By Grace Carter, freelance healthcare writer, OX Essays.
Healthcare industry requires a number of different skills in order to be successful. The job combines organization, practical knowledge of innovations, and professionalism. Your resume should reflect this kind of experience and skill, or your chances of getting a call back are slim. Read on to find out how to write a healthcare resume that will get you an interview.
The objective statement is becoming less of a popular option, instead you should write a summary. Here you will give a quick statement, summarizing your skills and experience in a sentence or two. You’re trying to get the hiring manager interested in reading further. Your summary will go at the top of the page and include a good snapshot of your healthcare skills and experience.
Highlights
A highlights section is very important when you’re creating a healthcare resume, it will be the next section after your summary. The highlights section is similar to the summary, in that it is like a greatest hits, but it will be more exhaustive and in point form. You can include attributes, skills, and work experience here. Did you go to medical school? Are you a certified? These are all things you could potentially put in your highlights.
Accomplishments
“Now it’s time to provide some proof that you can get the job done, and do it well. Talk about some real world, quantifiable career accomplishments that are healthcare related,” recommends Sandra Bealer, resume editor at EliteAssignmentHelp. Some people will include their relevant education in this section. Have you run a healthcare business? Talk about these kinds of things, and if you can, use numbers to back up your claims. Give some details about projects you were a part of, what your role was, and how you were an asset.
Experience
Use your work experience section to show how aligned your previous experience is with the position you’re applying for. You only have so much space, so be selective about what you include. Prioritize the experience that is most relevant to healthcare. Remember to match the keywords you are seeing in the job posting, or your resume could be filtered out by a computer program before a hiring manager even gets a chance to look at it. Put your most recent experience first, and list your past positions in reverse chronological order. Write the position you held, followed by the time period, followed by the company and it’s geographical location. Include a few lines describing your duties and responsibilities at the position. Don’t forget to use action verbs. Remember this section is for your everyday tasks, your big achievements can go in the accomplishments section.
Work on your writing skills
It’s crucial that the writing in your resume is professional and grammatically correct. One of the quickest ways to disqualify yourself is a typo or other error. These kinds of mistakes make it seem as if you can’t be bothered to edit your resume. Try out these tools for help writing your resume.
Resumention — This is a service specially geared towards improving your resume so that you get your interview. Learn extra tips and tricks for resume writing here.
ViaWriting and SimpleGrad — Use these grammar resources to check over your resume and make sure everything is correct. Don’t let a silly mistake ruin your chances of getting a healthcare job.
OXEssays and UKWritings — These online proofreading tools, suggested by UK Writing Services Reviews, will give you a piece of mind. Why? Because you’ll know that your resume has been proofread by experts and is good to go.
Studydemic and MyWritingWay — Give these career writing blogs a read. They’re full of useful tips and tricks for writing resumes and what to do in the interview.
Abbott and The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management advisory group, have released a white paper that shares key findings from a recent study of 300 physicians and 100 hospital administrators on cybersecurity challenges in the hospital environment. Results found that while physicians and hospital administrators view cybersecurity as a priority, the majority of them feel under prepared to combat cyber risks in the connected hospital.
Chris Tyberg
“Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility across all of us working in today’s healthcare system,” said Chris Tyberg, divisional vice president, product security, Abbott. “Hospitals are critical hubs within this system, and as the use of advanced medical technology and attention to cybersecurity and connected health increases, it is important for us to understand the challenges hospitals face and how we can collaborate on potential solutions.”
The survey revealed several key findings, including:
Cybersecurity is a priority in today’s connected hospital: 92 percent of physicians and 91 percent of hospital administrators say that keeping patient and hospital data secure is a focus of their hospital.
Physicians and hospital administrators feel underprepared to combat cyber risks: 75 percent of physicians and 62 percent of hospital administrators feel inadequately trained or prepared to mitigate cyber risks that may impact their hospital.
Physicians and hospital administrators view medical device cybersecurity as a shared responsibility: 71 percent of physicians and 74 percent of hospital administrators believe cybersecurity is a shared responsibility among all participants in the healthcare system.
Communication about medical device cyber-related vulnerabilities can improve: Only 15 percent of physicians and 45 percent of administrators report having seen or read advisories related to medical device security in the last six months.
