Healthcare continues to face challenges today. However, one of the biggest is rising costs. Staffing shortages remain an issue, and rising inflation only exacerbates existing problems. How can healthcare leaders improve quality while bringing costs under control?
Staffing Shortages
The news is dire regarding staffing shortages in healthcare.
Hospital CEOs reported this was their number one concern in 2021, overtaking financial challenges for the first time in 17 years. Many organizations have spent time learning about locums tenens and how they fill staffing gaps, but this is not a long-term solution.
Many locums take these positions because they want flexibility in their scheduling and the opportunity to explore different healthcare settings. They don’t want long-term positions. Healthcare organizations need to focus on recruiting and retaining top talent.
The International Council of Nurses reports changes must be made or the world will need an additional 13 million nurses by 2030. The aging workforce and burnout are two major factors in staffing shortages, but other elements contribute to this problem.
Interoperability
Healthcare organizations must move into the digital age and eliminate physical fax machines.
Electronic health records haven’t minimized the need for faxing, as they often cannot be shared across systems. Patient data may not be in the EHR, and many other things could go wrong. Interoperability needs to improve for better healthcare across the board.
Clinical Workflows
Medical professionals become frustrated when they don’t have the necessary information at the point of care. When providers lack this information, there may be a delay in treating a patient.
Electronic health records systems are often slow, and many practitioners say their unhappiness with EHRs is a factor in their thoughts of resigning. Changes must be made to these systems so medical professionals can help more people.
Medical Science
Many people are leaving the medical field, but others remain hard at work trying to advance the industry. Breakthroughs are made daily, and clinicians must have evidence-based information to provide patients with the highest level of care.
Keeping up with these innovations can be challenging, however. Healthcare leadership must be aware of what is happening behind the scenes and complete cost-benefit analyses to see which innovations are needed in their practices to improve patient care.
Health Equity
Healthcare inequities remain a problem today. If changes are not made, they could account for over $1 trillion in spending by 2040, Deloitte reported in a 2022 report. Many patient populations are marginalized today, and biases are often entrenched.
Patient materials, for example, may be heavily biased, and healthcare practitioners frequently characterize patients in electronic health record notes differently based on specific characteristics, such as socioeconomic status or race.
Patient Safety
Medical errors happen every day. Sadly, they are now the third-leading cause of death in America, with healthcare systems spending $20 billion or more because of these errors. Some experts say the numbers are significantly higher.
These errors come in many forms, including medication errors and surgical mistakes.
However, one of the biggest problems today is hospital-acquired infections. Some industry insiders say healthcare organizations could spend up to $45 billion annually due to these infections. Steps must be taken to improve patient safety and overcome these challenges.
Healthcare leaders have a lot of work ahead of them. They must find ways to overcome these challenges and improve patient care. Doing so is a matter of life and death.