Editor’s overview

Greetings and best wishes to all of our readers for this new issue of the Quality Management Journal. This edition of the journal again highlights our growing international presence. This parallels the increased international presence of ASQ. I just returned from four weeks in Rome and Paris and have seen the need for improved quality and service around the world. Following are the articles in this edition: The first article is Assessing Patient Satisfaction with Emergency Department Care Delivery Using a Patient Experience Framework by Yann B. Ferrand (James M. Hull College of Business, Augusta University), Lawrence D. Fredendall (Wilbur O. and Anne Powers College of Business, Clemson University), Jennifer C. Siemens (Wilbur O. and Anne Powers College of Business, Clemson University), Danny Weathers (Wilbur O. and Anne Powers College of Business, Clemson University), Ronald G. Pirrallo (Professor, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville), Matthew D. Bitner (University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville). According to the authors, “Patient satisfaction with their experience during an emergency department (ED) visit is affected both by the quality of the clinical care received and the process of care delivered. This study adapts the generic quality framework developed by Golder, Mitra, and Moorman (2012) (GMM) with a Patient Experience Framework (PEF) tailored to the specific nature of ED care delivery, to systematically review research about ED patient experience.” They propose areas for future research in the area of ED. The second paper is Back to the Future: Cybernetics for Safety, Quality and Cybersecurity by Dr. Deborah Cernauskas (College of Business, Benedictine University) and Dr. Andrew Kumiega (Illinois Institute of Technology). They provide a “holistic framework that ensures Industry 4.0 systems include Internet of Things (IOT) devices and computer systems designed to be fail safed during cyber-attacks.” They find that “the integration of roles and responsibilities cannot succeed without a similarly aligned cross-functional approach, including a RAIC framework.” The third paper is Impact of Lean and Quality Management Practices on Green Supply Chain Performance: An Empirical Study on Ceramic Enterprises by Kailash Choudhary (Indian Institute of Management Shillong), Narpat Ram Sangwa (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roper), Kuldip Singh Sangwan (IndoGerman Center for Sustainable Manufacturing, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani), and Rajesh Kr Singh (Management Development Institute, Gurgaon). “In the last three decades, lean and quality management practices have been employed by the manufacturing organizations but limited studies have analyzed impact of lean and quality practices on green supply chain performance.” This paper studies this important area. The last paper is Understanding Quality Factors of Electronic Health Service in an Emerging Economy by Md Al-Emran (College of Business, McNeese State University), Shahidul Islam (Faculty of Business Studies – Comilla University) and Ahasan Harun (College of Business, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). “In the context of an emerging economy, this research investigates consumers’ experiences with electronic health service systems and their impact on satisfaction and future usage intention.” This deepens their understanding of transferring mechanisms and boundary conditions.