Healthcare organizations and managers face many challenges that make it difficult to provide care. One of the challenges they face is the rising cost of healthcare. Healthcare is becoming more expensive as the population is growing and aging (Rother, 2017). There has also been an increase in the prevalence of certain chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol (Rother, 2017). Consequently, healthcare managers are faced with financial constraints in their responsibility to budget for patient care. For instance, some hospitals go bankrupt due to admitting many patients without insurance coverage who are treated for emergency medical conditions. Healthcare administrators today are forced to combat the rising healthcare costs for Americans as well as manage their hospitals’ budget challenges. Tomorrow’s healthcare managers will have the same problem because the cost of providing care in America has been rising in the past years and will probably continue to do so.
Another challenge that healthcare organizations and managers face is the integration of technology. Although the healthcare industry has embraced the use of technology, implementation has not been seamless. Examples of the new technology include 3-D printed devices, electronic patient records, and robotics. Some of these new technologies are costly and require specialized facilities and workers to operate (Ruiz et al., 2017). Due to this, they are not affordable and accessible for all organizations. These issues have hindered the uptake of revolutionary medical technologies. Additionally, the integration of technology in healthcare provision has given rise to telehealth. This allows for remote appointments and the provision of virtual care and it has proven invaluable, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the benefits accruable due to telemedicine, there are also challenges, such as patient privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats (Ruiz et al., 2017). The integration of technology is healthcare is challenging to healthcare organizations today, but it presents a huge opportunity for tomorrow’s organizations.
Healthcare organizations and managers also face the challenge of staff shortage. There is currently a shortage of qualified and skilled workers in occupations such as nursing and pharmacy. The shortage exists because the rate of graduation of students is too low to meet the market demand for these workers (Darzi & Evans, 2016). Additionally, the labor market has become extremely competitive, and people opt for other better-paying jobs outside the healthcare industry. The problem of understaffing results in the available workers being overworked. Sometimes, a professional such as a nurse also performs the duties of a physician. There is an overlap in the responsibilities of professionals in the healthcare industry partly because there are not enough workers to perform all these duties (Darzi & Evans, 2016). Healthcare managers have to find ways to attract qualified workers. The administrators must understand the labor market and navigate it without causing adverse impacts on their organizations.
The healthcare sector has been expanding fast in recent years. This growth is accompanied by certain challenges that administrators have to navigate. One challenge is the rising cost of healthcare in America, making it difficult to budget for providing care. A second challenge facing healthcare organizations is the integration of technology in healthcare and the expansion of telehealth. Although new medical technologies will be beneficial to the sector, they are costly to implement. Some of them can only be operated by specialized workers, while others bear certain risks, such as the threat of exposing private patient data. There also exists the problem of a shortage of qualified workers, leaving administrators with the problem of staffing. These challenges exist because the healthcare sector is undergoing many changes. Administrators have to adapt quickly to handle the arising issues.
References
Darzi, A., Evans, T. (2016).The global shortage of health workers—an opportunity to transform care.The Lancet, 388(10060), 2576-2577. Web.
Rother, J. (2017). Top of the administration’s agenda: Stem the rising cost of healthcare.Generations, 40(4), 30-37. Web.
Ruiz M., Sans, M., Casasa, A. Giménez, N. (2017). Implementing technology in healthcare: Insights from physicians. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 17(92). Web.