2022 Healthcare Trends to Watch Out For
2022 came creeping up on us fast, along with a host of new challenges and trends. To get ahead of the game and prepare for what’s to come this year, explore the top four trends we are seeing in the healthcare industry.
Staffing Challenges
As we all are aware, we are in the midst of the Great Resignation, a time where companies and organizations are losing their employees at an alarming rate. Hospitals are not the exception, nearly 20% of healthcare workers have left their job since the start of the pandemic, according to survey research company Morning Consult. This is likely due to the stress that the pandemic has left healthcare workers. These workers are looking for jobs that have better hours, better pay, and are less stressful. According to HealthWorks Collective, this need led to new and innovative healthcare services such as remote services that allow healthcare workers to work from home and reduce the burnout they may feel in the workplace.
Because of this, hospitals are looking for new ways to make healthcare workers’ jobs easier and less stressful. It all comes down to prioritizing efficiency, which can be done by giving employees the supplies they need immediately, and lessening the steps they may normally take during a busy schedule. Our FlowCARE Nurse Server solutions do just that and more. They not only lessen the steps healthcare workers commonly take, but they also lessen the risk of hospital-acquired infections, which means more time can be spent on the patient.
Essential Training and Education
Because of the decrease in healthcare workers, hospitals must prioritize training current staff to make up for the quantity and quality of care that can be missed with being short staffed.
To minimize operational downtime, FlowCARE’s Carts and Cabinets are designed to give nurses and hospital staff point-of-care storage, so they spend less time looking for what they need, and have more time to focus on essential tasks. Having the right cabinet or mobile storage creates a better environment for patients, no matter in the lab, pharmacy, surgery, sterile processing, or emergency room areas, leading to more effective processes and training.
Convenient Technologies
Today’s health tech is all about convenience. More and more people are turning to wearables to take their health into their own hands. Individuals can monitor important health information such as heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep trends, and more making it easier than ever before to catch potential health warning signs early. Because of this, it impacts how hospitals engage with their patients, and makes it easier to understand and get data from patients. On a broader scale, this technology can track wide scale issues in groups of people, leading to increases in understanding the current world’s health.
Not only patients, but healthcare workers are also turning to efficient and convenient healthcare tech. The solution, engineered by FlowCARE, allows nurses and medical staff to use their hospital badge to easily open secure medical drawers without needing to remember and PIN codes. This technology keeps items secure, and makes it easy for healthcare workers to access what they need. This integrated access control can be used on our FlowCARE Pull-Out Nurse Servers and our Pass-Through Nurse Servers.
Financial Challenges
Because of the pandemic, hospitals have been dealing with more and more financial hurdles. According to the American College of Surgeons, prioritizing the large number of people affected with COVID-19 meant that hospitals were unable to perform elective procedures, leading to financial troubles. MarketWatch notes that the staffing shortage led new hires to request for higher salaries and greater benefits, and hospitals in need of employees had no choice but to accept.
In order to ensure budgets are being spent in the best way possible in the midst of financial challenges, hospitals are looking for the most effective ways to improve patient care and support employees. One of the most significant improvements that can be made in the hospital is, you guessed it, storage. FlowCARE offers Retrofit Solutions, so hospitals can upgrade their existing facilities to include nurse servers with customized elements that minimize work needed to restock supplies, in order to maximize time spent with patients.
The Bottom Line
Although 2022 brings challenges to the healthcare industry, being aware of what’s to stay and what’s to come helps healthcare workers to stay on top of issues and solve them efficiently and effectively. This is truly what FlowCARE is all about, we know that healthcare workers need the right tools to get their jobs done right.
FlowCARE is here for you, so if you need assistance on your healthcare project, let us know, we are here to help.
