Greg Hoffman, CFO of Renton, Wash.-based Providence, discussed the current challenges the system is facing amid the pandemic, as well as financial changes he anticipates in the short and long term on a recent episode of "Becker's Healthcare Podcast."
Here is an excerpt from the podcast. Click here to download the full episode.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What are your top one or two priorities that are consuming most of your time today?
Greg Hoffman: Number one is workforce. It's not only the challenges of the current shortages as we navigate yet another surge and wave in the pandemic — but most importantly, it's just ensuring we're taking care of the well-being of our caregivers. I mean, that's top of mind for us. It is a very stressful time. There's a lot of burnout.
Number two is really understanding, what is the post-COVID baseline going to be? I think many positive things were accelerated across COVID. Think of things like telehealth, hospital at home, the shift from inpatient to outpatient. The potential of other things were highlighted: the use of data and analytics across the pandemic, value-based-care. These are all positive trends, I think, for the industry that are quickly coming ahead, and we're going to continue to see significant transformation and innovation ahead.
But we're also now seeing significant inflation. So our [third] priority is really charting our path forward across the next several years.