Since the time COVID-19 first struck roots, the healthcare industry has undergone several upheavals. But the negative impact is pronounced as compared to the positive one. It is not just the patients that are fighting for their lives, the healthcare workers and the industry have strived to save its warriors and equip the industry so that it can rise to the demand that perhaps this industry has never faced before.
In this write-up, let us find out more about this industry, how it is coping with the pandemic, and most importantly, the different phases it is undergoing from the past.
Benjamin Gordon Palm Beach discusses 3 key phases of the healthcare industry; the past, the present, and the future.
What was the healthcare industry in the past?
This niche was not prepared to manage and tackle any kind of health emergencies at least if it would have been such a large scale like COVID-19. Moreover, in terms of policies, sourcing, managing supply chain, procurement, and infrastructure, it was not robust. So, it can be safely said that this domain was inevitably not safeguarded and was vulnerable.
How is it in the present?
The healthcare industry experts are struggling to set things straight. The fact that the supply chain equilibrium has been disrupted massively, is another factor why this sector is dwindling.
Moreover, due to a lack of funds, many manufacturing units have brought down their shutters that has also created a scarcity of drugs in the supply chain. Not only that aside from trying to cope up with the disruptions in the supply chains, governments around the globe are also addressing a much crucial issue and that is to develop tools and means so that such an outbreak does not happen again in the future.
So, it is not just finding the best medicines and tools to be prepared for the future but to tackle the crises that are looming larger over various economies of the world.
What does the healthcare industry have in store for the future?
Most of the governments have allotted adequate funds for conducting research, clinical trials, develop safety kits, vaccines, and medicines to counter the pandemic and its causative agent. So, it is not just a matter of investing in damage control but in prevention as well.
Implications of COVID-19 and the healthcare industry
Let us find out, in brief, the implications of the industry in the short and long term:
Short-term implications
Unless the pandemic is brought under control, the hospitals, the medical practitioners, and frontline workers will continue to battle the catastrophe and undergo tremendous pressure at their workplace, namely, the hospital.
There is another crisis that vendors and consumers must be agreeable with and that is delayed payments, and pay cuts, job loss, and cost-cutting measures.
Long-term implications
As far as long-term implications are concerned, governments across the globe must be thinking about the healthcare sector at the macro-level.
Telehealth, remote medical counseling, and other types of digital or virtual medical assistance will be here to stay not just in the present but also in the future.
