The SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit returned October 27-28 for their 18th annual healthcare conference, bringing healthcare industry leaders and professionals together virtually in an interactive and innovative layout with the year’s insights and updates in mind.
This year’s insights were centered around specific healthcare staffing segments, including per diem nursing, allied health, travel nursing and locum tenens while discussing what the future holds for healthcare staffing, and what the outcome will look like after nearly a decade of steady growth in a time where current health crisis is front and center.
SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit 2020 Recap
This virtual summit’s theme, Rising to the Challenges of 2020, brought insights and updates from across the healthcare staffing sector as the market continues to move forward in a time where we are facing uncertainty. With a focus on providing healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat coronavirus infections, the summit covered a variety of topics, including key trends accelerated by COVID-19, ways the pandemic is affecting the economy, and healthcare data insights.
Key trends accelerated by COVID-19
Healthcare leader, CEO, physician, strategist and technologist Dr. David Friend highlighted the key trends and developments as it relates to the healthcare system’s COVID-19 response.
Consumer demand for a better healthcare experience
Pandemic-accelerated consumer behavior trends are transforming healthcare. We all have been conditioned by the Amazon customer experience, so at the end of the day when it comes to healthcare—consumers expect seamless communication, service and overall virtual healthcare experience. They’ll want price transparency over opacity, medical data availability over data hostage, as well as technology advancements and drone delivery over waiting rooms.
Adopting digital and mobile technology in healthcare
Telehealth is on the rise. We’ve previously talked about the increased opportunities for telehealth with the pandemic giving this advancement even more of a boost. With that, there’s also a need for more telehealth leadership.
The use of technology to monitor health and fitness, and to order prescription refills is growing. New data shows that consumers are more at ease when it comes to sharing health data during a crisis, as opposed to hesitation to share this data prior to COVID-19.
In mobile healthcare tech, wearables are advancing with new tech and apps in pulse oxygenation, temperature monitoring, fall detection, dementia diagnostics, cardiac monitoring, preventative cardiology measures, and continuous glucose monitoring for diabetes.
Redesigning the supply chain
The pandemic proved PPE failures that need to be understood and avoided moving forward. To solve some of these issues, the U.S. will need:
- To increase U.S.-based production of reagents, pharmaceuticals, and equipment
- Supplier diversification
- Improved monitoring and distribution of supplies
- Better inventory management
- To meet the increased demand for full-service staffing vendors
Three ways the pandemic is affecting the economy
Expert economic forecaster and former chief economist for CNBC, Dr. Marci Rossell discussed industry impact on the economy. The outlook of the U.S. economy shows disruptive labor markets that aren’t following the normal pattern you would see during a recession. During the height of COVID, unemployment skyrocketed to 600 million people. This pandemic will have a severe impact on healthcare or anything that cannot be socially distant and has made its mark on the economy in three ways: income, wealth, and financial uncertainty.
Income
- Healthcare was the industry that suffered the most in Q2 2020
- GDP worldwide collapsed 9%
- 10% of the working economy got hit hard
Wealth
- Wealth is behaving in a different way than income
- People are more focused on saving as a result of uncertainties to what the future holds
- Current stock market is unsteady
Uncertainty
- Only 37% of the working economy was able to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic
- A major shift in the environment will allow people to be able to work in a hybrid environment and more people will work from home going forward
- There will be an increase in remote working—less travel, more online shopping and delivery services
- Many people are acting the way life is as it is today that it will be permanent, possibly for years to come
- Uncertainty over how election year will affect the economy
- Uncertainty over how winter will affect the economy
Stats from the 2020 SIA Healthcare Summit
- 45 million healthcare consumers are over the age 65 in 2020; this is one sixth of the population making up one third of the healthcare spending in the U.S.
- 10,000 people a day are turning 65
- Healthcare spending is growing by $1 billion per week
- In 2050 the trend will continue where 80 million consumers are over age 65; this will be one fourth of the population making up half of the healthcare spending in the U.S.
- Chronic and acute diseases are estimated to grow 40% by 2050
