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This study aims to examine the perceptions and evaluations of Muslim COVID-19 survivors and health workers regarding the halal, business and ethical attributes of hospitals during their interactions related to COVID-19 treatment.

Descriptive qualitative research with semi-structured online interviews was used to gather insights from COVID-19 survivors and health workers who treated COVID-19 patients. The findings were then compared with existing literature on hospital services and Sharia attributes.

The study found that patients and health-care workers in hospitals are concerned about whether the hospital follows Sharia law, the quality of health-care and hospital services and the ethical conduct of hospital staff. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when patients are more anxious about religious conduct and the afterlife.

Hospitals need to address halal attributes in all aspects of their services for Muslim patients and business attributes such as standard health-care quality, service quality and ethical attributes. Participants indicated that when these needs are met, they are more likely to revisit the hospital and recommend it to others.

This study contributes to understanding the expectations of Muslim patients regarding hospital services that meet Islamic ethical and business requirements. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study broadens the understanding of how to better serve Muslim customers.

Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to explore the impact of soft aspects of service quality on revisit intention through the mechanism of perceived empathy.

For the examination of the hypothesized relationships, the study adopts structural equation modelling to analyse the data of 562 respondents (i.e. 281 family members and 281 inpatients).

The empirical results suggest that service quality increased family member empathy perception, which, in turn, improved inpatients’ revisit intentions.

Past studies have focused on the roles of overall service quality. The authors have extended the literature by examining the specific but important aspect of service quality and its effects on emotional response. Importantly, the study explains that the affective reactions of a patient’s family, fastened with perceived empathy, have a central role in influencing the patients’ subsequent reactions. Moreover, the prior studies collected the data either from hospital employees or patients. However, in the present study, the authors used a unique sample (family members as well as patients) to have a deeper understanding. Thus, the study enhances the literature on the stimuli-response (i.e. service quality – revisit intentions) relationship in the context of service marketing in general and health care in specific. Important academic and managerial contributions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to determine the interactions between factors such as organizational learning, feedback about errors, punitive response to errors and communication quality in hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Colombia when adopting a culture of quality and safety (CQS) in patient care.

Based on a literature review, a self-administered questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from 417 Saudi respondents affiliated with hospitals and 483 Colombian respondents at the beginning of the pandemic. Structural equation modeling is used in this study to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results show a solid and significant predictive relationship between feedback about errors and the CQS in both countries (Colombia: b = 0.55, p < 0.001; KSA: b = 0.44, p < 0.001), but a very low and insignificant predictive relationship between no punitive response to errors and CQS (Colombia: b = –0.02, p > 0.05; KSA: b = 0.05, p > 0.05).

This study demonstrates the importance of organizational learning in fostering a CQS in the health-care sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Colombia. Recent unprecedented policy actions motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as social distancing, lockdowns and safety practices enforcement, have further highlighted this concern. Moreover, attention to the dimensions addressed in this study is required for accreditation purposes in organizations seeking to promote a CQS. Overall, this research highlights the vital role of safety and quality practices among health-care organizations, which has significant policy implications, especially in the current period of high uncertainty.

This paper contributes to the theory and practice in the health-care sector by extending the current knowledge of the impact of the quality of communications, non-punitive response to errors and feedback about errors in organizational learning and safety culture, and by presenting a novel, quantitative methodology seldom used for these topics.

Drawing on the pay-for-performance (P4P) and job satisfaction literatures through an analysis of qualitative studies published on the topic, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a P4P-based system on job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among health care workers.

A meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature was conducted to investigate health care workers' opinions, perceptions and behaviors and fully understand what processes generate job satisfaction or dissatisfaction under P4P systems.

The findings suggest that P4P systems impact the job (dis-)satisfaction of health care workers based on the institutional, organizational, geographic and cultural context of reference. Specifically, job satisfaction – and thus motivation, occupational well-being and work engagement – can occur when the context is supportive, whereas job dissatisfaction – and thus work stress and pressure, burnout and work-life balance issues and distraction – is generated in the case of unsupportive contexts. Moreover, the findings suggest a virtuous/vicious circle whereby job satisfaction leads to positive performance and further fuels job satisfaction, while conversely job dissatisfaction generates worse performance, and this further worsens worker satisfaction.

