft annual reports containing non-financial information following the amendment to the Slovak law that resulted from the European Union requirements. Across the world, reporting on non-financial information is regulated by voluntary guidelines. The paper presents conclusions of a content analysis of annual food business reports in the Slovak Republic in the context of G4 (GRI) directives from social and environmental points of view as key elements in social responsibility reporting. Individual social and environmental aspects of the research are disclosed by an enterprise if the information in its annual report conforms to defined G4 activities (GRI). All the food enterprises operating in Slovakia that compiled annual reports for 2017 were included in the research. Therefore, 142 annual reports with economic activities in 26 subclasses in the food industry sector were selected. The results present a current and comprehensive (full) reporting overview of this industry in Slovakia and reveal several shortcomings in executive reporting. The analysis of the environmental information in the annual reports shows that food enterprises reporting on environmental protection mainly focus on waste, product services, wastewater, materials and energy, evidenced by information about ongoing monitoring of the environmental impacts of production. In the social category, the G4 (GRI) directive defines four main aspects: (i) labour relations and the environment, (ii) human rights, (iii) society and (iv) liability for products.