Technology

Telehealth adoption skyrocketed during the first year of the pandemic, forcing a transformation of healthcare. In addition to changing how patients receive care at healthcare facilities, telehealth also influenced how medical staff services check provider credentials.

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.

The use of telehealth peaked in 2020 during the shutdown. It has since settled down but remains a popular option, as research demonstrates that telehealth usage today is 38 times higher than it was before the pandemic. That could have a big impact on the future of healthcare.

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.

Nearly all nurse managers agree that scheduling and staffing problems have a negative and lasting impact on staff morale. In fact, according to a recent AMN Healthcare report, 94 percent of nurse managers and registered nurses (RN) surveyed agreed that constant understaffing leads to low morale; and nearly 90 percent said it makes nurses feel that nobody appreciates their hard work. “When staffing is low, staff doesn’t have faith that it will ever get better,” a nursing manager says.

According to PwC’s recent Annual HR Technology Survey, HR’s big bet on cloud is still dominating the change agenda at an ever increasing rate. This year, 44 percent of companies claimed to use cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) for core HR with an additional 30 percent planning to move in the next one to three years. Clearly, the future is in the cloud for HR.

In the past century, technological advances have transformed the face of healthcare. Electronic health records (EHR) have enabled healthcare organizations to centralize patient-sensitive information; online portals have allowed patients to become more autonomous and be active players in their own health; and telemedicine has eliminated distance barriers and given patients with limited resources access to medical services. Despite these advancements in technology, many employers have overlooked the need to improve their onboarding system.