The Ashes of Covid-19

Small, green shoots. I rummage through the daily news reports, scientific blogs, and various podcasts I search for small rays of hope that we are, indeed, making progress. Wuhan is slowly opening back up, new COVID-19 cases appear to be slowing in Italy and Spain and there has been a very slight decline in new hospitalizations in New York City. Even Dr. Fauci, America’s “Infectious Disease Specialist-in-Chief” suggests that we might be witnessing small, steady signs of early progress. Lockdowns and extreme social distancing are beginning to make a difference. So let’s fast-forward, for the sake of discussion. Let us assume that we have managed to quell the horrific spread of COVID-19 and we have slowly and safely opened society back up to daily social interactions. We have safely made it to early 2021 and a very effective vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 has not only been developed but successfully disseminated throughout much the world. But will the healthcare world we knew in late December 2019 be the same world we return to in early 2021? The short answer is an emphatic “no.” 

It is my hope that we take a hard look at our healthcare systems and truly evaluate what worked, what failed and how we can be better prepared for what will inevitably be, the next pandemic. Governments and healthcare systems will need to evaluate their abilities to manage the next healthcare crisis while understanding how they more effectively render routine healthcare. Much of the western world has retooled their healthcare priorities in the past 60 years focusing on the management of noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Healthcare systems will need to strike a more effective balance between preparedness for managing the next pandemic and the scourge of noncommunicable diseases. 

Similarly, more will be expected of those who lead healthcare organizations. Transparency, honesty, and accountability will be the values we must seek in competent and capable leadership. Those who continue to seek short term gains will find their tenures truncated. For healthcare will become the “long game.” Smaller, less capable healthcare systems will find shelter and value by collaborating with larger, successfully integrated delivery systems. And healthcare providers will finally be adjudicated on real quality, sustainable outcomes and meaningful value. What will not change will be the economic pressures facing healthcare systems. If anything, these pressures may, in fact, intensify in a post COVID-19 economy. Nonetheless, successful healthcare leaders and their organizations will identify more cost-effective approaches to disease management, emphasize wellness and health maintenance, and employ technology and big data to cost-effectively implement community health programs. 

Post-COVID-19 healthcare will need innovative and dogmatic leadership to help prepare us for the next pandemic, willing to challenge the status quo and more effectively and efficiently manage our ongoing healthcare needs. From the ashes of COVID-19 we will see failed healthcare systems dissected like accomplished surgeons cutting away disease. Although we have experienced many changes in healthcare over the decades our greatest challenge may be in our next metamorphosis. We will experience a new wave of mergers, acquisitions, and closures as we completely transition into something new. This will not be business as usual. Our new leaders and their teams will be asked to wear different hats, listen with new ears, see with fresh eyes, and think with a new paradigm.

What will be required of this new innovative leadership? Post-COVID-19 leadership will need to rise to a level not seen since the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. We will need leadership who fully understands these new challenges, has the breadth of experience to harness the potential, and the emotional intelligence to balance the challenging needs of the community, corporate culture, and most importantly, person-centered care, through these inimitable, yet extraordinarily intriguing times.  

As presciently noted by the preeminent Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter: Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.

Dr. Howard S. Podolsky, MD JD MBA FCLM Group Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation Center