Post-COVID Considerations for Healthcare Leaders

COVID-19 laid bare the striking gaps in our healthcare industry. As we move into a recovery phase with ongoing but (hopefully) lower infection rates, leaders who can identify and gain the necessary skills to lead their organizations through this period will find themselves poised for the next phase, resolution. Leaders must continually prepare for the next variant surge or emergency, the rising call for systemic social change, and ongoing pressures from government agencies. To answer the desire to work successfully through the recovery phase of the pandemic, a series of researchers has identified ten imperatives leaders should use as a framework for successful recovery. Those imperatives are grouped into five groups:

• People-focused imperatives

  • Celebration and acknowledgment of staff wins

  • Staff well-being support

• Community and global imperatives

  • Knowledge of global context and projections

• Learning and preparedness imperatives

  • Strategic planning for future disruptions

• Reorganization

  • Reassess priorities and provide purpose, meaning, and direction

  • Maximize staff and review enhancements

  • Manage backlogged services while addressing burnout and moral distress

• Envisioning the future and sharing it with clear communication

  • Create a culture of trust and transparency through clear communications

  • Provide safety information and recommendations to all involved.

This framework is new and unproven and not without limitations. Leaders may need to nuance these imperatives to fit their organization’s recovery as they address the concerns now being raised.

Quality and Safety Concerns

Leaders must address the growing need to provide and improve quality and safety within their organizations. Such strategies should include evidence-based action plans, the employment of known high-reliability principles, the use of technology to maneuver through data efficiently and to move the strategies forward, aligning staff at all levels to implement safety strategies, and being transparent as leaders. 

Care for All

During the pandemic, access to private insurance dwindled as companies shut down and let people go. Combined with relaxed qualification requirements implemented during the public health emergency, the number of Medicaid applicants soared during the early phases of the pandemic. Medicaid participation may continue as inflation rates rise and economic improvements are slow to reach lower-income patients. Increased flexibility will occur as policies change, and Medicaid enrollment comes under scrutiny. Cost-effective measures must be implemented in new and efficient ways as independent payers decrease and costs increase.

State-led pressures are scrutinizing response times for care and expanding at-home testing, vaccination efforts, and contact tracing where necessary. They view the recovery phase as a long game, and leaders can expect federal and state involvement to reshape policies and efforts for the foreseeable future.

Leading through Long-Covid

Long-COVID, like COVID, can affect every body organ with devastating results over time, affecting between 10% - 30% of COVID survivors. It is unknown if some individuals will ever fully recover.

Long-COVID in the U.S. is expected to affect nearly 15 million individuals, with the majority in their prime working years, making long-COVID a challenge for both worldwide economic stability and the healthcare industry in particular. Long-COVID may require significant resources and broad healthcare services while reducing economic productivity and shortening life expectancy. 

For leaders, the first response is the simplest. The incidence of long-COVID can be diminished if COVID infection is avoided with vaccination, boosters, and well-recognized public health precautions like masking and avoiding congregant settings. Vaccinated patients are 50% less likely to acquire long-COVID. For those with long-COVID, a holistic approach to care has shown the best results to ensure that symptoms are addressed, and new illnesses are not overlooked. A service line approach may inform our approach to managing the trailing pressures of COVID.

The healthcare industry faces a looming disruption from the far-reaching effects of our post-COVID world. How we, as healthcare leaders, prepare and approach the tail of the pandemic will determine whether leaders of the future view this disruption as an opportunity or a barrier.