Healthcare Facility Manager’s Guide To Keep Things Run Smoothly In The Time of Crisis

By Derek Jones, vice president of enterprise strategy, Deputy.

Derek Jones
Derek Jones

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted one aspect of our healthcare system: the global healthcare industry was not prepared to face a crisis. The lack of preparedness has significantly disrupted the healthcare supply chain: sharp surge of demand, lack of protective equipment, shortage of medical supplies and employees protesting against unsafe work conditions have all contributed to a slowdown of the healthcare industry.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus outbreak has been rapidly progressing — more than 175 countries have reported cases of COVID-19, with more than 735,000 cases and 35,000 deaths, as of March 30. 

Discussed below are the steps that healthcare facility managers should take to keep things running as smoothly as possible.

Getting ready to face a crisis

It is also essential you find the time to meet up with your staff to educate them on all the aspects of the crisis. The common end-goals for everyone should be the same: reduce fatality rate, minimize disease transmission and ensure the healthcare system is operational.

Preparing your healthcare facility

 

Handling patients queries

 

Dealing with patients

Inpatient

Outpatient

Managing your workforce during a pandemic

The long-term game

After seeing how unprepared the healthcare industry is when faced with a massive outbreak, healthcare organizations should ultimately plan ahead for the long term game. One promising forward is through the use of telehealth. Using remote advice lines, such as online portals, video conferencing or even text message monitoring can help reduce exposure to sick persons, and drastically reduce the pressure on healthcare facilities. Shifting the current healthcare business model to a digitally enhanced one would clearly make the healthcare sector a more sustainable one.

A good example of applied telehealth is One Medical Founding, a healthcare provider that has built its whole business model on telemedicine. They provide in-house care in 83 offices, while encouraging stakeholders to make use of their mobile apps and website. Shifting to telehealth can also be financially rewarding — in 2019, One Medical Founding saw its revenue go up by 30%.

Off you go

The current COVID-19 pandemic has pushed unprecedented stress upon the healthcare industry. The outcome of this crisis is unpredictable but to date, no one even knows when we’ll be done with it. However, digging through the mess, opportunities will arise and hopefully, the global healthcare industry will come out even stronger out of this.


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