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As an emerging technology, medical artificial intelligence (AI) plays an important role in the healthcare system. However, the service failure of medical AI causes severe violations to user trust. Different from other services that do not involve vital health, customers' trust toward the service of medical AI are difficult to repair after service failure. This study explores the links among different types of attributions (external and internal), service recovery strategies (firm, customer, and co-creation), and service recovery outcomes (trust).

Empirical analysis was carried out using data (N = 338) collected from a 2 × 3 scenario-based experiment. The scenario-based experiment has three stages: service delivery, service failure, and service recovery. The attribution of service failure was divided into two parts (customer vs. firm), while the recovery of service failure was divided into three parts (customer vs. firm vs. co-creation), making the design full factorial.

The results show that (1) internal attribution of the service failure can easily repair both affective-based trust (AFTR) and cognitive-based trust (CGTR), (2) co-creation recovery has a greater positive effect on AFTR while firm recovery is more effective on cognitive-based trust, (3) a series of interesting conclusions are found in the interaction between customers' attribution and service recovery strategy.

The authors' findings are of great significance to the strategy of service recovery after service failure in the medical AI system. According to the attribution type of service failure, medical organizations can choose a strategy to more accurately improve service recovery effect.

This paper aims to show the impact of service failure and to shed light on the vengeance of consumer in the health-care service.

A qualitative research through a retrospective study based on individual interviews was conducted. As this study is a sensitive topic, projective techniques were used to complement individual interviews, especially with care consumers who are reluctant subjects who prefer methods which preserve confidentiality. Practically, drawing interpretations method was used. The use of these drawings is to encourage reluctant interviewee to discuss on the study’s sensitive theme.

Empirical findings allowed first to approach care service failure in Tunisia that is an emerging post-revolutionary country-owned MENA. In this context, a comparison between the public and private sectors was proposed. Moreover, the results helped to understand service failure’s consequences related to patient’s reaction.

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with managers of public and private medical institutions will have to work on capitalization of knowledge, especially those learned from unsuccessful experiences.

Medical service failure can have multiple sources. The care consumer’s reaction to these failures can sometimes be extreme in form of revenge.

Many consumer general health information Web sites now provide interactive services such as “e‐mail the doctor” and online discussion boards. There has been little research into how consumers are using these services, especially general health discussion boards. In this exploratory study, features of health e‐mails such as enquiry subjects were investigated using content analysis. The material studied was 100 unsolicited e‐mails and 100 discussion messages sent between 2000 and 2003 by users of the UK‐based Web site MedicDirect. Issues emerging from the analysis included the high proportion of unsuitable e‐mails (up to 62 per cent) and the failure of nearly one‐third of users to find the information they sought on the Web site. Over one‐third of e‐mail senders misspelled key search terms. Readability tools could not be applied to e‐mails to assess consumer literacy, despite a suspected mismatch between Web page readability and consumer comprehension. There is ample scope for further research on these topics.

How do organisations know which problems are worthy of their attention? Despite good intentions, many attempts to solve problems fail. One reason for this failure might be because of attempts to solve non-problems or to solve problems with insufficient means, a concept proposed by Deming as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of tampering, outline what is currently known about possible practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research.

To fulfil the purpose, a narrative literature review was conducted.

Through this review, common aspects of what constitutes tampering are identified and the following definition is proposed: Tampering is a response to a perceived problem in the form of an action that is not directed at the fundamental cause of the problem, which leads to a deterioration of the process or the process output. In addition, recommendations are generated regarding how tampering manifests itself in practice and why tampering occurs. These recommendations could be studied in future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that suggests a revitalisation of tampering. The results presented in this paper form the basis for continued studies on how tampering in organisations can be understood, managed and prevented.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the desired qualities and behaviours that patients believe general practitioners (GPs) should have in medical (service recovery) encounters. In particular, the authors try to reveal the qualities and behaviours of GPs that patients value, to understand the underlying benefits that they look for during personal (service recovery) encounters, and to graphically illustrate the findings in a so‐called hierarchical value map. This will prove to be important in order to understand patients' needs and desires correctly.

An exploratory research study using the qualitative laddering interviewing technique was regarded as appropriate as it allows researchers to gain a deeper insight into an underdeveloped research subject. In total, in‐depth laddering interviews with 38 respondents were conducted.

