Positioning Telehealth for the Future: ‘Rear-View Mirror’ Lessons From COVID-19
During the pandemic, the spotlight has turned to telehealth and its power to deliver healthcare while maintaining social distancing. But as the World Health Organization warns of a second peak of coronavirus cases in the United States and a second wave of COVID-19 later this year, healthcare leaders must consider: How do we apply the rear-view mirror lessons from the first wave of the pandemic to our virtual response to consumers’ healthcare needs during the second wave?
Three Things Every Hospital Should Be Doing Now to Improve Patient Safety
A recent survey of 100 hospital leaders, physicians, pharmacists, and infection preventionists reveals some of the new safety-enhancing approaches that hospitals should consider. In the survey, conducted by healthcare consultancy Sage Growth Partners just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, respondents identified their top safety challenges, evaluated their safety performance, and identified their most successful safety improvement approaches.
Pandemic Speeds Up EHR Implementation
In this discussion, Doug Cusick, CEO of TransformativeMed, talks about why it has taken EHRs so long to roll out their technology virtually and why it took a pandemic to make EHRs—and health systems that use them—more accessible and easier to use.
Online Continuity
Now that patients are becoming more accustomed to seeking care this way, healthcare organizations are expecting telehealth will continue to grow. Frost & Sullivan researchers are projecting a sevenfold growth in telehealth usage by 2025, for a five-year compound annual growth rate of 38.2%.
Wait Times in Canadian Emergency Departments: An Incessant Dilemma
Individuals often erroneously equate a nation’s economic stability with the quality of its healthcare. However, this is not always true, and definitely not in the case of Canada. The average waiting time for patients in Canadian EDs ranges from three to four hours. More preposterously, this “average” accounts for only a minority of the population. When asked up front, most patients claimed that they’d had to wait for at least five hours before consulting a physician.
HHS Presses Hospitals to Use New COVID-19 Data Reporting Modules
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network COVID-19 module will no longer be an option for daily reporting, effective July 15, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.
Coronavirus Pandemic Flips Clinician Workforce Market
The new Merritt Hawkins report, “2020 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives and the Impact of COVID-19,” examines clinician recruitment data for the one-year period ending March 31, 2020. Although the number of physician search engagements the company conducted during the period increased, search engagements conducted since March 31 have declined 30%.
Coronavirus: 4 Methods Effective in Decontaminating N95 Respirator Masks
With the virus primarily spread through respiratory droplets and aerosol particles, N95 masks have been in high demand and limited supply. In March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that a prolonged pandemic would require 3.5 billion N95 masks but only 35 million were stocked.
How to Reduce Anxiety and Burnout at Primary Care Practices
Burnout is taking a significant toll in the healthcare sector. It is estimated that a doctor commits suicide every day. Research indicates that nearly half of physicians nationwide are experiencing burnout symptoms. A study published in October 2018 found burnout increases the odds of physician involvement in patient safety incidents, unprofessionalism, and lower patient satisfaction.
Female Physicians More Likely to Adopt Telehealth
The Doximity data is useful because such a large swath of physicians uses the platform. Doximity’s usage among healthcare professionals includes 70% of all U.S. doctors and 45% of all physician assistants and nurse practitioners.