Expansion of telehealth. Primary care investments. Unaffordable healthcare costs. None of these topics are new to healthcare, but the COVID-19 pandemic has provided fresh insight into just how important they are in the delivery of care.
In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Marc Harrison, MD, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, asked, "As bad as the pandemic is, could we end up doing better work when it's over? Can it teach us anything about how to serve our patients better and more affordably than we did before?"
In the article, he outlined seven lessons that stand to change how things have always been done:
1. Harness technology more aggressively.
2. Put a greater emphasis on prevention.
3. Eliminate racial healthcare disparities.
4. Merge mental health with primary care services.
5. Speed up innovation.
6. Seek new partnerships, traditional and not.
7. Address high healthcare costs.
Read more here.