The coronavirus outbreak that started from Wuhan, China, has
now infected 6,291,635 people and resulted in 374,357 deaths as of June 1,
2020. As the global pandemic coronavirus continues to spread, no industry could
escape from its impact, which is eveident on the global economy as well. The
healthcare industry got moderately affected while helping mitigate the impact
of COVID-19, globally. The very high-risk assessment by WHO (World Health
Organisation) at a global level highlights that the spread and effect of
coronavirus on healthcare as a sector can have a cascading effect on economies
of different nations suffering from this deadly virus. Globally, different
countries are taking their measures to fight COVID-19 outbreak but this kind of
pandemic outbreak showcased that there is very little preparedness to confront
such issues on a broader scale. Strengthening the healthcare system will play a
key role in minimizing further impact. Additionally, government leaders of
different nations should invest in any preparedness gaps and coordinate
internationally to tackle financing and
emergency response needs.
Impact of the Coronavirus
Since the outbreak of the virus, the Chinese government has
struggled to control, diagnose, and treat the novel coronavirus. Beyond the
direct effects of the virus, the ongoing pandemic has taken a toll on normal
healthcare activities in China, with daily patients avoiding highly contagious
hospital facilities. While the resources are also diverted to fight the
COVID-19, regular medical services have crawled to a standstill, and the
healthcare industry is unable to cope up with it.
United States emerged as the new epicenter of COVID-19 with over
1,837,578 confirmed cases as of June 1, 2020. The government in the country is
already facing financial distress; the sudden coronavirus outbreak is going to
have a direct and lasting impact on the economy and health system of the
country. The supply chain disruptions are leading to drug and medical supply
shortages in the long term, which is going to give rise to operational and
financial challenges in the healthcare industry. Moreover, the demand for face
masks has gone through the roof, whereas disrupted supplies of pharmaceuticals,
medical equipment, and biotechnological devices are threatening the growth
prospects of the healthcare industry.
European country, Italy, which is also suffering from the virus,
faced a significant setback when thousands of positive cases hit hospitals in
quick successions. In some Italian hospitals, most critical surgeries have been
suspended in order to focus resources on coronavirus treatment. Italian doctors
and nurses are working non-stop to curb the ongoing effect of COVID-19. In some
majorly infected Italian cities, the ambulances are not readily available, and
emergency hotlines have been diverted to recorded messages in some cases.
India, located in the Asia-Pacific region, also witnessed three
lockdowns of 15 days to put a break on the increasing number of COVID-19
positive cases. India’s healthcare sector is going to be impacted on a
significant extent as India spent barely 1.28% of its GDP on health services.
According to the National Health Profile (NHP), report 2019, India recorded
4,19,96,260 cases and 3,740 deaths from acute respiratory infection in 2018. As
COVID-19 causes respiratory problems and infects the lungs, these numbers are
alarming for the Indian government. In India, tests for COVID-19 are free and
borne by the government but the patients themselves bear hospitalization
expenses for COVID-19 positive patients. Citing the current situation in India,
the inquiries on health insurance policies from customers increased nearly
30-40% over the past few days, according to Policy Bazaar. A standard health
insurance policy will cover all post-hospitalization covers while, the
pre-hospitalization costs, such as check-ups, are being incurred by the
government. In fact, IRDAI has also issued an advisory for covering COVID-19 in
life insurance, and several companies have launched fixed benefit plans related
to that.
Hydroxychloroquine drug, which is not clinically proven to be a remedy against
COVID-19, witnessed a surge in demand after the US President said that the drug
could play a vital role in curing COVID-19 patients. The coronavirus assaults
people’s lungs, in a few cases compromising their capacity to breathe.
Ventilators, which play an essential role in supporting the lungs through a
tube put within the windpipe, to keep the infected patients alive, are also
facing an extreme surge in demand on a global platform. Ventilator manufacturers
are under tremendous pressure to manufacture new devices in less time. The pandemic
outbreak has even disturbed the transport and supply of vital parts, such as
hoses, valves, engines and hardware, a few of which come from China. A few of
the major providers of the ventilators have said that they have an intense
deficiency of ventilators stock, and they are continuously receiving requests
for the ventilators from around the world amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
Citing the current scenario, around 880,000 more ventilators will be required
to meet the demand of ventilators globally to control the fatal
cases.
