Five Trends for Healthcare in 2022

What healthcare trends are on deck? Remarkably resilient despite being strained and twisted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals, hospitals and suppliers are expected to continue advancing innovation, research and new ways of caring for patients in 2022. Here are five major trends:

Major advances in telemedicine

High on the list of innovations? Consumer-facing telehealth and digital care options. With a renewed focus on the availability of high-speed and high-capacity broadband (coupled with changes in state and federal regulations for compensation and applications), the telehealth industry leaped ahead, transforming patient care with on-line physician/provider connectivity.

Advances in IoT applications and digital care produced a new toolbox for providers to improve patient access and outcomes, especially in remote management of acute and chronic disease. Wireless blood pressure cuffs and other sensors that can track and monitor vital signs came into widespread use, signaling that patient-facing and digitally supported telemedicine has entered the consumer mainstream.

Data moves center stage

The continuing process of ramping up EHR operations (and creating better connectivity and transparency between data systems) has spawned a tidal wave of data points. These can result in more precise patient care (especially with new capacities to monitor vitals remotely). Managing data collection and analysis – and transforming that data into actionable information – represents a major challenge for hospitals, clinics and medical systems in 2022 and beyond (think data dashboards and data visualizations).

Major and small systems alike (particularly in rural areas) will dedicate novel resources and initiatives to capturing technology-driven opportunities. That includes data-driven insight into more specific patient treatment, care, and positive outcomes.

Burnout concerns

Wave after wave of unremitting SARS-COV-2 variants has pushed professional hospital professionals and providers to physical and emotional limits. How serious is this? The Medscape 2021 Physician Burnout & Suicide Report alarmingly notes that a full 42% of physicians self-reported that they are burned out. The pandemic scores a huge impact here, particularly as it has produced critical workforce issues (including shortages as hospital staff deal with COVID-19 quarantine and infection issues).

Data overload also drives burnout, as physicians, providers and medical professionals struggle to review, absorb and make sense of an onslaught of patient and medical information.

Burnout issues were already materializing prior to the pandemic. Refocusing communication efforts – including more emphatic listening and response to provider and support staff concerns – can help professionals deal with burnout.

In-home care and lifestyle medicine will continue to rise

Technology integration – especially through telemedicine/telehealth applications – will drive the already rising trend of virtual visits. Forrester research predicts that the number of hospital-driven home care virtual visits will triple. CMS reports that as of January 2022, 82 hospital systems and 186 hospitals in 33 states (including Indiana) were approved for at-home digital house calls and hospital treatment.

With people taking charge of their health, a related trend toward lifestyle medicine also takes hold. use of evidence–based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connection

One concern among these positive trends: ransomware and data security. While telemedicine and other online technology positively transforms healthcare delivery, bad actors and rogue agents have carved out a sinister literal business model in attacking hospitals and clinics with ransomware and other cybersecurity issues. Strategically planning and implementing effective cybersecurity measures remains a critical component of successful healthcare delivery in 2022.

Rural healthcare will continue to face challenges

In early 2022, NBC reported that COVID-19 “is killing rural Americans at twice the rate of people in urban areas.” While less than 2% of the U.S. population literally feeds much of the world, farmers and people living in rural areas face major gaps in healthcare delivery and availability. All of the issues – including equity concerns – facing urban healthcare are typically magnified in rural areas. Risk of death and healthcare complications such as multiple chronic health conditions, higher suicide rates, provider and physician shortages (and burnout among those tirelessly working difficult schedules) and continued devastating local hospital closures all face rural populations, according to the January 2022 Rural Policy Research Institute report. A full 57 million Americans can face conditions like these, according to the RUPRI data.

The National Rural Healthcare Association and Center for Rural Health Leadership  continue to support and help address critical leadership issues for rural healthcare (as does state-focused effort by the Indiana Rural Health Association and others). A federal Save America’s Rural Hospitals Act was introduced Congress in January 2022 to help critical issues plaguing hospitals and clinics in rural areas.

How is your hospital, clinic or agency dealing with these issues? MEK offers in-depth experience and insight for healthcare professionals and operations. Contact Michael Snyder at MEK for more information.