Addressing unforeseen public health risks via the use of sustainable system and process management

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was designated by the World Health Organization in January 2020 as a newly emerging coronavirus in 2019, and its variants have placed unbearable strain on the healthcare systems of various countries, with serious implications for sustainable development worldwide. Researchers have proposed several solutions, such as the use of digital technologies to improve prevention systems. However, the challenges of epidemic prevention and control failures have not been addressed fundamentally, as the key causes of epidemic failures (i.e., outbreaks) and strategies for process management have been neglected. The purpose of the current study is to address these issues by exploring the causes of epidemic prevention and control failure and targeting improvement strategies that combine system structure of epidemic prevention and process management. Specifically, following an exploration of the main reasons for COVID-19 prevention and control failures through a case study of two tertiary hospitals, this paper outlines a targeted prevention and control system based on triangular validation and a loosely coupled process management framework and verifies the expected results using simulation methods together with statistical data on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China. The findings not only advance the development of epidemic risk prevention and control theory, especially the complementary nature of IT applications and process management in the field of epidemic risk prevention and control, but also provide guidance on the innovation and implementation of epidemic prevention and control systems and process management and recommendations for countries to promote sustainable development from a health-focused perspective.