COVID-19/Pandemics: Sustaining Healthcare Operations in Disastrous Environment

Dear Colleagues,

COVID-19, a pandemic with reported deaths of at least 7 million and over 600 million confirmed cases globally, as of September 2022 [1], is having an unprecedented and erratic effect on healthcare operations. Such an effect is potentially long-lasting, even for vaccinated individuals. Due to the highly transmittable nature of COVID-19, healthcare operations have changed, e.g., with the promotion of telemedicine, the implementation of contact restrictions, and less non-urgent hospital treatments being offered [2,3,4]. Healthcare employees have been suffering from long working hours and fear of becoming infected, resulting in adverse psychological symptoms [5] New healthcare equipment or wards are necessary to reduce the transmission speed of the COVID-19 virus across healthcare facilities [6], and efficiently utilize COVID-19 testing methodologies [7]. AI technologies such as machine learning or blockchain technologies can be useful for diagnosis, telemedicine and hospital operations planning [8,9].

In addition, people that have recovered from COVID-19 may have long-term symptoms that affect their physical and neuropsychiatric health without explanation. This is known as ‘long COVID’ [10], and includes symptoms such as breathlessness, myalgia, anxiety, extreme fatigue, and so on. Research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) shows that there are about 145 million people with these long COVID symptoms [11]. This highlights the urgent need for more research for healthcare operations, systems and government agencies to develop rehabilitative and healthcare support services [12], and to build cost-effective and resilient healthcare systems [13].

Most importantly, the COVID-19 virus is here to stay [14]. Future pandemics with infectious diseases from wildlife to people are inevitable [15]. To live with these ongoing pandemic situations, new methodologies, strategies and operations are required in this severely dynamic business environment [16]. This Special Issue focuses on the sustainable development of healthcare service operations while enduring COVID-19 or future pandemics. The scope of the Special Issue is broad in order to report on real-world situations and changes in healthcare service operations in the post-COVID-19 world, and potential pandemics in the future.

Our intent is to investigate new business practices and environments that help to sustain healthcare operations in current and future pandemic environments for researchers and practitioners working in the field. Thus, we are looking for theories and practices that are applicable not only to COVID-19 recovery but also to future pandemics. Research on digital technologies being used to address healthcare service operations for pandemics are relevant to this Special Issue. New empirical research papers, systematic literature reviews, and case reports are welcome for submission to this issue. Successful real-world implementation is strongly encouraged. Simulations and modeling without empirical relevance are not the focus of this issue.

References

1. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). New COVID-19 forecasts. 2020. Available online: http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/new-covid-19-forecasts-us-hospitals-could-be-overwhelmed-second-week-april-demand-icu (accessed on 30 March 2020).
2. Lee, S. M.; Lee, D. Opportunities and challenges for contactless healthcare services in the post-COVID-19 Era. Forecast. Soc. Change 2021, 167, 120712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120712.
3. Nuzzi, R.; Deraco, F.; Scalabrin, S. The Prevalence of Teleophthalmology in the Piedmont Region of Italy: Current Situation and Future Perspectives. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8608. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148608.
4. ALsharif, A. H. Attitudes of Patients with Chronic Diseases toward Management eHealth Applications Systems in Post-COVID-19 Times. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 4289. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074289.
5. AlKandari, S.; Salman, A.; Al-Ghadban, F.; hmad, R. A Cross-Sectional Study to Examine the Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Healthcare Workers in Kuwait. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10464. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710464.
6. Ren, J.; Duan, S.; Guo, L.; Li, H.;Kong, X. Effects of Return Air Inlets’ Location on the Control of Fine Particle Transportation in a Simulated Hospital Ward. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 11185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811185.
7. Gao, M. Z.; Chou, Y. H.; Chang, Y. Z.; Pai, J. Y.; Bair, H.; Pai, S.; Yu, N. C. Designing Mobile Epidemic Prevention Medical Stations for the COVID-19 Pandemic and International Medical Aid. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9959. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169959.
8. Queiroz, M. M.; Fosso Wamba, S. A structured literature review on the interplay between emerging technologies and COVID-19–insights and directions to operations fields. Oper. Res. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-021-04107-y.
9. Fusco, A.; Dicuonzo, G.; Dell’Atti, V.; Tatullo, M. Blockchain in healthcare: Insights on COVID-19. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7167. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197167.
10. Sykes, D. L.; Holdsworth, L.; Jawad, N.; Gunasekera, P.; Morice, A. H.; Crooks, M. G. Post-COVID-19 symptom burden: what is long-COVID and how should we manage it? Lung 2021, 199, 113– https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-021-00423-z.
11. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). WHO: At least 17 million people in the WHO European Region experienced long COVID in the first two years of the pandemic; millions may have to live with it for years to come. 2022. Available online: https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/who-least-17-million-people-who-european-region-experienced-long-covid-first-two-years (accessed on 13 September 2022).
12. Sachs, J. D.; Karim, S. S. A.; Aknin, L.; Allen, J.; Brosbøl, K.; Colombo, F., Barron,G.C. ; Espinosa, M.F.; Gaspar, V.; Gaviria,A, et al. The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the covid-19 pandemic. The Lancet 2022. https://org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01585-9.
13. National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Researching long COVID: addressing a new global health challenge. 2022. Available online: https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/themedreview/researching-long-covid-addressing-a-new-global-health-challenge/ (accessed on 12 May 2022).
14. European Commission. COVID-19: Commission calls on member states to step up preparedness for the enxt pandemic phase. European Commision Proess corner. 2022. Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_2646 (accessed on 6 September 2022)
15. Smith, J. Q&A Future pandemics are inevitable, but we can reduce the risk. Horizon The EU Reserach & Innovation Managzine. 2021. Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/qa-future-pandemics-are-inevitable-we-can-reduce-risk (accessed on 6 September 2022)
16. Gupta, S.; Starr, M.K.; Farahani, R.Z.; Asgari, N. OM Forum—Pandemics/Epidemics: Challenges and Opportunities for Operations Management Research. Serv. Oper. Manag. 2022, 24, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0965

Dr. Antonio K.W. Lau
Dr. Stacy H. Lee
Dr. Young Sik Cho
Guest Editors

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