Health

Article | The healthcare sector post-pandemic: A new paradigm emerges

November 17, 2021

Global

The healthcare sector post-pandemic: A new paradigm emerges

November 17, 2021

Global
Yuxin Lin

Senior Manager, Policy & Insights

Yuxin is a senior manager on the Policy & Insights team. She leads research and analysis projects across a range of sectors including financial services, technology and NGOs. Based in Washington DC, Yuxin specializes in international trade and finance, demographics and workforce, emerging markets, and megatrends.

Prior to joining the Economist Group, Yuxin was vice president at FP Analytics of Foreign Policy, where she consulted with governments, international institutions and companies on trade, energy and social policies and investment strategies.

Yuxin holds an MBA from McDonough School of Business of Georgetown University and a BA in Management from University of International Business and Economics.

No sector was impacted by the covid-19 pandemic more directly and dramatically than healthcare. Yet across different organisations and roles, the nature and intensity of these impacts varied.

For example, clinical staff in emergency rooms and intensive care units were on the frontlines treating infected patients, while many behavioural health specialists pivoted to delivering care virtually. Some challenges presented by the pandemic were wholly new, while others served to accelerate trends in motion prior to March 2020.

To understand the sector’s current landscape, Economist Impact surveyed more than 1,200 healthcare workers and executives around the US across various functional roles, as part of the Recovery, Resilience and the Road Ahead programme sponsored by Prudential. The survey assessed worker concerns, remote work experiences, as well as organisations’ digital maturity, technology investments, skills and capabilities, and outlooks on the future. Taken together, what emerges from these results is a palpable sense that many frontline workers have been pushed to their limits and that healthcare organisations have significant work to do around workforce support and development and digital transformation.

Key Findings

  1. Frontline workers have borne the brunt of the covid-19 pandemic, while not receiving sufficient health and financial support.
  2. A large majority of workers look to the future with confidence—but most see a stronger workplace culture and more holistic benefits as key to feeling valued.
  3. Healthcare executives say investing in training and more robust human resources practices are crucial to filling skills gaps.
  4. Digital transformation is required to maintain competitiveness—and organisations are prepared to invest.

 

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