Standards are widely desired: 82 percent of physicians and 73 percent of administrators believe there should be industry-wide standards and consistent terminology.
Using these survey insights, Abbott partnered with The Chertoff Group to develop the white paper on connected healthcare security, which outlines key considerations for managing cybersecurity risk in the connected hospital. The white paper, “Building a More Secure Connected Healthcare Environment,” identifies members of the healthcare ecosystem can work together to mitigate cybersecurity risk while preserving the benefits of connected medical devices for patients.
The white paper calls for the healthcare industry to come together to address three key areas:
Industry-wide standards and cybersecurity by design to ensure cybersecurity protections are built into medical device development and that physicians and patients feel confident in the security and safety of the devices they use.
Investment in cybersecurity incident response processes for identifying and responding to vulnerabilities in a timely manner, while supporting safe clinical care.
Improved education, focus and training to increase all stakeholders’ understanding of cyber risk in the healthcare setting.
There’s no shortage of news stories and think pieces outlining the ways regulations have hurt healthcare in the U.S., from spending to physician burnout. (Notably, there’s also no shortage of stories claiming the opposite.) Regardless of this debate around benefits vs. protections, there are a few non-negotiables–like doing everything possible to prevent a breach. Patients are entrusting organizations with their health data in way that they don’t understand and failure to protect their data can lead to clear and direct harm (via embarrassment, or identity theft–healthcare records are considerably more valuable than credit card numbers, or discriminatory practices from employers).
As a result, many engineering and IT departments in the healthcare industry accept a reduced level of function and service in order to avoid costly penalties. Unfortunately, this also harms their customers because of reductions in the effective level of care.
New, smaller and more agile healthcare companies are encountering these legacy environments. For example, they may only be able to get a “data dump” every week (or month) from partners, and many of the organizations they partner with are exporting data in formats that are expensive to work with, like retro formats from ’70’s and ’80’s mainframes.
This is a problem in an era where customer service has become the crux of any business. The healthcare providers that don’t change because of the regulatory risk will not be able to build a quality consumer product, even for internal platforms. And internal products have to be consumer grade, now, as well. We’ve talked with doctors who changed jobs because their hospital adopted a medical record system that was bad.
The truth is that newer technologies can allow healthcare systems to do both, but fear of transition and possible compliance violations are holding progress back. And that’s why, in 2018, we can get a probe to Pluto but we can’t send over health records within minutes of a patient’s request. To scale a new infrastructure and workflow for the largest healthcare systems is a huge project, so changes with clear benefits–like DevOps practices, iterable software development and a constant release schedule–are met with resistance. Here are three ways healthcare systems can start digging themselves out of this:
#1: De-silo. Most have heard this advice, but acting on it is different for every organization. At a high level, most healthcare IT departments have a compliance group, an infrastructure group, a security group and a product engineering group, all working independently of each other. The compliance group (usually lawyers and analysts who often lack technical expertise), need ongoing conversations with engineering and security so that the latter understands the compliance requirements. In return, those teams can help the compliance group understand trade-offs, what’s realistic, anticipated roadblocks, etc.
Security teams tend to develop their own compliance controls internally and often don’t tie back their controls to actual regulation and policy. The infrastructure engineering teams are concerned with implementing compliance and also care that the system is always available to customers. The product engineering team wants to build something of value that keeps customers safe and meets their needs. All of these different priorities require complex tradeoffs, making it unsurprising that systems don’t fulfill customer expectations. To de-silo here, compliance teams should act as consultants to product teams and help them understand the compliance requirements. Additionally, consider merging the defensive security and infrastructure teams into a single team with a safety and availability mandate; high-quality infrastructure and high quality security end up at the same place.
Population growth and aging continue to be the primary driver of increasing demand for healthcare services. According to a March 2018 study by the Association of American Medical College, between 2016 and 2030 the U.S. population is projected to grow by close to 11 percent, from about 324 million to 359 million.
The population aged 65 and over is estimated to increase by 50 percent while growth for the 18 and under age segment is forecasted at only 3 percent. Since seniors have much higher per capita consumption of healthcare than younger segments, the demand for services used by seniors is estimated to far outpace the demand for pediatric care.
