Months after the COVID-19 pandemic blew up in the first quarter of 2020, events around the crisis are still unfolding. Just when nations are starting to relax their measures, the number of infections would rise again, prompting them to reinstate previous restrictions. Businesses leaders who thought things were finally settling down have been shaken up by these new waves as well.
This health crisis has been and continues to disrupt the world in unprecedented ways.
On that note, it’s worth mentioning that the healthcare industry has been battling this overwhelming adversary non-stop from the start. Consequently, this fight against the coronavirus is not only draining the workers of the healthcare industry but also its resources.
The Pandemic’s Blow on the Healthcare Industry’s Finances
The pandemic is drastically changing health IT spending. It has also been hurling challenges left and right. In fact, during the first four months after the pandemic was declared, it is reported that non-federal hospitals lost around $161.4 billion in revenue. Furthermore, the net financial impact of hospitalizations related to COVID-19 is known to be around $36.6 billion.
With this, leaders in the health IT industry are forced to carry a heavy weight they have never borne before.
Particularly, they must think differently and shift their priorities to what is both urgent and important. They need to find ways to utilize the limited funds and staff resources wisely during these sensitive times. On top of that, all of their efforts must work towards ensuring care continuity amidst this situation.
What Health IT Teams Can Do to Help Cope With These Challenges
Now more than ever is the time for IT teams to practice agility to meet the needs of healthcare providers. They must work hand-in-hand with them to enable them to deliver continuous care amidst the ongoing pandemic.
Some efforts worth exploring are infrastructure assessments, employment of managed services, as well as software and hardware management life cycle analyses. All of these help keep operations efficient—maybe even streamline them.
Health IT leaders must also consider and support the massive shift to remote work as this can help reduce the need for commercial space.
As for the CIOs and technical heads, their goal at this point must be to identify areas where costs can be reduced and when they can be cut. They must also reassess their current services and identify which aspects can be scaled back. The focus needs to shift from older services to new workflows via virtual care and automation—workflows that are helpful in this period of reduced physical interactions.
Ultimately, CIOs must not only find that balance between reducing their costs to respond to the current crisis. They must also start investing in a new business operations model to prepare for the post-pandemic world.
What Can Be Done to Control Costs
Before anything else, organizations must reassess where their funds are going. While they may have been funding temporary solutions that were placed during the first work transition, it’s high time to start exploring more permanent solutions. Doing so will help any health IT firm rein in their IT costs and keep their cash flow positive.
Finally, teams must identify redundant or abandoned resources to help them save money and preserve their bottom line in the long run.
Conclusion
These unprecedented times are presenting health IT workers and leaders with more challenges with each passing day. These are obstacles that the industry must learn to face and overcome to ensure care continuity. It will not be an easy task, but there are measures that can be taken to get started. As long as both the leaders and the workers work together to optimize finances, the industry will remain a resilient force amidst this pandemic.
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