Major Impact on Healthcare:
The COVID-19 has majorly
impacted the following areas of healthcare industry:
- Shortage
in supply of medical drugs and devices: Nearly 20 drug producers are entirely
dependent on imports from China for their active ingredients or to
manufacture their finished drug products. With China being the epicenter
of the outbreak, the country has become majorly non-operational in many
sectors. This shutdown resulted in a shortage of supply of medical drugs
in many parts of the world. China is also the world’s largest producer of
rare earth minerals, which are used in making battery-powered medical
devices. The economic shutdown of China hindered the production of several
medical devices.
- Ensuring
patient safety: As the world crippled in front of coronavirus, resulting in travel
limitations, it’s become more difficult for the healthcare officials to
conduct their regular inspections of drug and medical equipment from China
which give rise to safety concerns of regular patients. This could further
exacerbate product shortages in the healthcare sector and patient safety
risks associated with less effective products.
- Medical
Supply chain disruptions: Countries relying on outside drug and medical
devices are facing product shortages as the healthcare industry continues
to face supply chain risks because of its growing practice of offshoring
certain operations overseas, notably near or at the epicenter of the
outbreak. Even the local supplies of generic medicines are facing
disruptions, as many countries are facing a standstill notice.
Ways to Minimize the Impact:
Uncertainty
is still hovering on whether and how the virus effect can be minimized and how
many waves of the outbreak of the deadly virus might occur in the near future.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is continuously warning that the
coronavirus can spread further, and the countries should strengthen their
healthcare sectors, as patient care is the priority. The government authorities
in different nations are ensuring that they are fully prepared to fight
COVID-19, in order to provide effective and essential healthcare services to
positive tested patients.
The
authorities can consider the following ways to keep a check or minimize the
impact of COVID-19:
- Conduct
a proactive continuity risk assessment: Different healthcare organizations should
identify potential internal operational and financial market risks in
order to determine the direct and indirect impacts of such major outbreaks.
The healthcare sector should also generate an action plan to tackle such a
deadly virus outbreak in the near future. The activity plans ought to
consolidate the direction from government specialists, and rules must be
well communicated as to how healthcare workers should test for
coronavirus. The vulnerability of spreading the virus via partners and
co-workers within the care group or third-party merchants should be included
into activity plans to halt the flare-up of the deadly virus.
- Identify
a response team in coordination with state and local governing
bodies: The
response team should make efforts to communicate with suspected positive
case-patients to contain the virus. During the event of such crisis,
communication with patients, representatives of the healthcare sector, and
accomplices on the healthcare care groups are critical. When it comes to
communicating with patients, healthcare organizations should give proper
advisory measures to the patients and their encompassing communities on
what coronavirus is, the destructive impacts of coronavirus, and key
defensive measures individuals can utilize to remain safe.
- Focus
on diversifying the locations of healthcare drugs & equipment
suppliers and vendors: The healthcare industry should work closely with drug and medical
supply providers to build emergency models which can be implemented during
outbreak of pandemics such as coronavirus. These models will help
determine ways to cut down the additional disruption in the supply chain
of medical equipment. In the case of third-party vendors being impacted,
medical organizations would need to have a backup plan in place, if their
vendors are unable to deliver on medical services, equipment and drugs on
time.
- Reviewing
healthcare organization’s insurance policy: Healthcare organizations should
be aware of their protection policies in order to get a clear picture of
how to decide and capture misplaced income and salary as a result of the
coronavirus episode, which is unusual and unanticipated in nature.
Reviewing coverage around infectious diseases such as COVID-19, supply
chain disruptions and workforce loss can be proactively managed in order
to minimize the long-term associated risks.
- Providing
updated medical billing codes for coronavirus detection: The Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services that administers United States major healthcare programs,
announced new billing codes for providers and labs to test patients for
coronavirus. These codes will help healthcare organizations to keep a
track on public health response towards the outbreak and help the
organizations to cutdown extra patient healthcare costs. Moreover,
healthcare organizations should update their billing processes and make
sure that patients are correctly billed by the billing staff.
- Providing
training to healthcare professionals on telehealth services: As the world is witnessing a prolonged
term of quarantine, the inability of certain patients to travel to
facilities for in-person medical visits in the healthcare organizations
need to be dealt with seriously. The telehealth capabilities of healthcare
professionals will ensure that medical remedies are provided for regular
patients and medical advisory can be given to COVID-19 suspected patients.
Leveraging such services could act as a way to minimize the number of
positive patients, as it facilitates distance amongst people.
Undoubtedly,
each and every industry got severely affected from the ongoing coronavirus
pandemic, yet the healthcare industry has so far been spared from the worst hit
compared to other industries. Many pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies
are working day and night to find a vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19 and
the healthcare industry will definitely be benefitted from the development of
potential vaccines for COVID-19.