Given the expected demand from this demographic shift, the healthcare industry will face growing staffing challenges – with predictions including a shortage of 120,000 doctors by 2030, and a lack of 446,000 home health workers and 95,000 nursing assistants by 2025. Technology – specifically virtual care platforms – can address these expected gaps by allowing providers, care managers, and visiting nurses the ability and flexibility to treat more patients virtually. With virtual care platforms, healthcare organizations can meet the heightened demand for access to care by increasing staff productivity and optimizing workflows, while minimizing costs for all stakeholders.
Increasing Staff Productivity
Virtual care platforms can help administrators optimize their available staff around patient needs. Instead of needing to hire additional team members (or outsource some of the care responsibilities to other healthcare delivery organizations), administrators can review when patients are more likely to seek out care and then match provider scheduling around patients’ preferred timing for virtual visits.
If necessary, staff can also be augmented by remote team members to address an anticipated near-term shortfall of providers. Many health systems – whether rural/remote or urban/suburban locations – struggle with being able to have behavioral health resources on-hand, all the time. Virtual care platforms help remote behavioral health specialists more efficiently provide needed diagnoses and admission/transfer decisions to their onsite colleagues.
Optimizing Workflows
Virtual care platforms can be designed to automate existing workflows and can be readily applied across roles, settings, and facilities. This ensures that the use of the technology is complementary – not disruptive – to how providers currently interact with their colleagues and engage with their patients. Greater collaboration will stem from providers being able to more easily access remote specialists for a video consult. The transition of care – including transfers between departments, floors, providers and settings – will be streamlined as all stakeholders (including the patient and family members) are included in the video-based call to align on expectations and next steps.
Minimizing Excess Costs
Technology enables healthcare organizations to leverage staff to care for more patients, around-the-clock. Instead of expending “windshield” time to physically reach at-home patients for an in-person visit, providers can convert “drive time” to “patient time” and effectively see more patients, more often. Virtual care platforms can fill expected workforce gaps by allowing providers/care managers/home health staff the ability to treat three patients virtually in the time it takes for one at-home visit.
Investment in expanding the number and type of staffing resources would not be needed. In addition, transportation costs and related liabilities associated with driving to/from patient homes and conducting in-person appointments are effectively reduced.
It’s no secret that healthcare has greatly improved with the advent of technology. We all know the drill. The usual benefits that we’ve been able to derive from technology comes in the form of better data management, clearer communication, minimized margin of error, and the improved accuracy and efficiency of medical diagnoses.
These are all the usual advantages we hear and read about, and it’s come to a point that these are now part of the norm. Nowadays they are generally integrated into the system of any hospital. But there’s a downside to that. These advancements are sometimes forgotten because they’ve become so common in the healthcare business.
So, as a gentle reminder to appreciate the things that we already have, these are some of the ways that technology has definitely improved the healthcare industry:
Improved Communication
The link between doctors and patients has definitely improved because of technology. For example, if you find yourself involved in a vehicular crash, there are two people you’re going to want to call: Car and bus injury lawyers and doctors. Because of their busy schedules and HIPAA regulations, most doctors can prove to be difficult to contact.
There are several platforms on the internet that allow you to get in touch with a doctor to ask for medical advice. There are many apps that are also able to translate spoken word into a language that whomever you’re speaking with is able to understand, which is handy when traveling in a foreign country.
Better Data Management and Sharing
Gone are the days when patient files had to be physically stored in filing cabinets. There was the problem of these files taking up physical space, of course, but there was also the problem of having to organize these files. Human error is always a factor, but as the scope of work increases, so do the chances that an error may be committed. Today, we are able to store medical data in computers, which also means that we are able to recover data when needed. You never know when medical data may be needed by professionals from other fields of study. Whichever the case, data management is far more secure and far more efficient today than it ever was.
Remote Observing and Alerting
Thanks to home monitoring systems, doctors are now able to check on their patients without the need to be physically present. This reduces the costs involved with recurring clinic visits and the time spent doing so. Patients will also be able to alert emergency medical personnel if something is wrong. This is especially vital for patients who have a pacemaker put in.
During the busy work schedule while taking care of so many patients, keeping record of every patient can really be a daunting task. It can distract you from the real work for which you have been hired. However, keeping record of every patient is also equally important as you cannot afford to remember every detail about the patient. Without maintaining proper record about every patient, you cannot hand over your duty to your next team of nurses.
