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The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated a shift to remote working for previously office-based employees in South Africa, impacting employee outcomes such as well-being. The remote work trend is expected to continue even post the pandemic, necessitating for organizational understanding of the factors impacting employee well-being. Using the Job Demands–Resources model as the theoretical framework, this study aims to understand the role of job demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being in the pandemic context.

A self-administered online survey questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data about remote workers’ (n = 204) perceptions of specifically identified demands, resources and employee well-being. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and moderated hierarchical regression were used to analyse the data.

This study found that job demands in the form of work–home conflict were associated with reduced employee well-being. Resources, namely, job autonomy, effective communication and social support were associated with increased employee well-being. Job autonomy was positively correlated to remote work frequency, and gender had a significant positive association to work–home conflict. Social support was found to moderate the relationship between work–home conflict and employee well-being. Findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. This study advances knowledge on the role of demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being of remote workforces during COVID-19 and beyond.

This paper provides insight on employee well-being during COVID-19 remote work. Further, the findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study carried out to explore the employee well-being during COVID-19 pandemic and will be beneficial to stakeholders for understanding the factors impacting employee well-being.

This paper aims to address problems in patient flow and identify the reasons behind extensive wait time at a public liver transplant outpatient clinic in an education and research hospital through the use of Lean health-care theories.

This paper opted for the application of Lean thinking and action research strategy. Data were collected through personal observations, interviews with users and team brainstorming. A value stream map was developed, improvement possibilities were identified and non-value-added activities were attempted to be eliminated.

Significant problems were identified and improvements were implemented and measured. The major remedial measures were: change the scheduling pattern, create a flow chart and a Kanban visual guide for medical students. In addition, an institutional change in the medical appointment scheduling software collaborated in the reduction of time and in the patient’s displacement. The waiting time was reduced by 4.5 h, and the per cent complete and accurate increased by 50 per cent.

The flow was redesigned, and a culture of continuous improvement was introduced. Visiting the place where work was being done, leaders identified and created more value to the process without significant costs. The Gemba Walk was a powerful tool, interacting with people and processes in a Kaizen spirit.

Public health services in developing countries are one of the most deprived social needs of good practice. It will be useful for those who need examples about how to apply Lean tools in health care.

This paper highlights public health issues arising in prisons due to overcrowding – focusing on existence of tuberculosis (TB) and its transmission in a TB endemic country. It further addresses feasible TB management, to develop an applicable preventive intervention that will control TB transmission and development within and outside prisons. This study aims to decrease morbidity and mortality caused by TB by identifying latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) cases.

A novel cross-sectional study conducted on male prisoners of Central Prison Rawalpindi, dividing them into three strata, i.e. under-trial (UTP), convicted (CTP) and condemned (CP) prisoners. Prevalence of latent TB infection within prisoners was methodologically calculated using multiple statistical analysis at 95% confidence interval. This research sourced an invasive skin test (Mantoux test) for primary data collection from targeted key population.

This research calculated existing prevalence of LTBI at 47.25%, 47.45% and 53%, respectively in UTP, CTP and CP prisoners, and 32.2% in total prison population. Overcrowding, poor health conditions and excessive smoking presented strong statistical significance to high LTBI prevalence across the prison population.

Limitations included accessibility to prisons due to procedural concealment, and unannounced release of UTPs that was dealt through supplementary testing. The presented research findings highlight the disease spread across key populations, and the importance of identifying, containing and controlling them. It elaborates the crucial use of Mantoux tuberculin skin test (TST) to identify and isolate LTBI and potential TB cases in a closed population. It also facilitates policy implications that promote health and safety for prisoners, law enforcers and associated external population.

TB is one of the top 10 fatal illnesses and second highest infectious disease worldwide. For decades, TB ruled over human health and threatened their survival. Health-care professionals face challenges in locating, isolating, treating and controlling TB across the globe. Pakistan is a TB endemic country that internationally ranks fifth in nations with high TB burden. LTBI prevalence is unknown in Pakistan. Key populations are well-known to comparatively live with higher rates of infectious disease. Therefore, this research targeted a key population and has successfully calculated LTBI prevalence in overcrowded male prison population.

Key populations are at high risk of contracting and transmitting communicable diseases. They not only possess higher disease incidences, but are also responsible for disease-spread within and outside their community. Targeting them will help in controlling for LTBI across prison population as well as the external population that is associated with the prisoners. TST allowed maximum screening coverage, encapsulated LTBI, spread awareness and eliminated stigmatisation.

Prevalence of TB and LTBI are unknown in Pakistan. This novel research calculated LTBI prevalence through primary data collection and targeted key populations. Authors collected primary data on case-by-case basis. This study has efficaciously located and isolated LTBI cases among the sample population following internationally standardised TST procedures.

