Showing papers on "Audit published in 1973"

The training of physician's assistants. The use of a clinical algorithm system for patient care, audit of performance and education.

Abstract: A large-scale audit of patient records was used to educate and evaluate physician's assistants. Clinical algorithms (sets of step-by-step instructions for solving a medical problem) for 11...

A Stochastic Model of the Internal Control System

Abstract: The primary purpose of incorporating a set of internal controls in the financial information system is to enhance the system's reliability-i.e., to maintain a high probability of preventing, detecting, and eliminating errors, irregularities, and fraud in the financial information system. The demonstrated reliability of the system provides evidence as to the quality of the output of the system. It is well accepted that the effectiveness of internal controls must be taken into account in determining the extent and nature of the audit procedures appropriate in a given examination.' The more reliable the system, the less extensive the tests the auditor need conduct. Recognizing this inverse relationship between effectiveness of internal control and audit scope, the American Institute of CPAs requires all auditors to initially evaluate the reliability of internal controls as a matter of audit standards.2 Recently, the Committee on Auditing Procedures of the AICPA released several statements on the subject of internal controls which re-emphasize the importance of the study of their reliability.3 But, despite this emphasis, the auditor currently does not possess a means to objectively evaluate the reliability of the internal control system. Conventionally, the auditor uses questionnaires, flow charts, and tests of transactions for evaluation pur-

A Bayesian Approach to Asset Valuation and Audit Size

Abstract: There now exists a relatively large body of literature dealing with statistical sampling in auditing. This literature is mainly "classical," in the sense that the auditor subjectively specifies desired confidence intervals1 and confidence levels as the basis for designing his audit sample.2 In specifying a confidence level, the auditor should take his evaluation of the adequacy of the firm's internal control into account, i.e., better internal control allows a lower audit size and enables the auditor to accept the resulting lower level of confidence in his estimates. However, no formal mechanism exists for linking the auditor's prior assessment of internal control and his sample design. Rather, this is left to the auditor's judgment.3 The lack of such a mechanism is a major defect of the classical approach to statistical sampling in auditing.

Audit responses: responses maintained by access to existing self or coactor scores during non-social, parallel work, and cooperation procedures.

Abstract: Human subjects, mostly between 11 and 16 yr old, matched to sample for points that were exchangeable for money. An audit response was defined as a response maintained by allowing a subject access to an existing score on his own (self audit) or a coactor's (coactor audit) performance. In Experiment I, changes from non-social procedures (no coactor) to social procedures (coactor present) increased self and coactor audits. Since both types of audits occurred at about the same rates during cooperation and parallel work procedures, the increases did not depend on the subjects' response interactions. Although Experiment I did not demonstrate that subjects were comparing scores, the frequent occurrence of each kind of audit within a brief time period (interpersonal audit) did indicate that it was reinforcing to have both scores at the same time. These interpersonal audits suggested that the coactor's score increased self audits during social procedures. Experiment II supported this notion: relative to a non-social procedure, self audits increased more during a parallel work procedure when the coactor's score was accessible than when it was not accessible. Thus, increases in other behaviors that occur in the presence of a coactor, i.e., social facilitation, may also result from or be increased by providing a coactor's score.

Measuring, Monitoring and Modeling Quality of Life

Abstract: Issues addressed include use of multi-dimensional vs. single scalar approaches to measuring quality of life. The former seems preferable to the latter. This is illustrated by reference to examples from the national accounts systems approach, using objective data only, as proposed by Nestor Terleckyj, and the local use of questionnaires and interviews to deal with subjective feelings and reactions as reported in the citizen-type panel arrangements suggested by Norman Johnson and Edward Ward. Ways of allowing for trends and dynamic changes are examined and, inter alia, audits and other devices are suggested for detecting emerging needs for new roles and social-institutional arrangements. Areas that may lie beyond any such measurement and detection systems are also examined.

The Corporate Social Audit: Getting on the Learning Curve

Abstract: In order to conduct a successful social audit, the motives for such an audit must be established as well as the informational requirements for satisfying them. Tasks of which the corporation is capable must be set as bases from which to progress and what has to be learned must be established.

Teaching peer review.

Abstract: In recent years there has been increased interest in peer review as a method of maintaining a high quality of patient care. There has also been a twofold assumption that physicians willingly accept peer review and are able to perform a review immediately on completion of a residency program. I believe this assumption has basic weaknesses, and that for peer review to be effective, it is necessary to teach the review process to medical students and members of the house staff. Observations The medical audit is a retrospective examination of the clinical application of our medical knowledge. The audit should be an educational process, the result of which may be to alter the physician's medical behavior. In this way, the level of medical care in an institution or a community can be continuously reviewed and improved. When the audit is performed by practicing physicians and includes an evaluation of the

The problem-oriented autopsy audit.

Abstract: The Problem-Oriented Autopsy Audit is an instrument designed primarily to assist the physician in his personal continuing education program, and secondarily to assist the medical staff in its review of deaths. The organization of necropsy findings by words, pictures and diagrams in an easily readable and condensed form combined with a problemoriented audit makes the autopsy an educational instrument as well as a useful exercise in the total evaluation of diagnosis and patient care.

