Healthcare leaders can learn from 16 takeaways from six surveys on what is going on in the healthcare industry. From vaccine hesitancy to overworked pharmacists, here is what healthcare leaders should know.
Sixteen recent survey findings:
- Thirty-five percent of the general public would consider replacing their primary care providers with qualified physicians on demand via telehealth, according to a recent study by The Harris Poll.
- Forty-four percent of respondents prefer in-person healthcare visits, followed by a hybrid model of in-person and telehealth visits (42 percent) and telehealth as the primary form of care (15 percent).
- In a survey with 4,159 pharmacists working in a variety of settings in Ohio, half of the respondents said the workload-to-staff ratio does not allow them to safely and effectively provide for patients.
- Half of the pharmacists said they did not have time to take breaks during their shifts, with 11 percent of pharmacists reporting regularly filling more than 75 prescriptions per hour.
- According to a Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation poll, nearly 6 in 10 healthcare employees said they would support a COVID-19 vaccination mandate. More than 3 in 10 said they did not intend to get vaccinated or were undecided.
- Fifty-two percent of healthcare workers have received at least one vaccine dose, while 48 percent have not. Of the healthcare workers who have not been vaccinated, 37 percent are not planning to get the vaccine and 24 percent are undecided.
- Eighty-two percent of healthcare workers who do not plan on getting the vaccine or are undecided said possible side effects are a major reason, followed by 14 percent who said they're a minor reason and 4 percent who said they're not a factor.
- Eighty-one percent of healthcare workers who do not plan on getting the vaccine or are undecided said the vaccine is too new and they want to see how it works on other people, followed by 14 percent who said it's a minor reason and 5 percent who said it's not a factor.
- If employers required employees to get the vaccine to keep their job, 65 percent of healthcare workers who are not self-employed and do not plan to get the vaccine or are undecided said they would leave their job, followed by 34 percent who would get the vaccine.
- Ninety-one percent of respondents said they're aware of the FDA and CDC's pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll published April 20.
- Of those who have heard of the pause, 88 percent believe the decision was responsible.
- One in 4 American adults said they would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine outright if offered, according to a recent NPR/Marist poll.
- Eighteen percent of adults in the U.S. — about 46 million people — said if they needed access to quality healthcare today, they would not be able to afford it, a recent West Health and Gallup study found.
- Younger age groups reported higher difficulty affording healthcare. Twenty-seven percent of nonwhite adults ages 18 to 49 reported not being able to afford quality care today, followed by 26 percent of nonwhite adults ages 50 to 64 and 20 percent of white adults ages 18 to 49.
- Thirty-five percent of households said they reduced spending on recreational activities to afford paying for healthcare or medicine they need, followed by clothing (26 percent), food (12 percent), over-the-counter drugs (11 percent) and utilities (9 percent).
- Twenty-nine percent of Black adults said they would not be able to afford quality healthcare today, followed by Hispanic adults (21 percent) and white adults (16 percent).