The article lists 5 Trends Impacting the Healthcare Outsourcing Industry.
Healthcare companies of all types are starting to see the power of moving certain functions of their business to experts, offshore. The global healthcare outsourcing industry is supposed to reach combined revenues of $468.5 billion by the year 2026. What is driving the rise of outsourcing in the healthcare industry? Here we look at the top 5 things impacting the healthcare outsourcing industry and why it is critical for healthcare organizations to look at outsourcing as a means of digitally transforming, codifying, and defining processes, and improving overall productivity and efficiency.
- Remote Work Mindset
The pandemic has forced executives to re-think how and where work is done. Remote work is normal now. If you’re in Seattle, does it matter if your employee is at home in Seattle, in Los Angeles, or Manila? Not Necessarily. The faster companies start embracing and adapting to remote work, the more resilient they will be as an organization from a recruiting, retention, and operational perspective.
2. Global Talent
There is an abundance of talent in healthcare across the globe, companies just must find a way to access it. With different programs and schooling available to almost everyone, we commonly see healthcare staff in other countries with US credentials in nursing and other specialties. Most global medical billers, coders, and customer service representatives have experience supporting US based operations because of past positions with large US based healthcare organizations who are able to carry a large footprint overseas One of our recent hires was a certified virtual optometrist, with US optometry certifications and experienced, who was hired to support telehealth for an eye clinic in Beverly Hills. The people to make your organization successful and able to scale are out there, you just have to think differently about how you are finding and using them.
3. Tools and Technology
With all the tools and technology at our disposal today, companies can interact with and manage employees around the world in a matter of seconds. Cloud phone systems, virtual desktops, and other systems enable seamless communication with employees or patients, anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes. This was certainly not the case several years ago and you can almost be certain that it is the way of the future.
4. Staffing Shortages
There are currently more than 10M job openings in the United States and more than 80% of employers claim that they are struggling to fill critical open positions. This problem is exacerbated in healthcare organizations where the pandemic has caused an additional need for high quality healthcare staff members, both on the hospital floor and in the back office. An additional stressor of the staffing challenges is the rise of minimum wage and unemployment benefits. This is causing both sourcing and retention issues for companies around the United States and again is critically impacting the ability for specifically healthcare companies to keep up with demand and deliver an outstanding patient experience.
5. The rise of telehealth
Both scheduled and unscheduled telehealth will become normal in how we deliver healthcare. With that though comes an entire new set of workflows, processes, and people that need to manage it. How are unscheduled telehealth visits coordinated? How are they followed up? How are we making sure the patient is getting everything they need before and after a telehealth visit? All of these things and more are contributing to a higher workload in each healthcare organization. Higher workload means more processes, more coordination across people and departments, and ultimately a higher staffing level to ensure that everything is running seamlessly and that the patient is receiving an excellent experience. For more on the impacts of telehealth, please check out our article on Telehealth here: https://www.connext.solutions/unscheduled-healthcare/
The ultimate goal of an healthcare organization is to maximize patient retention, ensure the schedule is full, and deliver an outstanding patient experience. One of the ways to do that is looking at outsourcing as a strategic initiative to define and improve processes, solve critical staffing challenges, and develop scalable and resilient systems. Remote work is here to stay, the global talent pool is full of high quality healthcare providers, staffing levels are down while hospital volumes and workflows are up, and you are accessible to the tools and technology to bring everything together. Outsourcing is a great way to get better as a healthcare organization and as we see in the forecast, many companies are taking advantage. What’s stopping you?
Read More about the future of Healthcare Outsourcing here.
