Current Trends in Public Health Administration
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While there have been a number of issues that have competed for national attention over the past few years, healthcare and public health have consistently been causes for concern for American citizens.
In fact, a recent poll indicates that Americans were more concerned about the future of healthcare than they were about tax-related issues, immigration, education, and climate change by more than 15 percentage points in 2018. It’s something that those who work in the public health sphere are acutely aware of.
But what does the immediate future of healthcare look like? How are public health administrators and officials going to address the medical and ethical issues that affect Americans most? Below we discuss some of the more prominent trends in healthcare administration, and some of the issues that are going to affect individuals in the years to come.
Healthcare Providers Work to Address the Opioid Crisis
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For years now, experts have said that the United States is in the throes of an opioid abuse epidemic. Today, more than two million Americans have become dependent on or abuse prescription pain pills. Some end up turning to street drugs like heroin when they no longer have access to prescription medication. In the year 2016, there were more than 63,600 overdose deaths in the United States. Sixty-six percent of those deaths involved an opioid.
This is a huge public health issue that has lasting ramifications for individuals and families alike. Public health officials and doctors have begun working on policies to help fight prescription drug abuse.
“In response to the dawning recognition of the public health crisis, doctors, lawmakers and public health experts have sought to stem the growth of opioid addiction,” write the experts at the University of Nevada Reno’s Public Health Department. “The CDC itself has taken charge, issuing a new Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, aimed at revising existing recommendations for the circumstances under which doctors should prescribe opioid pain medication for patients 18 and older in primary care settings. This has come alongside a wave of state and federal regulations, aimed at cracking down on overprescribing of opioids by doctors.”
Even armed with this guidance, healthcare providers report that this issue has yet to be resolved and may be having unintended consequences. While doctors have been cutting down on the prescription of opioids, many believe that patients with severe illnesses are suffering as a result.
With experts declaring the existing methodology of addressing the crisis to be insufficient, many are arguing for additional aid in addressing the crisis to help people recover.
This can come in the form of increased state and federal government funding to establish more robust treatment efforts, which can include anti-addiction initiatives, prevention and educational programs, and clean injection sites.
Patient Experience Continues to be a Priority
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A number of technological innovations have made the administrative portion of healthcare easier and more convenient for providers and patients alike. Patients can now pay bills online, receive text reminders for their appointments, and reach their doctors more quickly than ever. What has slipped by the wayside, many patients and doctors argue, is the patient experience.
The intent of the electronic health record (EHR) was to increase transparency and promote efficiency, which it almost certainly has done. However, it can sometimes prevent patients from receiving quality care as it demands a significant amount of “busy work” from hospital staff.
“A senior colleague who was hospitalized for a longer spell, a person whose scientific and technological discoveries have helped transform care in virtually every hospital, told me with some chagrin that during his stay, the only people who got to know him as an individual human being were the nursing assistant and the housekeeper,” Abraham Verghese wrote for The New York Times. “The nurses, through no fault of theirs, were tethered to the COWs — Computers on Wheels — into which they entered data about him.”
Forty-nine percent of provider executives indicate that addressing these issues and revamping the patient experience is one of their organization’s top three priorities in the next five years.
This is going to require that organizations make it a priority to engage with their patients on another level, understanding their cultural circumstances, work and home commitments, neighborhood and class dynamics. With the whole picture in mind, providers will not only be able to provide a better patient experience, but can also help prevent patients from returning to the hospital for visits they might not actually need.
Cybersecurity Will Continue to Be a Top Priority
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Last year (2017) was a year that experienced a number of major, industry-wide cybersecurity breaches and a 525 percent increase in medical device cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In 2018, hospital administrators and staff are going to have to take decisive action to be able to maintain their data privacy and secure their medical devices in order to protect their patients’ information.
Laura Robinette, a leader at US Pharma Life Sciences Assurance illustrates just how pervasive cybersecurity threats are.
“Hospitals have become a popular target for so-called ‘ransomware’ attacks, such as WannaCry, in which intruders gain access to files, encrypt them and demand payment in cryptocurrency in return for access to the files,” she argues. “In 2017, at least two US hospital systems experienced problems after being hit by WannaCry, and 16 hospitals in the UK were unable to access internet-connected devices. PwC’s Global State of Information Security (GSIS) survey found that 16 percent of all providers and payers suffered a ransomware attack in 2016. Eleven manufacturers of medical devices issued warnings about the potential for the WannaCry event to affect their devices, and several were confirmed to have been affected.”
Most hospitals have thousands of medical devices connected to their networks, each of which are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats if not secured correctly. Additionally, staff training remains a critical problem. Robinette highlights that only 31 percent of healthcare providers have a plan to train their employees on security practices.
It looks as though that is going to change in 2018.
“Everyone is rethinking their security practices in the wake of WannaCry,” Chantal Worzala, vice president of health information and policy operations at the American Hospital Association told Robinette.
There are a number of issues that affect the healthcare experience of Americans on a day-to-day basis. As we continue to grapple with new technological advances, political setbacks, and the progression of public health issues, healthcare administrators will have to continue to adapt and change their profession for the better.