The quality of nursing service is very much dependent on how well the records have been maintained about each patient in the hospital. Any poorly written record will not only reflect the quality of work of the nurse, but it can also be fatal for a critical patient.
Besides that, there is a legal significance about the nursing records. In case any patient ever complains about the treatment then the nursing record is the only proof that is legally valid. If proper record does not exist then legally it is considered that the treatment has not happened at all. You may click on this website to learn more about various aspects of health records.
How to maintain a good nursing record
The record must be current, accurate, comprehensive, objective but concise during the stay of the patient in the hospital. Records used to be handwritten traditionally however nowadays electronic recording is introduced. Following procedures are adopted for creating any nursing record.
Standardized forms are used where nurses are expected to make necessary entry about each of the patient. As and when any nursing service is provided it must be properly entered on the form and must be documented. The record must include planning, assessment, evaluation and implementation records about various nursing care.
Every record must be identifiable with patient’s name, address, age, details about next of kin etc. If any sheet is further attached with the record then it must also contain all these details.
Make sure that the format for the continuation sheet must be same.
There must be date and signature available for every entry so that it can be identified who has recorded the details. Time of the record should also be mentioned in 24-hour format.
Never write with pencil but prefer dark black ink for entry and the record should not be exposed to sunlight so that the record may not get faded or erased.
When the patient is admitted then there must be a record about his or her pulse rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiration or any other records necessary as per the condition of the patient.
The problem and diagnosis also must be available together with all the medications given to the patient.
Record all the observations as recommended to the patient by the doctor and make necessary charts if necessary.
If the patient requires surgery then record all the checklist so that it can be reflected how the patient was prepared for surgery.
Prepare proper discharge record when the patient leaves the hospital and what are the follow-up treatments will be needed and detail about further appointment.
For owners and managers of treatment centers, outsourcing your billing process makes perfect sense. The process of managing your billing process requires time and resources. Additionally, it’s a bit complicated having to balance coordinating patient care and handling the billing collection process. Having your in-house staff managing the billing process adds to their tasks and requires accountability. Any errors in the ICD coding will lead to penalties for your practice. To protect you from such problems, here’s how to get started with outsourcing medical billing.
Why outsource revenue collection management
With outsourcing, the burden of managing the collection process goes to third-party staff. Luckily, these have enough industry experience and expertise in managing the process. You will significantly benefit from their professional touch to your billing process. This obvious outstrips relying on the capabilities of in-house staff. You will enjoy peace of mind that your collection process is in the hands of professional. Outsourcing medical billing also offers your staff the chance to devote more energy to engaging with patients more.
Apart from costs becoming easier to control in your practice, you will benefit from industry specialty services to suit your needs. As your practice grows and your patients become more, it requires a balance in the number of people attending to them. To keep up with the staffing level might lead to a hike in management costs. Luckily, you can outsource and save a significant amount.
There’s more
Health services handle various patients and this makes their work to become complicated. Therefore, it’s very important to get billing for treatment facilities that meets the needs of your practice. Your staff will not have to work beyond their normal capacity anymore. Outsourcing your collections process to specialty RCM service comes with other benefits including:
Enhanced patient engagement
Maximized staff productivity
Eliminates administrative burden
Lowered operating expenses
Eliminates errors
Access to billing analytics to make reports
Speedy flow of revenue with timely claims submission
How to find the best service provider
It’s very important to evaluate potential service providers before outsourcing your billing services. A good service should offer specialty services to meet your requirements. Understanding complexities in your practice’s billing process eliminate unnecessary delays. The provider should keep up with industry trends to ensure that you benefit from the latest RCM practices and technology. Additionally, the agency should have trained and experienced staff to lessen the chances of making errors. These significantly slow down the revenue flow.
The most important quality of a good medical billing service provider is the ability to keep communication lines open. The company should promptly contact you in case any issues are detected while handling your billing. Additionally, the billers should respond quickly to inquiries regarding billing and reimbursements. This will ensure that the billing process goes on smoothly with no chance of errors and disagreements.
By Kristin Savage writes regularly on the Pick Writers blog and occasionally contributes to other educational platforms.
