What You Should Know: - In May, U.S. hospitals, health systems, and physician groups were beginning to recover from COVID-19’s impact on their operations, but the dramatic spread of the Delta variant and an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations caused new setbacks, according to two reports from Kaufman Hall. - Hospitals and health systems experienced setbacks in July as the variant drove dramatic spikes in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Margins and volumes both fell
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How Built-In Financial Services Can Help Healthcare Providers Rebound Post-Pandemic
While their staff grappled with the medical toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare provider’s financial struggles went largely uncovered. But a 2021 KaufmanHall report revealed that hospital operating margins lag well behind pre-outbreak levels—a gap even the CARES Act assistance couldn’t help bridge. To make matters worse, cash flow has been bogged down in bureaucracy, further highlighting the need for providers to ensure fiscal stability. Yet this recent financial blow is only part of a
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How the Pandemic Underscores the Importance of Health IT in Employee & Occupational Health
“I have received more recognition, interest and support in the last year than in the previous two plus decades of my occupational health career.” These were the words spoken to us recently by the medical director of a Fortune 500 corporation reflecting on the dramatically increased attention he was receiving from the C-suite of his organization following the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite the global turmoil that the COVID-19 pandemic has left in its wake, a revitalized focus on taking the best
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3 Lessons Learned from Pandemic-Era Clinical Development Regulatory Practices
The pandemic has given rise to new norms in drug development that will influence the future of the industry as we know it. The world has been in urgent need of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tools. In view of this, regulators have demonstrated unprecedented flexibility and collaboration with key industry players to support the delivery of treatments to the market. As we near the other side of the pandemic, it is worth reflecting upon the adoption of non-traditional processes to
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Good Health Pass Releases Blueprint for Digital Health Passes to Restore International Travel
What You Should Know: - The Good Health Pass Collaborative announced the release of the Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint, a proposed new set of interoperability specifications which, as they are adopted, will allow airlines and governments to verify travelers’ COVID status (proof of vaccination, testing, and recovery), while simultaneously ensuring that core principles – such as privacy, security, user-control, and equity – are protected. - Over the past six
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Google Cloud Research Reveals COVID-19 Accelerates Innovation, Tech Adoption Still Lags
What You Should Know: - Google Cloud revealed new research unveiling the impact of COVID-19 on reshaping technology’s role in healthcare. This research is the second phase of research that Google Cloud published in July, showcasing how critical data interoperability is in improving patient outcomes. The research reveals healthcare organizations accelerated technological upgrades over the course of the pandemic. - After a year shaped primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic, use of telehealth
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Kroger Health Taps Lyft to Provide Americans with Access to Rides to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments
What You Should Know: - Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co. today announced their partnership with Lyft Healthcare, Inc., the healthcare subsidiary of rideshare company Lyft, Inc., to provide access to discounted rides to and from COVID-19 vaccine appointments. - This partnership is part of Lyft's Vaccine Access Program and Kroger Health's continued efforts to vaccinate Americans, especially those with limited access to transportation. How It Works Individuals
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How Logmore’s Condition Monitoring System Is Securing COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
With the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in high gear, innovative data technologies are critical to the success of the most ambitious inoculation effort in human history. There are many challenges involved with trying to vaccinate so many people in such a short amount of time. It hasn’t helped that the leading vaccines require extra cold temperatures in order to remain effective. The “cold chain” is a significant challenge even in the most developed countries in the world. In the US, safe
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“The Doctor Will See You Now” and Other Things Patients Won’t Hear Post-COVID
Following a year of social distancing and strict lockdowns, patients were forced to fundamentally change the way they interacted with their physicians. By April of last year, about half of patients’ primary care visits were conducted virtually. And thanks to the emergency relaxation of regulations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to accommodate remote diagnostics, medical device companies spurred on by tech from software giants like Microsoft and Intel, came up with innovative
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Streamline Locally to Increase Efficiency, Battle COVID Globally
People tend to think of COVID-19 as a national or even worldwide crisis. The pandemic is everywhere, after all, and we tend to judge entire nations by their reaction to the disaster and how that reaction endangers or protects the countries around them. But a pandemic is made of millions of individual stories, and those stories, whether close calls or tragedies, all take place on the ground at the local level. While each patient’s local public health department is ultimately responsible
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