If there’s one term that gets reliably overused in the aftermath of any instance of societal upheaval, it’s “the new normal.”
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on ECG's website.
Since World War I, that phrase has served as shorthand to capture the complexity of a post-crisis world and distinguish it from the era that preceded it.
You’ve probably heard that term often since the pandemic. As a means of describing the challenges our healthcare system has faced in the wake of COVID-19—workforce shortages, hospital financial pressures, care migration, and so forth—it’s convenient and succinct.
It’s also too limiting.
What we’re experiencing is not a new normal—it’s a new era. The pandemic may have been the biggest and most conspicuous disruption to the healthcare industry in generations, but we need to widen our lens. The past 15 years have seen the industry shaken by a major disruption almost every 12 to 18 months. The passage of the Affordable Care Act. The global financial crisis. The opioid epidemic. The list goes on.
That means health system leaders need to be ready for the next interruption, even though they don’t know precisely what it will be. No healthcare prognosticator has a crystal ball, but the next best thing might be a trustworthy roadmap of the trends that are reshaping the industry today, the challenges they present, and the opportunities that organizations can grasp in order to be effective and sustainable.
In a new infographic, Andy Bachrodt and David Willis show us where that path leads. Click here to continue>>
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