COVID-19

In September 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its latest crackdown on healthcare fraud.

The last two years introduced more changes and challenges to healthcare organizations than ever before. The pandemic tested healthcare employees, who worked to the point of burnout to save lives, and highlighted severe inequities in the quality of and access to care for historically disadvantaged groups. Add to that the explosive growth of telehealth, which is reinventing healthcare delivery.

Happy New Year! 

The COVID pandemic disrupted healthcare as we knew it. But healthcare systems are taking advantage of the pandemic-driven upheaval to accelerate changes to the way they work. According to a report from Deloitte, only 9% of healthcare employees indicated that employers were innovating new ways of working before COVID-19, compared with 78% since the pandemic began.

For Cisive's most recent benchmark report, Cisive Insights: Talent Screening Trends 2021, Cisive surveyed more than 1,500 human resources, talent acquisition, compliance, and recruitment professionals worldwide to get a big picture view of the talent screening landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medical services professionals (MSPs) are the gatekeepers of patient safety. That will never change. But everything else about the MSP role is evolving rapidly, with those adjustments accelerating exponentially during the COVID pandemic.

The number of nurses experiencing burnout is trending up and has been since before the COVID-19 pandemic. That burnout comes with a hefty price tag. The National Taskforce for Humanity in Healthcare estimates that nursing burnout costs hospitals $9 billion every year. Disengagement and lost productivity drive frequent turnover and can result in lost reimbursement from failing to meet patient-satisfaction and quality-care outcomes.

Telehealth use surged in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic as governments issued stay-at-home orders and providers limited onsite health services. True, telemedicine use declined as more healthcare organizations resume normal services, as patients tend to prefer in-person doctor visits.

Employee health and well-being took center stage for many workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers faced difficult decisions regarding remote work, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and time off for employees who needed to quarantine after falling ill or being exposed to the novel coronavirus. Employees struggled with concerns about viral exposure in the workplace. In addition, employees often experienced high stress from increased workloads or financial uncertainty, as more workplaces had to furlough or terminate employees due to financial difficulties.

It’s always intriguing to find areas that improved during the pandemic. According to applicants, it happened in recruiting. The 2020 North American Candidate Experience Research Report found positive sentiment from candidates shot up (from 25% to 31%), while resentment dropped (from 14% to 8%). This finding leads to the obvious question: Why?