Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Decker

Publications and source records attributed to R Decker.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

GPOs and their product evaluation committees should be aware of their legal liabilities.

A materials manager for a large group purchasing organization is a member of a committee involved in the decision as to which products and equipment are purchased for and used by the hospitals belonging to the GPO. These decisions are based upon requests from the member hospitals and proposals submitted to the GPO by suppliers. After review by the committee, a decision to buy is made. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the issues of legal liability assumed by the GPO, the committee and its individual members in making these decisions on which to buy.

Consumer Product Safety↗
PubMed1991

Purchase contract is performed and title passes at least when goods are delivered.

The hospital received a quotation from a supplier offering to provide an item of biomedical equipment at a stated price. The hospital issued a purchase order providing delivery instructions. The equipment was delivered to the hospital, properly received, and put into service. A month later the supplier's representative came to the hospital and asked that the materials manager sign a sales order report covering the equipment. The supplier's representative explained that the equipment was from demonstrator stock and the only way it could be replaced was for the hospital to sign this form. When the materials manager refused to sign, the supplier's representative threatened to remove the equipment contending that title hadn't passed to the hospital. Later the materials manager did sign the sales order report, all the while contending that the representative had no legal right to remove the equipment. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker considers the legal issues involved in this transaction.

Commerce↗
PubMed1991

Materials managers question how Uniform Commercial Code treats faxed purchase orders.

A hospital materials manager is considering eliminating routine purchase orders for most items of medical supply. This is due to the increased use of the telephone and of electronic devices such as fax, transceivers and computer hookups. Written purchase orders would continue to be mailed to suppliers for capital equipment and other major expenditures. The materials manager is wondering how this time-saving practice might be affected by purchase law under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). In this dialogue, Dr. Decker responds to this reader's inquiry.

Capital Expenditures↗
PubMed1991

Cooperative incinerator may cause problems if not-for-profit venture.

Eight hospitals within a 40-mile radius are building a regional incinerator which will be designed to meet the needs of the hospitals in complying with state and federal regulations for handling wastes, including those deemed to be hazardous. A question arises as to whether this incinerator can be operated as a not-for-profit cooperative. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the legal issues involved.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1991

Pharmacists have more responsibilities, liabilities than hospital materials managers. Part 1.

A hospital materials manager is also a registered pharmacist. In dealing with other materials managers at state and group meetings, he reports that a question often arises as to what professional responsibilities and liabilities a pharmacist has in addition to those of materials manager. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker reviews the professional responsibilities and liabilities of a pharmacist. In a subsequent article, the issue will be narrowed to the hospital pharmacist. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on pharmacist responsibility and liability.

Drug Labeling↗
PubMed1991

"Battle of the Forms": a materials management paper chase with legal consequences.

One of the problem areas most often discussed by hospital materials managers at seminars and study sessions is what is commonly known as "The Battle of the Forms." This situation arises from the exchange of purchase and sale documents between hospitals and suppliers. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker reviews the problem and offers some suggestions for dealing with it.

Commerce↗
PubMed1991

When not-for-profit hospitals provide services, supplies outside the hospital.

Inquiries have been received about situations where not-for-profit hospitals provide services and/or supplies outside the hospital. Specific questions have been raised about hospice, home health care, nursing homes and ambulance services. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker examines the issues involved in such situations and makes some recommendations.

Commerce↗
PubMed1990

Productive human immunodeficiency virus infection levels correlate with AIDS-related manifestations in the patient.