Elements of a comprehensive emergency medical services system

Abstract: A "systems" approach to the provision of emergency medical services allows community leaders to plan and implement a comprehensive program to meet their specific needs. Development of an effective EMS system requires familiarity with the components of which the system is made up. Among the necessary components are recognition of an emergency situation, the provision of first aid, the ability to communicate with emergency treatment facilities, transportation in appropriate vehicles, the availability of well-trained emergency care personnel, categorization of emergency care facilities, and data collection and audit. It is imperative that dynamic, informed civic and professional leaders assume responsibility for making comprehensive emergency medical services a reality rather than a much-discussed but unfulfilled "plan."

The problem-oriented record. A two-column modification.

Abstract: A two-column modification of the problem-oriented record is presented that (1) provides one way to reduce the large amount of data collected on an average hospitalized patient, (2) can function as an effective teaching and auditing tool by providing immediate feedback to the intern or student on his workup, (3) can reduce the time outlay of residents by eliminating the need to repeat written histories and physicals, and (4) can serve as a tool to more carefully audit a resident's contributions, satisfying the recent requirements of the Board of Internal Medicine.

Design of a Generalized Audit Command Language (ACL)

Abstract: A generalized audit command language (ACL) has been designed in response to recent developments in computer-based auditing and in anticipation of future needs The syntax of ACL is summarized in this paper with respect to data and model bank audit functions It is intended to implement ACL in a number of different versions, facilitating explicit and implicit programming by auditors and supporting a variety of audit functions Various implementation strategies and some of the implications of ACL for teaching and professional practice are discussed as well

A study of risk evaluation in the audit function of public accounting firms

Abstract: It is the purpose of this study to examine the underlying nature of the relative risk associated with an audit engagement.

Location and strategic planning : Towards a contingency theory of industrial location

Abstract: This book is concerned with location problems in the company’s strategic planning process. In his attempt of formulating a contingency theory of location the author draws upon his own research and that of other contemporay theories of organization, foreign trade and investment.Central to the analysis is the location audit, a periodic identification and evaluation of key variables and relations relevant to the company’s sites and the relationship of these sites to their physical environment. The use of a location audit and the relevance of the variables introduced are shown in an analysis of six different cases. Evaluations of the kind suggested in this book can help planners and decision makers to understand the multivariate kind of their location decisions and that the alternatives, once chosen, may well have different implications later on.

Perspectives on Life Insurance Financial Reporting

Abstract: From an accounting point of view the sale of a life insurance policy represents both an installment sale and a contract for future services. The "service" performed by a life insurance company is the assumption of the risk that future experience as to mortality, interest, termination, and expense will prove to be more adverse than that assumed. The audit guide entitled Guide to Audits of Stock Life Insurance Companies provides for accounting for the life insurance transaction as an installment sale and for providing for the risk of adverse deviation from assumed experience in the reserving process. The result is an accounting method that reflects the economic substance of the life insurance transaction and reasonably correlates with changes in economic value. In 1966 the Committee on Insurance Accounting and Auditing of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (hereinafter referred to as the "AICPA Committee") began work on an "audit guide" for life insurance companies. Thus began an odyssey of Homeric proportions. Only in 1973 did the AICPA Committee's difficult journey come to an end with publication of Audits of Stock Life Insurance Companies.' This paper attempts to summarize the history and background of the life insurance audit guide and suggest the implications of the guide for the life insurance industry; provide some insights into the more significant theoretical aspects Robert L. Posnak, M.B.A., C.P.A., is a partner in the New York Office of Ernst and Ernst. He received the National Gold Medal in the 1967 C.P.A. examinations. Mr. Posnak has worked in the Ernst and Ernst Life Insurance Accounting Research Project, 1968-1973. This paper was presented at the 1972 Annual Meeting of A.R.I.A. 1 This paper is based on the unpublished December 1972 draft of Audits of Stock Life Insurance Companies issued by the AICPA Committee. At the time of this writing it was expected that any revisions resulting from the exposure process would be relatively minor. of developing a set of accounting principles for the life insurance industry; suggest the criteria that should govern the choice of an accounting method for the life insurance industry; and determine the degree to which the audit guide satisfies such criteria. Background of the Audit Guide An "audit guide" is seemingly innocuous. All it tries to do is apply accounting principles and auditing standards to a specialized industry, primarily for the guidance of independent accountants.2 In other words, an audit guide is simply designed to help the auditor formulate his opinion on the financial statements of a specialized company. Therein lies a rub. Most specialized 2 Audit guides have been prepared for a sizeable number of specialized industries and several more are in progress. Recent audit guides have been introduced by the comment that "This audit guide is published for the guidance of members of the [American Institute of Certified Public Accountants] in examining and reporting on financial statements" of a company that falls within the specialized industry. The comment is made also that members of the Institute "may be called upon to justify departures" from the recommended practices.