Healthcare

Many healthcare organizations adopted telemedicine for the first time during COVID-19, introducing a wave of process changes. Assessing healthcare providers’ competencies and licenses without meeting them in person was new to many, but a wider adoption of credentialing by proxy makes the process more accessible.

After decades of growth and innovation, health technology took an enormous leap forward in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. From contact tracing to treatment to slowing the spread, innovative technology has been crucial in healthcare’s fight against the novel coronavirus.

Here are a few of the ways that healthcare organizations, tech developers, and researchers have leveraged technology to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and maintain a safe workforce.

Medical history is fraught with racial disparities in healthcare, and the problem persists today. Pregnancy-related mortality rates for black women in the U.S.

During our current health crisis, it is even more vital that healthcare organizations blend patient-first care with operational expertise. Physician leaders are on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis, and they’re under a lot of pressure to provide exceptional care while maintaining operational excellence.

Employee engagement has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery. Within the past decade, healthcare HR teams demonstrated a strong correlation between employee engagement and better patient outcomes and experiences. Today, the evidence is insurmountable. 

Many supporters of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare promote its potential for improving diagnostics, predicting treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes, and providing new insights into EHR data and population health. While AI does have potential for clinical application, it may also have a future in healthcare human resource (HR) departments.

The coronavirus pandemic sent seismic shifts through the healthcare industry, forcing organizations and workforces to evolve at a breathtaking speed. For the first time, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) annual conference was held virtually this past August. While many healthcare systems were gearing up for change before COVID-19 hit, the pandemic exponentially accelerated the pace of change.

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are increasingly focused on improving the quality of patient care. This is driven partly by the move to value-based reimbursement models, competition among healthcare companies, and the more recent COVID-19 public health emergency, which put a spotlight on healthcare’s strengths and weaknesses.

With more attention than ever placed on the quality of care, what can healthcare organizations do to improve? Here are a few ideas you should consider.

Healthcare organizations are changing and adapting at a startling velocity. COVID-19’s rapid spread accelerated changes that were on the distant horizon at the beginning of the year throughout the U.S. As human resources professionals, much of the responsibility for helping your workforce navigate the new pace of change falls squarely on your shoulders. 

As COVID-19 continues its course, schools across the U.S. have embraced distance learning to prioritize student safety and wellbeing in the midst of the pandemic. But most healthcare education programs rely on months of clinical training to adequately prepare students for handling patient relationships and needs. How will these programs have to adapt to provide high-quality clinical care education virtually?