Forty percent of healthcare leaders are "not confident at all" that the U.S. would be better prepared for a future pandemic, according to a September Becker's LinkedIn poll.
Outside the 40 percent not feeling confident — out of 1,569 responses — 27 percent said they are "somewhat confident," 23 percent were "moderately confident," and only 11 percent reported feeling "very confident" in the U.S. health system to be better prepared.
"Leadership was severely lacking and that still appears to be a huge problem," Salam Al-Omaishi, MD, a family medicine physician at Geisinger in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., commented.
Other clinicians cited the division in politics and agendas as a reason for concern about how the U.S. might navigate a future situation that mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Many of the essential elements of confidence, trust and preparation adversely impacted were by factors and people outside the healthcare system with agendas," Edmund Senteno, former patient safety analyst and current medical technologist supervisor at University Hospital in Mobile, Ala., commented.