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Due to the rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in India, the health-care supply chain (HCSC) disruptions and uncertainties have increased manifold posing severe challenges to health-care facilities and significantly hampering the functioning of the health industry. This study aims to propose a hierarchical structural model of enablers of HCSC in the COVID-19 outbreak and identifies inter-relationships among them in the health-care market.

Enablers of emergency HCSC have been identified through extensive literature review and experts’ opinions. Subsequently, total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and cross-impact matrix-multiplication (MICMAC) analysis have been implemented to determine the hierarchical inter-relationships among enablers and classify them according to their contribution to the overall system.

The research has identified and validated 15 enablers of the emergency supply chain in health-care businesses. The study resulted in a seven-level hierarchical structural model based on enabler’s driving and dependence powers. Further, the application of MICMAC analysis resulted in the classification of enablers into four groups, namely, autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent group.

This study would help health professionals, policymakers and academia to implement the theoretical model constructed to alleviate the effect of COVID-19 by improving the HCSC performances in pandemic situations. This study has social and economic implications in terms of cost-effective and efficient delivery of care services in health emergencies.

The proposed theoretical model constructed is a new effort addressing the issues of HCSC in the COVID-19 crisis. Procedural implementation of TISM and MICMAC analysis in this study would help researchers to grasp concepts in a very lucid manner. The present study is one of the very few studies analyzing enablers in pandemic situations by implementing the TISM approach.

This study aims to investigate whether emergency health-care workers distinguish between different categories of perpetrators of violence and how they respond to different types of perpetrator profiles.

Five focus groups with emergency health-care workers were held in Canada. The participants were asked whether they identified different groups of perpetrators of violence and how that impacted their approach. The focus group responses were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically using a phenomenological approach.

Participants consistently identified five groups of perpetrators and tailored their approach on their assessment of the type of perpetrator involved. The five categories are: violence or aggressive behaviour from family members or bystander and violence related to; underlying mental health/illness issues; underlying physical health issues; addiction and substance use; and repeat visitors/offenders. Violence with an underlying (mental) health cause was handled professionally and compassionately by the health-care workers, while less patience and understanding was afforded in those instances where violence was associated with (recreational) alcohol or illicit substance use.

Emergency health-care workers can consistently distinguish between types of perpetrators of violence and aggression, which they then use as one factor in the clinical and situational assessments that inform their overall approach to the management incidents. This conclusion supports the need to move the focus away from the worker to the perpetrator and to an organisational rather than individual approach to help minimise violence against emergency health-care workers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide, first, an explication of the interconnectivity of logistics as an element of health care disaster posturing and second, to use a context of strategic‐level planning, for supply chain management's inclusion in health care emergency management planning.

Using a review of existent literature, this work examines and expounds upon the impact of effective supply chain management processes in disaster mitigation and planning.

This paper presents a discourse in health care supply chain management's involvement in disaster mitigation by clarifying the role of logistics in strategic‐level planning.

Optimally, for a health care organization to be truly prepared for disaster, leaders must first have a sound logistics platform from whence support and sustainment are received. For an organization to be truly prepared logistically, however, there must exist a basic understanding of principles related to emergency management and health care operations.

Arguably, a critical path to success in health care supply chain readiness posturing involves evidence‐based, critically applied insight into disaster mitigation and preparations across multiple echelons of managerial responsibilities.

A key recurring problem is that little research is available or related specifically to health care logistics management. Few works can be found concerning health care supply chain management's involvement in disaster posturing. In an applied sense, the paper provides health care managers with concepts related to effective crisis mitigation.

Studies have examined strategies implemented to strengthen quality of emergency care in healthcare provider institutions in Ghana. But few studies have focused on what determines quality of emergency care from the patient’s perspective. The purpose of this paper is to fill that gap by examining factors salient to gauging quality of emergency care and priority areas for care improvement.

Cross-sectional data were collected from patients admitted in emergency units of public hospitals in two regions: Greater Accra and Central Regions. A structured questionnaire designed with inputs from emergency medicine physicians and patients was used to collect data from 381 patients. Principal component analysis (PCA) and logistic regression models were computed to respectively determine salient measures of emergency care quality and their association with patient overall perceived quality of emergency care.

Using the PCA, four factors (social and relational care, attentive prehospitalised care, ward quality and privacy and medical supplies) were derived as salient measures of emergency care quality. All the factors derived had statistically significant association with patient overall perception of quality.

Emergency care quality improvement strategies that incorporate the dimensions identified can produce effective therapeutic outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how nurses’ working in emergency health care in Sweden experience their encounter with undocumented migrants.

A total of 16 qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed using a phenomenographic approach, aiming at describing various ways in which nurses experienced undocumentedness.

The process of assessment involves formal regulations as well as interpersonal features, leading to uncertainty, conflicts and dilemmas when judging such situations. Nurses’ conceptions concerned the undocumented migrants’ migrant status and social existence; second, conflicts in encountering undocumentedness pertaining to an identification systems and judgments and emotional reactions; and thrid, shifts within and between arbitrary boundaries, with unclear conditions for interaction and creative maneuvering.

Further research is needed to develop guidelines or other structures to support nurses who deal with this kind of assessment in their daily work, to reduce ethical dilemmas and the risk of inequitable treatment.