Technology has become an inseparable part of our lives. No matter how you look at it, from smartphones to computers, we need technology to function in our everyday routines. The exact same thing came to apply in the medical field.
As technology continues to advance, there are more and more ways in which those creations can be applied in the medical field and revolutionize the way the healthcare industry works. Here are 3 of the most important current technological advances which have played a very important role in the industry.
Artificial intelligence in hospitals
One of the most important things that are happening in our hospitals now is the incorporation of AI technologies in the healthcare system. By including innovative technologies in the care of all patients, a number of benefits have been created as a result.
The most important thing that has been put to use have to be robot-assisted surgeries. In traditional medicine in order to perform an operation, the doctor has to have very steady hands, be able to be very precise and also manage to stay standing for hours, especially when an operation is very difficult and high-risk. On top of that, the doctors can stay in a much more comfortable position during the operation.
Surgery-assisting robots have really changed the way a plethora of operations are being done. From gastric bypass surgeries to heart ones, these AI robots can really change the way the medical practitioners operate. Not only do they have a much clearer view of the area they are operating on, they are also a lot more precise thanks to the robotic tools.
In addition to these perks, some operations can now be completely done by robots working remotely. This can be a great help to the medical personnel and it can also create more open spots for patients in urgent care who really need to be operated on.
These elements truly help reduce the risk of surgeries, make them more accessible to patients. Along with that, they can also drastically reduce the healing time after the operation and make the overall experience a lot more pleasant for the patient.
Along with that, there are also new systems and devices installed in the hospitals which aid the medical practitioners when it comes to making a diagnosis. They are much simpler to use and monitor the patients in a much more effective way. From new scanning devices to tools which help with drug administration, the hospital experience had become a lot more pleasant for both the personnel and the patients involved.
Digital records and databases
A common problem in the hospitals is how long it takes for medical practitioners and nurses to create appropriate and complete files for their patients. This can lead to long waiting times and a lot of effort from the medical personnel’s perspective in order to keep everything under control and collect the correct data.
Up until the last century, every document in the medical field was collected in a paper-based system. In our day and time, technology has given the healthcare industry a way of storing everything into an electronic format. This has changed the field in many different ways.
First of all, it has truly simplified the way medical histories are being created. There are certain AI tools similar to Alexa and Siri, which can listen in to the patient-doctor conversation and automatically turn everything that had been mentioned in a complete file. This truly helps save a lot of time for the doctor as they won’t have to take noted of everything that is being said anymore. On top of that, the visits will be shorter and therefore the waiting time will be reduced drastically.
Along with that, the saved information can very easily be added to the patient’s medical history as it is now easily accessible for the doctor online. This is very helpful when it comes to connecting the dots and finding our exactly what could be wrong with a patient’s health.
In his keynote session at the DreamIt conference in Tampa, November 6, 2018, Sumit Kimar Nagpal, global lead of digital health strategy at Accenture, says the future of healthcare is about a few simple things: Keeping people safe, providing for their well-being and improving care via information and technology.
Sounds simple, but guess what? Traditional players in healthcare are simply not ready, he said. Before explaining why, he painted a portrait of the current landscape and what he expects to come.
First, the current marketplace is all about cost then “innovation,” “agility,” “convenience,” and even the supposed “patient experience.” Cost, however, is likely the single most important issue in healthcare, he said, citing its 18 percent of the US GDP. There a lot of talk about convenience and collaboration, but what’s the outcomes? he asked.
Cost is the biggest driver. It’s a “cost takeout” marketplace, which is dominated by back office optimization. In other words, reduce costs through back office efficiency controls and strategies to save health systems money.
However, there are three important mega trends in healthcare related to the individual consumer. We are aging as a population; we are living longer; and we are facing more long-term conditions. All of this is surrounded by consumerism or the consumer experience and what that means to their health.
Another major transformation is that care is shifting in its location. There is a shift of care to the retail setting, for example, out of the four walls traditionally known in healthcare, for earlier engagement of care in the areas where people live, work and play. This even means that experiences are moving online, into the home and into the community setting.
