While supply chain partnerships are common in the private industry, they are unique in health care. This article looks at the novel partnership between St. Michael's Hospital and Baxter Canada. By sharing information and working together, these organizations evaluated and tackled service disruptions caused by backorders. Their formal collaboration has resulted in a streamlined backorder management process, and more importantly, better and timelier patient care.

This article reports on an experimental study to determine the effects on students’ dietary outcomes of offering universal-free school breakfast in elementary schools.

OBJECTIVE:To determine the effects of offering universal-free school breakfast in elementary schools on students' dietary outcomes.DESIGN:Experimental study with random assignment of 153 matched elementary schools in six school districts. Treatment schools offered universal-free school breakfast, and control schools continued to operate the traditional means-tested School Breakfast Program. Twenty-four-hour dietary recalls were collected from sample students near the end of the first year.SUBJECTS:About 30 students in second through sixth grades were randomly selected from each school (n=4,358).INTERVENTION:Free school breakfasts were made available to all students in treatment schools, regardless of family income, for three consecutive school years (2000-2001 to 2002-2003).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Breakfast consumption and food and nutrient intake.STATISTICAL ANALYSES:Hierarchical mixed-models and logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, minority status, and income eligibility for the regular school meal programs, were used to estimate effects.RESULTS:Despite a significant increase in school breakfast participation among sample students in treatment schools (from 16% to 40%, P<0.01), the rate of breakfast skipping did not differ between groups (4% overall). Treatment school students were more likely to consume a nutritionally substantive breakfast (P<0.01), but dietary intakes over 24 hours were essentially the same.CONCLUSIONS:Making universal-free school breakfast available in elementary schools did not change students' dietary outcomes after nearly 1 year. To improve children's diets overall, efforts should focus on ensuring all students have access to a healthful breakfast, at home or at school.

The effects of father absence on educational achievement and intellectual development of 6-11-year-old children were investigated by employing a nationally representative sample of 5,493 father-present and 616 father-absent children from the Health Examination Survey of the National Center for Health Statistics. Scores on the WISC and the WRAT were significantly depressed for father-absent white children. Father-absent black children evidenced a decreased test performance only on measures of achievement. All decrements were small and accounted for approximately 1% of the variance. Following statistical control for SES, we associated no decrements with the father's absence/presence, and in some instances, small but significant increments were found to be associated with children from fatherless families. The role of SES in father absence is discussed, and the request for a paradigmatic shift in research in the area of father absence is reiterated.