This study aims to investigate the indirect relationship between exploitative leadership (EL) and psychological distress through emotional complexity. This study also predicted that belief in organizational conspiracy theories moderates the association between EL and emotional complexity. Furthermore, forgiveness climate acts as a boundary condition between emotional complexity and psychological distress.

The respondents of this time-lagged study (N = 325) were working in five-star and four-star hotels in three cities located in Pakistan, namely, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore. Data were collected through the questionnaire.

Results revealed that exploitative leaders cause emotional complexity among hotel employees, enhancing their psychological distress. The study further showed that hotel employees who believe in organizational conspiracy theories are more likely to experience emotional complexity under an exploitative leader. Additionally, the perceived forgiveness climate moderates the relationship between emotional complexity and psychological distress.

Hotel managers should avoid hiring those candidates for leadership positions who have a tendency to engage in exploitative behavior. Managers should maintain regular communication with hotel workers to minimize beliefs in organizational conspiracy theories. Managers should also develop a forgiveness climate to minimize psychological distress among hotel employees.

It is one of the few studies investigating the negative consequences of EL, particularly in the hospitality industry. This study has also identified the underlying causes of psychological distress among hotel workers.

Asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants’ access to healthcare vary in South Africa and Cape Town due to unclear legal status. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the source of this variation, the divergence between the 1996 South African Constitution, the immigration laws, and regulations and to describe its harmful consequences.

Based on legal and ethnographic research, this paper documents the disjuncture between South African statutes and regulations and the South African Constitution regarding refugees and migrants’ access to healthcare. Research involved examining South African jurisprudence, the African Charter, and United Nations’ materials regarding rights to health and health care access, and speaking with civil society organizations and healthcare providers. These sources inform the description of the immigrant access to healthcare in Cape Town, South Africa.

Asylum-seekers and refugees are entitled to health and emergency care; however, hospital administrators require documentation (up-to-date permits) before care can be administered. Many immigrants – especially the undocumented – are often unable to obtain care because of a lack of papers or because of “progressive realization,” the notion that the state cannot presently afford to provide treatment in accordance with constitutional rights. These explanations have put healthcare providers in an untenable position of not being able to treat patients, including some who face fatal conditions.

The research is limited by the fact that South African courts have not adjudicated a direct challenge to being refused care at healthcare facility on the basis of legal status. This limits the ability to know how rights afforded to “everyone” within the South African Constitution will be interpreted with respect to immigrants seeking healthcare. The research is also limited by the non-circulation of healthcare admissions policies among leading facilities in the Cape Town region where the case study is based.

Articulation of the disjuncture between the South African Constitution and the immigration laws and regulations allows stakeholders and decision-makers to reframe provincial and municipal policies about healthcare access in terms of constitutional rights and the practical limitations accommodated through progressive realization.

In South Africa, immigration statutes and regulations are inconsistent and deemed unconstitutional with respect to the treatment of undocumented migrants. Hospital administrators are narrowly interpreting the laws to instruct healthcare providers on how to treat patients and whom they can treat. These practices need to stop. Access to healthcare must be structured to comport with the constitutional right afforded to everyone, and with progressive realization pursued through a non – discriminatory policy regarding vulnerable immigrants.

This paper presents a unique case study that combines legal and social science methods to explore a common and acute question of health care access. The case is novel and instructive insofar as South Africa has not established refugee camps in response to rising numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants. South Africans thus confront a “first world” question of equitable access to healthcare within their African context and with limited resources in a climate of increasing xenophobia.

The healthcare ecosystem continues to evolve with new technological developments with the support of its stakeholders. The technology-driven and patient-centric Healthcare 5.0 (H5.0) ecosystem is undergoing a transformation promising enormous benefits. However, the need to identify and understand the inherent challenges and barriers faced in the journey of H5.0 implementation and the relevant countermeasures for accelerated implementation has become critical.

The current research paper has utilised the Delphi approach for the collection of information and applied a well-proven quality function deployment (QFD) methodology for analysis.

The house of quality (HOQ) tool from the QFD has highlighted the critical H5.0 challenges which contribute to, approximately, 60% of the total weight. The identified top five process descriptors from the developed HOQ also contribute, approximately 60% among overall countermeasures. A useful H5.0 implementation progress (HIP) index has been recommended for tracking the progress made in the H5.0 implementation journey.

This research is among the first that has provided the application of the HOQ approach in the QFD methodology in the domain of H5.0. It has provided useful insights to the stakeholders. Furthermore, the development of a simple and practical HIP index is another useful value addition.