Healthcare IT

Many healthcare organizations that have weathered the pandemic are now focusing on diversity as their next high priority. As human resources and other healthcare leaders seek to implement specific strategies, here are three key elements you must keep in mind.

1. Create SMART Goals

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in healthcare can look different across communities and facilities. This can make success more challenging to define. However, that does not mean that diversity strategies have to be nebulous.

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.

Risks associated with cybercrime are on the rise. Globally across industries, cybercrime is poised to cost a total of $5.2 trillion in lost value over a five-year span. According to Pratt's Privacy & Cybersecurity Law Report, more than 20 U.S.

Remote work options for healthcare employees expanded significantly in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although on-site work has resumed as usual in many organizations, there’s no doubt that telecommuting has achieved new popularity among both healthcare employers and employees.

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.

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.

Healthcare organizations across the country face stay-at-home orders that make it difficult to deliver in-person care. But even outside of the urgent need for providers to provide care to critically ill patients with COVID-19, patients need access to care when they are ill or injured by other causes. 

Healthcare HR professionals face sweeping changes in medical care delivery, evolving technology standards, staff shortages and shifting workforce demographics. Additionally, the evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brings its own set of challenges for the immediate future.

All healthcare providers are powered by their belief in access to quality care for all. But even as technology brings us closer together, many patients continue to face insurmountable barriers such as high costs and lack of available care.

As we head into 2020, what other challenges face healthcare, and what steps can we take to overcome them? Luckily cultural changes and the continued integration of technology can lay some of the groundwork for transformation.

Over the course of the year, I attended a number of conferences. This year has been no exception. One event, in particular, had a number of senior executives in finance and healthcare in attendance. I was fascinated by the conversations, candid discussions, and learning that happened among peers. One of the most interesting (and frequent) topics of conversation was on background checks for workers.