The healthcare landscape is evolving rapidly. Telehealth adoption rates are on the rise, but health equity is a bigger concern than ever. At the same time, non-traditional players are entering the healthcare sector, introducing new sources of competition for hospitals and health systems.
At Becker's Hospital Review's 7th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Annual Meeting, healthcare leaders participated in an executive roundtable sponsored by T-Mobile for Business. They weighed in on pressing industry issues and how emerging technologies are causing them to think differently.
Four key takeaways were:
- Thanks to telehealth, the healthcare sector is experiencing a shift similar to what occurred in banking. Online banking is the norm today and many wonder if healthcare is headed in the same direction as telehealth. Although not every patient is a good candidate for telemedicine, it is gaining traction in many organizations. For example, a health system in New York City is leveraging technology to relieve surges in the ED and provide virtual urgent care. When the ED is very busy, lower-acuity patients have the option to see an emergency physician via an iPad.
Patients have been receptive, as well, to virtual urgent care services, with 90 percent reporting a positive experience. "We've seen a paradigm shift, where patients using virtual urgent care aren't just in their 20s and 30s," one roundtable participant said. "It's also older patients — we saw a 99-year-old last week. Often their kids help with the technology, but the older patients are quite happy with it."
- Healthcare organizations are rethinking how technology can improve the patient and provider experience. One attendee noted that the entry point to healthcare is extremely important to patients. "If it's not easy for people to engage, schedule and get seen, they will go to another provider. Access to urgent and primary care needs to be seamless and frictionless," she said. Technology can help here and can also enable clinicians to work at the top of their license and regain the joy of practicing medicine.
Achieving these goals can be challenging, however. "It's hard to deliver technology and systems seamlessly and at scale," one participant observed. "I don't think anyone's figured out how to pivot from a platform to a personalized patient experience. Big tech companies can help us understand that."
- Technology has the potential to transform training for tomorrow's healthcare workforce. Earlier this year, Forbes published survey results showing that 47 percent of healthcare workers plan to leave the sector by 2025. To support the workforce of the future, health systems need to think unconventionally and creatively. "Morehouse College won T-Mobile's first annual Unconventional Award for creating a 'metaversity' with augmented reality- and virtual reality-guided educational experiences. The preliminary results show that by immersing students in technology, their experiences are better, scores are higher, and retention is better," Christine Gall, DrPH, head of healthcare marketing at T-Mobile for Business, said.
These findings appear to translate into healthcare. During the pandemic, a medical school in Texas adopted virtual reality to educate students. The feedback was so positive that the school has revamped its curriculum to include virtual reality.
- To reduce health inequity, hospitals and health systems need help from connectivity partners. In many rural areas, broadband connectivity is limited. The resulting digital divide has the potential to exacerbate health inequity. "How can we bridge the broadband connectivity gap, so we can roll out technology at scale?" a participant from an organization that serves rural communities in Nevada asked. "If we don't do that, technology will only be available to those who can afford it."
Another attendee from a health system in western Pennsylvania explained, "We've created all kinds of virtual programs, remote patient monitoring and asynchronous services, but if we can't get it into the homes of the people who need it most, it's not useful."
T-Mobile has made a promise to provide broadband access to 99 percent of rural America by 2026, and the company is ahead of schedule. "Connectivity is foundational to so many solutions that healthcare organizations want to deploy," David Hall, enterprise connectivity sales specialist for T-Mobile for Business, said. "Our mantra is to do away with dead spots, especially in areas where coverage is needed for health or first responders."