The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive changes in the U.S. health care system, stressing institutions, the workforce and individual caregivers. But it has also spurred lasting permanent change, including a massive pressure on the workforce, profound shift to digital solutions, increased awareness of inequities, exposure of weaknesses in financing models, recognition of the need for more effective integration of physical and mental health in policy and practice, and the imperative for improved emergency preparedness.
Futurist Ian Morrison, PhD highlights key insights from leaders in the field featured in the 2022-2027 issue of Futurescan: Health Care Trends and Implications produced by AHA’s Society of Health Care Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) in collaboration with the American College of Health Care Executives:
Care Transformation
Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, draws on his vast experience and leadership in the eye of the storm of the pandemic to distill enduring lessons of change. He believes that one of the most transformative overarching trends—the rise of consumerism in health care—will only accelerate in the post-COVID environment.
Workforce
Catherine A. Jacobson, president and CEO of Froedtert Health, is a national leader in highlighting the workforce challenges that hospital and health system to focus on the future, offering several suggestions for actualizing change, such as focus on consumerism and the customer experience, invest in technology infrastructure, etc. Even before the pandemic, workforce issues were emerging across the operational and clinical spectrum.
Strategy
Kenneth Kaufman is managing director and chair of health care consulting firm Kaufman Hall, and one of the leading thinkers on the future of health care. The COVID-19 reset of the U.S. economy will reverberate well beyond the end of the pandemic, Kaufman predicts. Every hospital and health system is being challenged to understand how this economic restart is creating competitive stressors and how organizations need to react.
Health Equity
Juana S. Slade, chief diversity officer and director of language services at not- for-profit health system AnMed Health in South Carolina and Northeast Geor- gia, has been leading efforts to foster inclusion and diversity for more than 20 years. She asserts that by any measure, 2020 was a pivotal year that sparked a national reexamination of social injus- tice, racial bias and health inequities.
Finance
David Blumenthal, MD, HFACHE, is president of The Commonwealth Fund and a renowned health services researcher and national authority on health information technology adoption. As the nation continues to struggle with the economic effects of COVID-19, Blumenthal shares his thoughts on the likely reimbursement outlook for government payers and commercial insurers over the next five years.
Virtual Health
Randy D. Oostra, DM, FACHE, CEO of the not-for-profit ProMedica health system, maintains that telemedicine may be the most prevalent form of virtual health but will soon be far from the only one. Oostra says a lot of innovation and consumer acceptance has happened in a very short period of time. He predicts rapid and widespread adoption of a variety of virtual health business models by players both inside and outside legacy health care systems.
Behavioral Health
Harsh K. Trivedi, MD, is president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt, the nation’s largest private, not-for-profit provider of mental health, substance use, develop- mental disability, special education and social services. Trivedi says behavioral health services have been undervalued and underfunded for many years. COVID-19 had a negative impact on an already-tenuous mental health safety net, and hospitals are feeling the effects in several ways.
Emergency Preparedness
Gregory R. Ciottone, MD, is president of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine and a disaster medicine expert. “Because of COVID-19, we gained a greater understanding of the complexities of disasters,” Ciottone states. To prepare for the next global health crisis, we need to determine more proactively how complex disasters are best mitigated.”
Conclusion
Health care leaders have learned enduring lessons, including the need to pivot to digital health, to focus on workforce resilience, to respond creatively in crisis, to integrate behavioral and mental health, to foster diversity and inclusion, and to address the inevitable competition from big tech and big retail as Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook strengthen their positions in the multitrillion dollar U.S. health care system. Winners in the future will harness technology to meet consumers and communities where they live while also preserving and enhancing the work–life balance of the clinicians who serve them in the face of increasing uncertainty and danger.
Want to learn more?
- SHSMD members receive one complimentary digital copy of Futurescan 2022–2027: Health Care Trends and Implications.
- Purchase a print or additional print/digital copies today. Also available in 15-pack bundles to share with leadership teams and trustees.
- Non-members, join today to receive your member copy and gain access to other guides, reports, and publications.
- Plan to register for the upcoming webinar on February 16 at Noon CT on 2022 publication, presented by Health Care Futurist Ian Morrison, PhD.