In the past, in good economic times and bad, healthcare jobs just kept increasing. It was thought healthcare was nearly recession-proof, a buffer against the business cycle. But similar to the patterns in other industries, healthcare too was disrupted by corona pandemic.
Spending on healthcare dropped suddenly and proportionate job losses amid the pandemic; on the other hand, hospitals are overloaded with sick patients. But it reflects how the health industry tries to keep floating and make both ends meet. Treating patients for a deadly illness is far less profitable than offering them elective surgeries making the situation paradoxical. When the government ordered hospitals to stop all planned procedures to free up capacity for cold-19 patients, the economies of the hospitals’ changed profoundly. And even if the government hadn’t then ordered such a pause temporarily, patients had reason to avoid doctors’ offices and hospitals, rightfully concerned that such places carried the risk of contracting the coronavirus. Independent medical practitioners have seen huge reductions in their practice as some patients reach doctors virtually, while many others patient visits have simply vanished. The dynamics, in healthcare is different from other industries and leadership programs like the one conducted at Stratist can be of substantial help, once it comes to healthcare management.
In earlier recessions, the healthcare industry has not taken such a hit. Insurance, Universal health schemes, and several social schemes insulate health services from the business cycle more than other kinds of spending. The biggest users of the system are the older population. Besides being a prospect to have health problems, they also tend to have insurance coverage and a stable source of income through pension or Social Security.
Chronic & emergency life-threatening ailments viz: heart disease, appendicitis, cancer or the flu, etc do not go away during a struggling economy. Therefore, doctors and nurses and medical assistants, and billing clerks who work in the healthcare sector are usually protected from an economic downturn.
Healthcare jobs, comparatively have fallen lesser than other jobs in the rest of the economy. But in the face of the Great Recession, as jobs of nearly every kind dipped, healthcare jobs kept growing at a decent pace. According to many economists, it was health care that has been the front engine of jobs that led the economic recovery. All those new health workers drove their local economies to the path of recovery.
In places hit hard by the recession, the local hospital became a dominant employer, supporting entire communities. There were some small reductions in the use of health services in the following years; those led to a slowdown because people started spending on health only when it was most essential. Health care still grew, but more slowly. About 60 percent of health care expenditure goes to labor, so all the growth almost, by definition, meant new jobs.
Though this was seen as good news in the short term for the economy, healthcare’s ever-growing share of the national economy was sometimes seen in a negative light. The rising costs have meant that health care has come to represent a larger share of the Union budget, limiting the capacity for other government investments. Many employers owing to such a constraint, switch over from older forms of insurance to plans with high deductibles for workers, shifting the financial burden onto individuals and families and leaving them vulnerable to big bills.
But this downturn of shifting the obligation is different and can affect the health sector too. The enormous reductions in the health workforce mean the recovery may also be different. Some of the lost jobs in health care are likely to come back later. For example, Cancer patients who postponed chemotherapy or people who canceled their hip replacements will eventually want that care. But other changes may be permanent.
A niche market developed during the recession in healthcare has been a shift to telemedicine visits. With this, patients can talk with their doctors by video, telephone, or even email. However, in long term, this mechanism was less lucrative and many health systems had long avoided setting up an infrastructure for them. But these new virtual visits have many positive sides. Patients can avoid travel and waiting period, caregivers can easily participate and several doctors can talk to the same patient simultaneously. There are no clipboards full of personal information to be filled and no person needed to retype the answers into a computer system before a visit in person.
To derive maximum advantage and keep afloat even in crisis, best mentors are required. Stratist, not only provide you mentors who can discuss with you on a one-on-one basis, but also can equip you with knowledge through leadership courses.
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