Healthcare Webinar Recap: Strategies to Thrive During COVID-19 Recovery

Healthcare leaders have faced an unprecedented challenge this year with the COVID-19 pandemic directly affecting their industry. Interruptions to supply chain, patient engagement, master planning, and funding have created daily headaches and long-term concerns.

While today’s issues certainly need proper attention, healthcare leaders need to think beyond the immediate recovery. This includes preparing for the next pandemic. We believe the best path forward to thrive in the aftermath of COVID-19 is fluid and flexible planning.

In August, RESET CEO Wayne O’Neill and executive coach John G. Self joined together for a healthcare-specific webinar to present real solutions for healthcare leaders. In the webinar, Wayne and John presented valuable information on how to strategically navigate change in the healthcare industry and prepare for what’s next.

– Watch the webinar right now to hear more about these solutions.

COVID-19 Recovery Strategies for Healthcare

The discussion between Wayne O’Neill and John Self covered numerous areas of how to respond to changes in healthcare. The main topics of discussion included:

• Re-building the supply chain.
• Re-engaging patients and stakeholders.
• Applying retail and hospitality thinking to facility design.
• The new types of healthcare leaders needed for today’s challenges.
• Capital funding options available right now to support project delivery.

Through a strategic approach to each of these challenges, healthcare leaders can formulate the best response to position your organization to thrive in the midst of uncertainty.

– Supply chain: Many healthcare organizations were unable to access critical medical supplies or pharmaceuticals during the pandemic because of global restrictions. If your healthcare organization’s supply chain is dependent on international sourcing, then you may need to think about “onshoring” certain aspects of the supply chain back to the U.S.

This will include needing to strategically think through how to reconfigure the supply chain to withstand the next pandemic or global interruption. When you have more control over the supply chain, you can build a more resilient supply chain.

– Re-engaging patients and stakeholders: Healthcare organizations need to make mission-driven changes around investing in patient engagement. Whether it’s touchless parking, building an app for patients to check in for appointments, or eliminating waiting rooms, healthcare leaders need to embrace new ways of engaging patients to conquer post-coronavirus emotional barriers.

This also relates to stakeholders such as specialists and other service providers who have seen a decline in income due to a decline in non-coronavirus patient care. Creating a plan to re-engage patients will then allow you to re-engage stakeholders who need to see that you are coming up with solutions for how to turn the faucet back on.

– Reconfiguring the facility. It’s time for healthcare leaders to think about the provision of services like a business, not a hospital. This includes looking to retail and hospitality for a new approach to configuring facilities and providing services to expedite the process for patients to flow in and out of the facility.

Healthcare organizations should not build another facility until they think through how to treat patients more like customers of a business. This will require bringing together other departments and partners such as technology/IT and facility designers to create modern plans to solve modern problems.

– New types of healthcare leaders. Different types of leaders are needed to support change in healthcare. When you are looking for leaders to elevate to C-Suite positions, some of the key attributes you should be looking for include the ability to adapt to change, be flexible, strategically think ahead, and anticipate changes to patient expectations.

These leaders should also have strong interpersonal skills to create healthy relationships with specialists and other service providers to support physician alignment.

– Embracing funding options. Many healthcare organizations are sitting on millions of dollars of potential funding; they’re just not aware of it. Sovereign wealth and foreign pension funds are seeking stability, and healthcare infrastructure is the ideal location providing long-term stability and yield. The best part is that these alternative funding options have a minimum impact on the balance sheet.

Healthcare organizations benefit by being able to tap into cash to become more responsive to changes. Funding can be used to support short-term projects such as reconfiguring current facilities or building technologically-advanced facilities. Funding can also support long-term, mission-driven projects such as building out new facilities. This funding option creates tremendous flexibility to respond to change and get moving.

Where to Start with Strategic Healthcare Changes?

Healthcare leaders may be wondering where to start with this transformational change. While every healthcare organization is different, Wayne and John outlined the general first steps to prioritize how to address the layers of complexity involved in this process.

1. Separate patient units. Many hospitals were not prepared for the influx of COVID-19 patients who needed to be separated from the other patients. As part of the process of re-configuring current facilities or planning ahead for the layout of new facilities, hospitals need to be able to separate patient units to support infection control. This will especially help during the next pandemic when hospitals need the flexibility to immediately separate patients.

2. Focus on patient engagement. Think through current barriers that patients face simply trying to walk into a facility. Find ways to eliminate these barriers, introduce new methods of entry such as touchless parking, advance your technology for pre-appointment patient intake, and embrace a retail/hospitality thinking to patient engagement.

3. Think through onshoring. Reconfiguring the supply chain will require careful thought. Create a strategy for what the supply chain should look like, then have your team engage in talks with current partners to see how they can align with your strategy. Then, pursue other partners that can help fill gaps to build a more robust supply chain.

4. Tap into available financing. Healthcare organizations don’t have to settle for traditional financing of bonds and debt financing to advance project scope. Take the time to unlock opportunities for project scope creation through sovereign wealth and pension funding that is ready to be dropped into short-term and long-term projects.

RESET can support the effort of creative capital financing opportunities. We are connected to partners on Wall Street who are actively seeking healthcare projects to invest in. When you are ready to discuss this opportunity, contact us today for a consultation.

Also, be sure to watch the webinar with Wayne O’Neill and John Self for more insight on healthcare solutions. We are confident that the information in the webinar will help you solve the COVID-19 recovery challenges you are facing right now and beyond.

– Watch the webinar!