Those who give us care is changing, too, he said. We’re used to seeing a doctor or a family care provider in an office at a practice, but that is quickly shifting. Care teams are extending well beyond the doctor into retail pharmacists, friends and family, teleconsultations, visiting nurses and social workers and “Dr. AI” and “Dr. Google.
“We’re building a very different relationship with technology to help us decide what’s next and what we have as a condition. This is all about taking down the silos and the four walls, and includes deep, mass personalization,” he said.
Some of the biggest problems that investors, entrepreneurs and startup leaders need to solve was the point of a discussion during an opening session of an innovation summit hosted by DreamIt in Tampa in November. According to member of the panel — Daniel Vukmer, senior associate VP of network integration, USF Health; Todd Dunn, director of innovation, Intermountain Healthcare; and Ashley Simmons, director, design integration, Adventist Health System – some of the current top priorities for health systems continue to include patient access to care, better experiences when care is required and, of course, improving outcomes.
Those are the priorities that healthcare startups should be addressing.
For most health systems, the panelists said, moving healthcare to a much more consumer-centric business model is their most pressing issue – other than providing care itself. Because of this, the seemingly ever-allusive value-based outcomes will likely follow.
Simmons said Adventist Health System’s main priority is improving the consumer experience; the consumer is at the end of every decision point. “It’s consumers at the end of the day that we are engaging,” she said.
For startup leaders, they can look to Amazon for tips on how to create an overall experience, but they must truly understand the problems they solve or can solve as part of the charter, how they can help health systems solve these problems and who they need to align within the organization to bring about change between the health system and the startup.
Innovation is a collaborative effort, Dunn said. Health startup leaders must work with clinicians to understand the most pressing problem that needs solving or the one the health system is struggling with most. Also, instead of brain storming solutions that the startup may think exist, consider “pain storming,” Dunn added. When pains can be identified, solutions can be offered.
For Vulkmer, innovation requires a problem to solve, as well as must include a quality value proposition. How will a startup help a system address cost, quality and service – the triple aim? Startups also must align with the needs of health systems to help them make a move and change, Simmons added.
“There’s not an area in healthcare that’s not going to need to be served in the next five to 10 years,” said Dunn, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for innovators who wish to take on the challenges.
What works, what fails
When young, lean and new IT organizations want to succeed, perhaps the best approach – as it is in any business – is knowing the landscape being served, understanding the marketplace and being well aware of competitors. Some startups fail simply because they don’t understand the marketplace they are trying to serve, as well as the most pressing problems they need to solve.
Some startups are overly confident, too, said Simmons. “A few startups we’ve worked with that have failed because they don’t understand their marketplace and competitors, and have made claims that were untrue,” she said. “Nine times out of 10 you’re probably not the only one doing something and you’re probably not the best one doing it.”
Finally, failure for startups can come because they think they can change healthcare at a macro level when their solution is granular at best.
Another setback for entrepreneurs and innovators is being verbally critical of a provider or even saying that “healthcare is broken” during an initial engagement, Dunn said. “It’s deeply personal to us and we’re trying to fix it. This is not a system, it’s people making up a system.”
Getting beyond the pilot
To ensure success, startup leaders might consider some best practices. These include engaging someone inside the health system who is championing the effort. Additionally, these leaders may want to time-bind a return time for the system. Also, consider putting a project manager on the plan to keep the project or relationship moving.
There’s no shortage of news stories and think pieces outlining the ways regulations have hurt healthcare in the U.S., from 
Population growth and aging continue to be the primary driver of increasing demand for healthcare services. According to a March 2018 study by the Association of American Medical College, between 2016 and 2030 the U.S. population is projected to grow by close to 11 percent, from about 324 million to 359 million.
It’s no secret that healthcare has greatly improved with the advent of technology. We all know the drill. The usual benefits that we’ve been able to derive from technology comes in the form of better data management, clearer communication, minimized margin of error, and the improved accuracy and efficiency of medical diagnoses.
One of the most important things that are happening in our hospitals now is the incorporation of AI technologies in the healthcare system. By including innovative technologies in the care of all patients, a number of benefits have been created as a result.
A common problem in the hospitals is how long it takes for medical practitioners and nurses to create appropriate and complete files for their patients. This can lead to long waiting times and a lot of effort from the medical personnel’s perspective in order to keep everything under control and collect the correct data.