Healthcare Staffing Today
First and foremost, healthcare staffing is responding to dramatically increasing demands. The size of the healthcare staffing market is growing at about 5% a year, largely due to an aging population with intensifying care needs. Experts predict that the number of people aged 65 and higher will almost double by 2050, increasing the demand for physicians and long-term care professionals in particular.
Meanwhile, technology itself has brought new skill sets into the medical workplace.
Evolving Healthcare Trends
Today’s evolving medical technologies expand access to care in unprecedented ways. Providers can treat and monitor patients across vast distances. Patient data is making one-size-fits-all care a thing of the past. Here are just a few of the biggest changes.
Telemedicine. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rapid uptick in the adoption of telemedicine. Relaxed regulations have allowed providers to expand access to televisits and patients accepted the offer. The positive response suggests that telemedicine is here to stay.
Wearables and remote monitoring. Another development in the remote care era has been the increased use of wearable devices and other remote tracking tools. These technologies may reduce or shorten hospitalizations, but care networks need to be ready with appropriate staffing.
Precision medicine. One of the most powerful results of healthcare informatics has been the increased capacity for personalized treatment. By acting based on each patient’s unique profile, hospitals can reduce unnecessary resource use and save money while also improving outcomes. To make that happen, though, hospitals need staff with advanced skills in diagnostics and data analytics.
The Future of Healthcare Staffing
Technological developments like these require the hiring of a trained and highly skilled labor force. Fortunately, as technology presents new challenges, it also offers innovative new solutions.
For example, current and developing technologies in AI and predictive analytics allow healthcare systems to forecast staffing needs with greater accuracy. This gives organizations more time to recruit and train.
There’s also a great deal of potential in communications technology, which can power new collaborative staffing solutions. Many organizations have already seen this kind of collaborative success.
One example is MedCerts’s customized healthcare training solutions for provider organizations. By communicating with organizations to learn what skills those providers need their staff members to have, MedCerts can develop and distribute personalized training strategies. This lets hospitals upskill their existing staff and reduce hiring costs.
Moving Forward
As healthcare technologies develop, medical staffing will continue to change as well. Advancements like wearable monitoring devices, telehealth, and precision medicine will help medical professionals meet demands for care.
At the same time, though, hospitals will need to make sure that staff skill sets stay up to date. Partnerships are likely to play a big part in this process.
To learn more about how these partnerships work and how you can make them a part of your practice, speak with a MedCerts representative today.