In case of a service recovery encounter, patients believe that GPs need to show competence, friendliness and empathy in order to restore trust in them. GPs should also listen actively and do the appropriate checks in order to find the root cause of the problem. “Health” was the main value sought by patients. This value is considered by patients to be the gateway to moving on with their everyday lives and search the attainment of other values such as well‐being, belongingness, accomplishment, and self‐realization. Moreover, respondents would like to gain knowledge about their disease in order to prevent them in the future and to have some sense of control over the decision of the treatment. Patients also want a more active role in the medical (service recovery) encounter, which calls for a more shared approach by GPs in the interaction with their patients.

This paper gives a valuable first insight into the desired qualities and behaviours of GPs during medical (service recovery) encounters. The study results especially indicate that complaining patients are people first and patients second, where the primary importance is the satisfaction of basic social needs. The fact that this study has revealed the highest number of values in published laddering studies so far shows how crucial these medical (service recovery) encounters in general and GP qualities and behaviours in particular are for patients. Another strong contribution of this paper is the finding that all the identified concepts from the laddering interviews that are shown in the hierarchical value maps must not been seen in strict isolation, as in previous research, but have to be understood as a network of interrelated concepts.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer ‐ the egg producing industry ‐ adopting “egg associated” outbreak investigation reports as the reference output. Defines and makes use of four primary performance indicators: accessibility of information; completeness of evidence supplied in food‐poisoning outbreak investigation reports as to the sources of infection in “egg‐associated” outbreaks; timeliness of information published; and utility of information and advice aimed at preventing or controlling food poisoning. Finds that quality expectations in each parameter measured are not met. Examines reasons why surveillance agencies have not delivered the quality demanded. Makes use of detailed case studies to illustrate inadequacies of current practice. Attributes failure to deliver “accessibility” to a lack of recognition on the status or nature of “consumers”, combined with a self‐maintenance motivation of the part of the surveillance agencies. Finds that failures to deliver “completeness” and “utility” may result from the same defects which give rise to the lack of “accessibility” in that, failing to recognize the consumers of a public service for what they are, the agencies feel no need to provide them with the data they require. The research indicates that self‐maintenance by scientific epidemiologists may introduce biases which when combined with a politically inspired need to transfer responsibility for food‐poisoning outbreaks, skew the conduct of investigations and their conclusions. Contends that this is compounded by serious and multiple inadequacies in the conduct of investigations, arising at least in part from the lack of training and relative inexperience of investigators, the whole conditioned by interdisciplinary rivalry between the professional groups staffing the different agencies. Finds that in addition failures to exploit or develop epidemiological technologies has affected the ability of investigators to resolve the uncertainties identified. Makes recommendations directed at improving the performance of the surveillance agencies which, if adopted will substantially enhance food poisoning control efforts.

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non‐binding or so‐called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

Accident emergency hospital (AEH) services require cohesive, collective, uninterrupted streamlined medical diagnostic and satisfactory patient care. Medical service efficiency in AEHs is difficult to quantify due to the clinical complexity involved in treatment involving various units, patient conditions, changes in contemporary medical practices and technological developments. This paper aims to show how to measure efficiency by eliminating waste in AEH system, identify service failure points, identify benchmark medical services, identify patient throughput time and measure treatment time when AEH services are nonstandard. The applications shown in this paper are distinct in particular; we the authors use nontraditional and systems engineering approach to collect data as the traditional data collection is difficult in real-time AEHs.

The authors show in this study how to measure overall patient treatment time from admission to discharge. Project evaluation and review technique (PERT) captures the inconsistencies involved in measuring treatment time, including measures of variability. The irregular treatment time and complexity involved in the emergency health-care services are usual. The research methodology illustrates how the time function map and service blueprint can improve value-added time in AEHs and benchmark services between similar AEHs.

The inconsistency in treatment time between AEH in public and private hospital is found to be in ratio of 1:20. The private hospital suggests variety of treatments and long stays for recovery. The PERT computations show that the average time a patient remains in a government AEH is about 10 days. The standard deviation of the AEH treatment time is about 0.043 per cent of the expected patient care time. The inconsistency is not significant as compared to the expected value. In 89.64 per cent of the cases, a patient may be discharged in less than 10 days’ time. The patient on average is discharged in 13 days in a private hospital.

The patient treatment time of an AEH is evaluated with PERT project management approach to account for inconsistencies in treatment time. This research makes new contributions in benchmarking AEH throughput time, identify medical service failure points with service blueprint, measure the efficiency with time function map and collect patient data with nontraditional methods. The inherent inconsistencies in a clinical process are identified by PERT analysis with the variance as a characteristic of the treatment time. Improvement of variability implies cost reduction in AEH system.