The Great Resignation

Public Market Update: Average Sector Performance

Let’s first take a look at the HealthTech market.

August did what August does and brought us lower returns.

Everything moved down YTD this year, but it’s reassuring to see that HealthTech is still doing better than itself.

Each sector stayed true to form compared to the previous month except for 💊 Biopharma which is in the red (compared to up 11.76% as of end of July ‘23).

An interesting point to note here is that the White House released its plans for beginning cost negotiations with drug companies at the end of August. Perhaps there’s a correlation? Time will tell and it will be interesting to see what comes next.

Articles Worth Reading

Healthcare Staffing Shortages: What Is Happening & The Role of Technology

Staffing shortages in the U.S. in 2022 for nursing rehabilitation and home health agencies alone cost $19.5 billion. 

While the industry struggles with the financial burden, patients are suffering. The Joint Commission, which oversees hospitals and health facilities, reported a 19% increase in adverse effects in 2022 related to staffing shortages.

Why the staffing shortages? Several reasons:

In other words, there’s more need, and fewer resources. Those resources we do have available are more expensive, and for any business to run (yes hospitals are a business) it must make money.

How is technology helping?

While we can’t force people through school and get them to work faster, we can use technology to streamline the hiring, credentialing, licensing, and training process to help new staff start working quickly.

There are also technologies to help current staff work more efficiently, spend less time on administrative tasks and more time with patients.

For instance:

While none of these tech solutions will fully fill the hole that staffing shortages have left behind, they are helping to improve the processes we already have, save time, money, and (hopefully) improve care.

To better understand the forces behind the shortages, and what really goes on behind the scenes, read the full article:

Related content: Road Blocks to Effective Value-Based Healthcare

Opinion

A Doctor’s Perspective

As a member of hospital staff, I think I can say for certain that staffing shortages are not just harming patients.

Pretty much everyone in healthcare is burned out, tired, sad, & unmotivated.

If you haven’t heard, we’re in the Great Resignation. This is the highest quit rate of healthcare professionals since the COVID pandemic. From April to August 2022, the quit rate exceeded 2.5% per month.

One online survey earlier this year found that 1 in 3 healthcare professionals intends to leave their job in the next year, and 14% intend to quit the industry entirely.

Healthcare has always been a crazy, convoluted industry to work in. Who you work for, how you get paid, the process of seeing and caring for patients - none of it is straightforward. Now add the mess of the pandemic, and it’s a recipe for heartache.

Speaking as a doctor, I’m tired. Many of us are. The work is not sustainable, and it’s not just because there are shortages.

There is also:

🏥 Lack of hospital support - administrators and physicians have mis-matched incentives.

💵 Lack of pay transparency - new temporary hires are getting paid more than permanent workers. Even if temporary, it’s demoralizing.

💹 Tight hospital budgets - fewer work perks (even something as simple as free snacks), makes things even harder.

One thing that needs to be addressed when discussing staffing shortages is how to retain the amazing staff that is still hanging on. Workplace culture needs to change to appreciate what we already have, and nurture the continued growth of our incredible skilled work force.

Because contrary to what people may think, doctors and healthcare workers are NOT easily replaceable - no matter how much technology you try to throw into the mix.

—Sanjana Vig MD,MBA (Peri-operative Expert, Tired Anesthesiologist)