While COVID-19 has exacerbated the shortage of nurses in the US, the shortage precedes the pandemic by decades. Nurses across healthcare specialties have been in consistently high demand for many decades, and the current shortage, as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age (effectively converting them from nurses to patients themselves), has continued from around 2012. Some reports estimate that to fully cover our shortage by 2030, 1.2 million RNs will be needed. Yet, entry-level nursing
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Rethink Scheduling: Prepare for Positive Impact
As with so many other aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up what healthcare organizations thought they knew about provider scheduling. No longer can they take for granted that existing scheduling workflows will work equally well in all scenarios.
If nothing else, the pandemic has taught health systems to expect the unexpected. It’s not quite enough just to satisfy today’s needs. It’s imperative health systems also anticipate worst-case scenarios ranging from pandemics and
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How the Powerful Forces of COVID-19 Changed the Healthcare Industry
As pressure eases, fundamental changes will last far beyond the pandemic
As COVID-19 began surging across the globe in the early months of 2020, it almost immediately flooded health care providers with challenges and demands the industry had never before seen. Suddenly doctors’ offices were closed to patients, hospital emergency departments and ICUs were running out of beds, and healthcare workers were battling a new and unknown disease. Today, in the waning months of 2021, some of these
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Deploying Advanced Decision Support for Better Sepsis Management
As the leading cause of hospital deaths in the United States, sepsis is a significant concern for patients and providers alike. In a 2020 study, the World Health Organization found a 46% mortality rate for patients treated in the ICU for sepsis. Sepsis care is expensive, costing the US healthcare system an estimated $33 billion per year. Data shows a single admission for sepsis care can cost anywhere between $22,000 and $70,000, making it the most expensive infection for hospitals, and
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Prior Authorizations: 3 Ways to Reduce Administrative Burden & Burnout
Medicare’s annual enrollment period has started, and you know what that means: a slew of commercials suddenly appearing on television for Medicare Advantage plans.
The advertising appears to be working. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage has more than doubled over the past decade to more than 26 million people this year. The private health plans, which are an alternative to traditional Medicare, account for 42% of the total Medicare population.
The growth of Medicare Advantage, though, has
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Using Machine Learning in the Evolving Landscape of Real-World Data
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the term real-world data (RWD) refers to routinely collected data relating to patient health status and the delivery of healthcare services, and real-world evidence (RWE) is the clinical evidence regarding the usage and potential benefits or risks of a medical product derived from the analysis of RWD. Both RWD and RWE have increasingly attracted attention in the healthcare industry for years now, and rightly so, considering that the healthcare
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Beyond the Digital Front Door: 4 Mobility Tenets for Superior Patient Experience Design
As the front door to healthcare organizations becomes increasingly digital, these rules for engagement are fast becoming the keys to unlocking patient loyalty.
As healthcare digital innovators, we are witness to a fundamental shift in consumer experience expectations. With rising costs, increased quality of care expectations, and access to an expanding array of choices in care, consumers are demanding greater control of their healthcare experiences – and their loyalty to any
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FHIR: The Three S’s of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources
We are in a potential Health Renaissance and innovating at break-neck speed. However, with that acceleration as always, comes risk. We have to be careful with our data. That's why the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard was established. It's a bit ironic, but the reason why FHIR is needed is that the industry itself is red hot!
FHIR is a data transfer protocol that's designed to help developers provide information safely, securely, and efficiently. It's the
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3 Programmatic Tactics for Healthcare Marketing in 2021 & Beyond
Healthcare is an ever-growing market that is increasingly reliant on digital channels. According to Pew Research, 47% of internet users search for information about doctors or other health professionals online, and 1 in 20 Google searches are related to healthcare. In this digital landscape, remaining compliant while winning new patients is a unique challenge healthcare marketers face.
In the wake of the pandemic, the challenges are even greater. Rolling pandemic restrictions across the
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Dark Data in Healthcare: Health IT’s Next Big Opportunity?
Healthcare IT professionals have long faced data challenges - from sorting out storage issues during the Big Data age to complying with HL7 standards to adapting infrastructure amidst a rapid shift to telehealth. While these advancements have all improved information sharing across the industry and ultimately the patient experience, it’s also created mountains of data. In fact, RBC Capital reports that the healthcare industry generates 30% of the world’s data with that number expected to grow to
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