America's financial cliff: A healthcare crisis way more dangerous than the Coronavirus.

Going into the COVID pandemic, our healthcare system was exhausted, wildly inefficient, increasingly resource constrained and generally unable to detect and mitigate risks before they become too costly. The cost vs quality metrics were on a dangerous pathway and the humans responsible for delivering it were exhausted by the process of manually pushing patients through a disconnected technology ecosystem.

As we awaken to our persistent COVID fever, we find a healthcare system's pathway accelerated towards collapse. Hospitals covering active outbreaks came to a screeching halt. All of a sudden they needed way more medical providers yet at the same time lost their biggest revenue drivers (planned surgeries). These organizations are stuggling to understand both "when" and "how" to safely reopen their largest revenue pipeline. Physicians and other healthcare providers are being asked to accept large pay cuts and marked increases in the number of hours they need to work. I recently spoke to an Anesthesiology colleague from back in our med school days. He reported a 40% pay cut and a 75% increase in the numbers of hours worked. Healthcare providers will do this for a time given the nature of the field but the business model is not sustainable.

Leaving the direct morbidity & mortality aside, the indirect physical, mental health and economic impacts of the Pandemic further complicates matters. Diabetes, depression, opioid abuse and suicidality and the other maladies that caused pre-Covid crises are now on the rise.

So.

What do we do now?

When we will have a similar national awakening about our out of control healthcare costs and lagging quality and demand more?

As you look around other process and information rich industries, you will realize the technology is there to fix healthcare. It has been built, tested and hardened by pioneers in other industries. Standards based process automation is now available for healthcare. When will we no longer accept that Care with Boundaries as the prevailing business paradigm?

Facts:

1. Healthcare costs continue to rise at 3x cost of living.
2. The rate of healthcare spending continues to outpace our gross domestic product, inflation and population.
3. At this rate, American healthcare spending will be 19.4% of the GDP by 2027. This is larger than the GDP of Brazil, the U.K., Canada and Spain.

If left unchecked, this crisis certainly bankrupt our nation and present a very real barrier for America to compete in the future global economy.??If we had the best healthcare in the world, then maybe it would be ok. Unfortunately despite the massive spending, we are global laggards in the core healthcare quality pillars.

America spends more and get less ...

Nearly half of American's believe that healthcare is difficult to access.

America spends more but doesn't live longer ...

America ranks near the bottom in terms of healthcare efficiency...

So what can be done to reign in costs and promote quality?

The most glaring and modifiable factor is the tremendous waste in the US healthcare system. In our current age of Care with Boundaries, inefficiency and waste are the emperors. We rely on human beings to coordinate, connect and drive information for patients across the innumerable boundaries of parochial healthcare system. Hence, more than 50% of patient referrals go left undone. Compared with their Canadian counterparts, nurses in the U.S. spend an extra 18 hours per week on administrative tasks and clerical workers spend an additional 37 hours.

So how do we begin to fix it?

One way to both improve quality and put a lid on costs is through automation. Most other information and process rich industries have reaped the benefits of standards based automation.

It's now healthcare turn. Come join us in the BPM+ Health community and see how standards based automation is changing the art of the possible in healthcare.

The beauty of automation ...