Over the past months, health care facilities continue to respond to the global pandemic as they race to care for the rising number of patients. Likewise, their systems continue to evolve to keep up with the changing times. These adjustments and developments are not only to accommodate patients’ current needs, but they are also expected to carry over to situations after the pandemic passes.
In line with that, digital transformation has been at the forefront in the healthcare industry, with a focus on three areas—virtual care, financial impact, and crisis management.
A More Permanent Virtual Care
Healthcare professionals and patients quickly adopted virtual care amid the rising concerns of physical assessments due to the global pandemic. Despite the quick and significant healthcare change, most professionals and patients alike have started to grow comfortable in virtual care, which has now become a part of the “new normal.”
In that case, healthcare organizations must develop a more permanent solution for virtual care, including the integration of telehealth technology, clinical protocols, reimbursements, and the revamping of physician practice processes to support virtual care. Moreover, patient care management across various settings is essential to give way to remote monitoring that can move chronic disease management to the patients’ homes. Additionally, this will lead to healthcare professionals to access patients at nursing homes without the need to take the patient to a health center.
With all of these changes in the healthcare organizations, providers must also consider patients’ expectations to deliver an excellent experience. For this reason, many healthcare systems have doubled down on their efforts to transform the technologies that will allow them to handle routine interactions.
Management Of Financial Impact And Significant Revenue Loss
Health systems and hospitals have lost billions of money since the pandemic hit. Despite the growing number of patients who are starting to return for treatments, hospital admissions remain lower than the previous year’s. To rise above this situation, healthcare establishments must put more focus on value-based care, which includes investing in digital health opportunities.
For one, healthcare organizations may look into investing in analytics, support for care managers, and remote patient monitoring. Additionally, to reduce expenses, they must review opportunities to implement digital health tools that will allow them to streamline clinical and administrative operations. This will be especially beneficial for individuals that don’t have easy access to healthcare facilities.
Focus On Crisis Management
The global pandemic has taught healthcare organizations worldwide that specific aspects of crisis management are more permanent to avoid rapid decision-making to rise above the challenges that brought them. These advances must not be put away once the pandemic subsides. In fact, healthcare systems must find ways to cement these, despite the lack of crisis to drive them. Furthermore, they must review the best and quickest ways to identify and perform experiments using digital health technologies to help them develop well-thought-of and supported decisions.
Conclusion
With all of the changes witnessed in the past few months, digital health transformation will be significant in the coming years, even once the pandemic subsides. It’s a powerful indicator that humans, despite the months that have brought significant changes, still have the power to prepare for whatever is to come next. Digital health solutions will play a vital role in healthcare systems and organizations, which will create a better, new normal that will bring more health security in the years to come.
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