Mononuclear cells were obtained from 71 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) seropositive subjects presenting and first visit either as asymptomatic or with minor symptoms and with CD4 lymphocytes greater than 550 per mm3 (group A, 35 patients) or as patients with AIDS, AIDS-related illnesses, or CD4 lymphocytes less than 400 per mm3 (group B, 36 patients). After 1-5 years of follow-up, 13 patients of group A had essentially retained their initial status (asymptomatics); the 22 others had suffered clinical or immunological deterioration (progressors). Frozen cells were thawed and submitted to lethal gamma-irradiation in vitro (4500 rads; 1 rad = 0.01 Gy) before they were cultured with normal phytohemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes to determine radiation-resistant HIV expression ex vivo (R-HEV). HIV antigenemia correlated with R-HEV values in 142 samples (r = 0.92, P less than 0.001) but was a less sensitive predictor of disease than R-HEV. R-HEV was detected in all specimens from patients with major AIDS-related illnesses or HIV-associated CD4 lymphopenia. In 77% of the progressors from group A, R-HEV detection preceded the onset of AIDS-associated disease or CD4 lymphopenia by 1 year (average). Conversely, R-HEV was low or was not detected in 36 sequential specimens from the 13 patients who remained asymptomatic over the following 2-5 years. Thus, persistently low HIV expression in vivo predicted a nondiseased state, whereas higher HIV expression levels seemed necessary for disease to occur. These data indicate that R-HEV is related to productive HIV infection in vivo, the latter acting as a determinant of AIDS-related illnesses. In view of this, measurement of HIV expression levels in the patient should be useful in antiviral efficacy trials.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1990

County and not-for-profit hospital mergers should avoid local government support.

A rural not-for-profit hospital is taking over a healthy facility that the county government operated as a county home for the aged. Questions have arisen as to the proper way to handle the transfer of property, including medical supplies. Also, there are accounting problems in connection with the continued operation of the facility as far as materials management is concerned. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker addresses these problems.

Government↗
PubMed1990

Materials managers must be wary of contract capacity in dealings with corporate suppliers.

Sometimes a hospital materials manager wonders if the parties with whom he contracts are really agreeing to the terms of the contract. Also occasionally there are facts which cause a question to arise as one's capacity to enter into a contract. These questions raise issues which are part of the foundation of our contract law. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker develops these basic issues.

Contract Services↗
PubMed1990

Materials managers must respond quickly to improper shipped goods to avoid headaches.

The hospital placed an order by telephone for 1,000 envelopes printed with the hospital's logo on them. When the shipment arrived, it contained 100,000 envelopes with the logo on them. The printer said that a computer that handled the order and scheduled the printing caused the over shipment. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the issues involved in the transaction.

Contract Services↗
PubMed1990

Hospitals must pay property taxes on leased equipment unless a contract states otherwise.

A not-for-profit hospital has decided to rent medical and office equipment instead of purchasing the items. Under the terms of the lease, the hospital is required to reimburse the supplier for any property taxes on the equipment covered by the lease. The lessor has billed the hospital for personal property taxes assessed by the county government. The hospital materials manager is concerned that the hospital isn't able to claim its usual tax exemption since it didn't purchase the equipment and can't claim to be the owner of it. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses this problem and offers some possible solutions.

Equipment and Supplies, Hospital↗
PubMed1990

Materials managers should be aware of the legal implications of JIT (just-in-time) distribution systems.

As a part of a just-in-time, single-source procurement plan, a supplier agreed with the hospital that the supplier would hold at its warehouse the bulk of a large order for medical supplies. The hospital signed a contract for the entire amount of the order and, under the terms of the contract, title passed at once to the hospital. Each day the hospital was to advise the supplier by telephone of the quantities consumed. The supplier would deliver to the hospital daily the items needed. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the legal issues in such an arrangement, including a word of warning.

Commerce↗
PubMed1990

Turning goods over to distributor: record keeping and possible product disparagement.

A distributor of medical supplies and devices is now representing a new manufacturer. He wants the buying hospital to also switch to this new manufacturer. The distributor has offered to replace existing stocks of items with those from the new manufacturer. The distributor would take the items from the hospital's existing stocks and use them as demos or otherwise dispose of them. The hospital materials manager is agreeable but wonders about legal complications. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the legal issues involved in this proposition of the distributor.

Commerce↗
PubMed1990

Contracts pertinent for limiting impossibility as an excuse for supplier non-performance.

A supplier has notified the hospital materials manager that a contract delivery date for medical supplies won't be met. When pressed for an explanation, the supplier says that it is impossible for performance to be made. This puzzles the materials manager, and he wonders if the supplier can avoid performance for such a reason. In this dialogue, Dr. Decker discusses the legal issues involved.

Commerce↗