Guidelines to support nurses need to be further debated and discussed and implemented in health care education, as well as in clinical contexts.

Increased knowledge and awareness among nurses concerning migrants’ status and rights, might lead to better working conditions for nurses and thus more secure judgments.

Research with a specific focus on emergency nurses’ conceptions of undocumentedness and their strategies for handling the ensuing practical and ethical dilemmas has not been conducted in Sweden before using a qualitative method.

The years following the 9/11/2001 terrorists attacks saw a marked increase in community and hospital emergency preparedness, from communications across community networks, development of policies and procedures, to attainment and training in the use of biological warfare resources. Regular drills ensured emergency and health care personnel were trained and prepared to address the next large-scale crisis, especially from terrorist and bioterrorist attacks. This chapter looks at some of the more familiar global health issues over the past two decades and the lessons learned from hospital responses to inform hospital management in preparation for future incidents.

This study is a narrative review of the literature related to lessons learned from four major events in the time period from 2002 to 2023 – SARS, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19.

The initial search yielded 25,913 articles; 57 articles were selected for inclusion in the study.

Comparison of key issues and lessons learned among the four major events described in this article – SARS, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19 – highlight that several lessons are “relearned” with each event. Other key issues, such as supply shortages, staffing availability, and hospital capacity to simultaneously provide care to noninfectious patients came to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. A primary, ongoing concern for hospitals is how to maintain their preparedness given competing priorities, resources, and staff time. This concern remains post-COVID-19.

The purpose of this study is to provide current state of knowledge on how the COVID-19 emergency situation necessitated the behaviour influencing use and acceptance of telehealth. This study interlinks the health belief model (HBM) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to highlight the challenges and opportunities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the public health sector.

This study used three online databases (Emerald publishing, Science Direct and Taylor and Francis) that enabled the authors to access electronic journal articles. Search strategy was used to extract articles based on the relevance of this study.

The key findings from this study suggested that the COVID-19 emergency forced health-care workers and their patients to rapidly use and rely on telehealth to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmissions. The key benefits of telehealth use highlighted an expansive cost effective and convenient access to health-care services irrespective of geographical local and levels of physical impairment. Moreover, telehealth inhibited in person human interaction, which was perceived as impersonal and not ideal for new patient consultations. The barriers outweighed the benefits; as a result, it is unlikely that there will be a wide use of telehealth beyond the COVID-19 emergency situation.

The research findings are limited to discussions drawn from available secondary data. The criteria within telehealth for policymakers to note the technology acceptance and use for both health-care and outpatient stakeholders and their health seeking behaviour. Health-care sectors (private and public) and government need to understand enablers of effective telehealth in policymaking to ease the barriers during an emergency situation like a pandemic.

This study contributes to the emerging literature on how COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and accelerated telehealth by extending both the UTAUT and HBM theories. This study is expected to contribute and expand literature on telehealth during emergency situations, given the novice nature of COVID-19 and limited literature surrounding it.

Frequent fire incidences in various hospitals across the globe with devastating effects on humans and other resources have multiplied. Stakeholders in the health-care sector are worried because of the yearly fire outbreak increase. However, fire safety management has been proved as a successful platform to mitigate fire in health-care facilities. How far regarding public health-care facilities is yet to receive in-depth studies in Malaysia. This paper aims to investigate the issues associated with fire safety management and proffers possible solutions to improve safety in public health-care facilities from the operators’ perception.

The objectives were achieved through a combination of case studies of five selected Malaysia’s public hospitals and a qualitative approach. Thematic analysis with the assistance of MAXQDA (software program designed for computer-assisted qualitative and mixed methods data) 2018, a type of qualitative data analysis software was used to analyse the collated data which emerged from the knowledgeable participants.

Lax implementation of safety policy, inadequate water pressure, poor maintenance, inadequate communication system, amongst others, emerged as the issues. Findings proffer five main measures to possibly improve fire safety management in public health-care buildings. This includes a feasible institutional framework, improve the emergency response team, improve the occupational health and safety system and others.

This paper is limited to exploring the issues associated with fire safety management and proffer possible solutions to improve safety in public health-care facilities from the operators’ perception. Future research is needed to engage useful information in advancing fire safety management in public hospital buildings and possibly developing a qualitative model using a generic fire response model. Also, to investigate the level of compliance with the requirements of a fire safety management plan and possibly develop a well-detailed fire safety plan in Malaysia’s public health-care buildings.

As part of the paper implications, the paper concludes that improved fire protection systems via modern technologies and training of key staff members in accident response and recovery during fire emergencies should be encouraged. This can be achieved through the enforcement and implementation of a fire safety management plan. Thus, this study is encouraging the implementation and sustainability of a fire safety management plan for health-care buildings across Malaysia.

To the best of this paper’s knowledge, this is possibly the first comprehensive paper on fire safety management in public health-care facilities that engaged operators in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper proffers feasible policy solutions to improve the fire safety management plan in public health-care buildings.

Investigates the increased waiting time costs imposed on society due to inappropriate use of the emergency department by patients seeking non‐emergency or primary care. Proposes a simple economic model to illustrate the effect of this misuse at a public or not‐for‐profit hospital. Provides evidence that non‐emergency patients contribute to lengthy delays in the ER for all classes of patients. Proposes a priority queuing model to reduce average waiting times.