There is a lack of studies comparing and analyzing current evidence on the job (dis-)satisfaction of health care workers operating in different contexts based on the reward system. This is the first research to analyze a significant number of studies with reference to the relation between P4P and job (dis-)satisfaction, which are topics in need of further study and investigation in health care settings around the world.

This study aims to examine customer preferences toward Sharia hospitals and to provide a new viewpoint by looking at consumers’ perspectives on choosing health-care services. Despite the growing demand for halal products, halal services, particularly hospital and Sharia-based health-care services, receive very little attention in the literature compared to other Sharia-type services such as Sharia banking, insurance or even hospitality. Previous research on health care discussed under the Sharia perspective mainly focused on service quality, directing discussions to the service providers’ perspectives.

This study uses choice-based conjoint analysis to examine customer preferences toward Sharia health-care service. There are five attributes with three levels each. To reduce respondent fatigue, the authors used SPSS Orthoplan to generate an orthogonal factorial design, which resulted in 21 choice cards. Cross-sectional data were collected from an online survey using a platform from Populix, an independent panel survey provider, to ensure no sample selection bias. A total of 270 responses were obtained to represent Muslim populations across Indonesia.

The results showed that the highest preference is highly rated to the familiarity and certification of the hospital brand that implies trust and guarantees to add value with the existence of halal certification for hospitals. In addition, this study revealed that Sharia services have higher positive signals over the physical infrastructure in determining preferences. On the other hand, add-on components that support the integration of other halal industries, such as halal culinary tourism, halal tourism and integration with transportation and halal accommodation, are still minor in the current preference.

Previous research on health care discussed under the Sharia perspective mainly focused on service quality, which directs the discussions to the service providers’ perspectives. This study provides a new point of view by looking at consumers’ perspectives about their preferences and decisions to choose a Sharia hospital.

In 2011, Brazil introduced a national pay-for-performance (P4P) scheme called the National Program for Improving Primary Health Care Access and Quality (PMAQ), rolled out over three cycles and reaching more than 5,000 municipalities and 40,000 family health teams (FHTs). There is little evidence on how the PMAQ was implemented locally and whether this variation in implementation affects performance, particularly, in terms of work process indicators. This study compared different cases of municipal-level PMAQ implementation (bonuses paid or not to FHTs) over the last two program cycles to analyze the quality of the work processes, actions and services of FHTs.

This was a cross-sectional analytical study using secondary data from an external evaluation of the Brazilian PMAQ. In total, 27,500 FHTs participated in the evaluation. They were divided into four clusters based on whether or not municipalities paid bonuses to workers during cycles 2 and 3 of the program (2013–2019). Variables regarding work processes, actions and services were classified as “Quality Assurance – QA” or “Continued Quality Improvement – CQI”, and an individual score was assigned based on the average score of each variable.

The four clusters displayed an increase in overall QA and CQI scores between the two program cycles; though this increase was small between the set of primary health care teams that received bonuses and those that did not.

This paper contributes to bridging the gap in the scientific literature for evaluative studies on the relationship between direct payment for performance to health professionals and better quality actions and services in low and middle-income countries.

The various quality improvement (QI) frameworks and maturity models described in the health services literature consider some aspects of QI while excluding others. This paper aims to present a concerted attempt to create a quality improvement maturity model (QIMM) derived from holistic principles underlying the successful implementation of system-wide QI programmes.

A hybrid methodology involving a systematic review (Phase 1) of over 270 empirical research articles and books developed the basis for the proposed QIMM. It was followed by expert interviews to refine the core constructs and ground the proposed QIMM in contemporary QI practice (Phase 2). The experts included academics in two academic conferences and 59 QI managers from the New Zealand health-care system. In-depth interviews were conducted with QI managers to ascertain their views on the QIMM and its applicability in their respective health organisations (HOs).

The QIMM consists of four dimensions of organisational maturity, namely, strategic, process, supply chain and philosophical maturity. These dimensions progress through six stages, namely, identification, ad-hoc, formal, process-driven, optimised enterprise and finally a way of life. The application of the QIMM by the QI managers revealed that the scope of QI and the breadth of the principles adopted by the QI managers and their HOs in New Zealand is limited.

The importance of QI in health systems cannot be overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality.

This paper contributes new knowledge by presenting a maturity model with an integrated set of quality principles for HOs and their extended supply networks.

Based on the stimuli-organism-response model and relationship marketing theory, the effect of different dimensions of Servicescape (Ambience, Cleanliness, Functionality, Spatial Layout, Employee Service Quality) on Customer Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic are considered.

The study takes a quantitative approach, applying structural equation model using partial least square structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. A total of 360 responses were collected using questionnaires distributed to different individuals who visited private hospitals in the past two months in India.

Contradicting previous research, this study found that among servicescape dimensions, employee service quality had the maximum influence on customer satisfaction and cleanliness does not have any significant impact on customer satisfaction as hypothesized. Mediation results show that customer satisfaction has a partial mediation effect for all servicescape dimensions except ambience, as both direct and indirect effects are significant. Importance-performance map analysis was performed on the responses collected, and it was found that employee service quality is the most important dimension affecting servicescape, followed by functionality and spatial layout. Thus, health-care institutions should focus on these factors to keep their customers satisfied.

Past studies have focused on the roles of servicescape and customer satisfaction separately. The authors have extended the literature by examining the combined effects of both servicescape and customer satisfaction. The findings from the study, therefore, help in developing a deeper understanding of the literature on the behavior intention relationship in the context of health care, as well as in service marketing.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a surge in demand for health-care facilities, medicines, vaccines and other health-care items. The purpose of this study is to investigate different facets of integrated Green Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 approach in the context of COVID-19 for better healthcare management. Integrating Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has the potential to meet the modern demand of health-care units and also leads to improving the quality of inpatient care with better safety, hygiene and real-time diagnoses. A systematic review has been conducted to determine the tools/techniques, challenges, application areas and potential benefits for the adoption of an integrated GLSS-I4.0 approach within health-care facilities from the perspective of COVID management. Further, a conceptual framework of integrated GLSS-I4.0 has been proposed for better COVID management.

To conduct the literature review, the authors used the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis and covers relevant papers from the arrival of COVID-19. Based on the systematic understanding of the different facets of the integrated GLSS-I4.0 approach and through insights of experts (academicians and health-care personnel), a conceptual framework is proposed to combat COVID-19 for better detection, prevention and cure.

The systematic review presented here provides different avenues to comprehend the different facets of the integrated GLSS-I4.0 approach in different areas of COVID health-care management. In this study, the proposed framework reveals that the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence are the major constituents of I4.0 technologies that lead to better COVID management. Moreover, integration of I4.0 with GLSS aids during different stages of the COVID management, right from diagnosis, manufacture of items and inpatient and outpatient care of the affected person.

This study provides a significant knowledge database to the practitioners by understanding different tools and techniques of an integrated approach for better COVID management. Moreover, the proposed framework aids to grab day-to-day information from the affected people and ensures reduced hospital stay with better space utilization and the creation of a healthy environment around the patient. This inclusive implementation of the proposed framework will enhance knowledge base in medical areas and provides different novel prospects to combat other medical urgencies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to review different facets of the integrated GLSS-I4.0 approach with a view of the COVID health-care perspective and provides a conceptual framework.

The purpose of this study is to develop a model describing different factors that affect quality and efficiency in transitional care.

A meta-synthesis focusing on the transitions between wards was conducted within a research project. The results from eight studies within that research project have been combined and analysed from a holistic view.

The findings are a model with a description of seven different categories consisting of the identified factors affecting quality and efficiency in transitional care. Those categories are (1) learning organisation, (2) standardising and structuring, (3) applying a holistic view, (4) understanding organisational culture in a health care context, (5) management and leadership, (6) for whom value is created and (7) working together. The results from the study have been verified in previous research.

The result of the completed meta-synthesis is based on studies conducted at two medium-sized hospitals in Sweden. The developed model can be used in a similar context to improve quality and efficiency in patient transfers by management and employees working based on the various factors.

This model describes factors (success factors, prerequisites, conditions and lack thereof) affecting the ability to achieve quality and efficiency in transitional care that can be used in future research as well as for practical improvements.