As we reach kind of the midpoint of the HIMSS 2023 annual conference, a few themes have really come into shape. I’m happy (and kind of sad) to say that are predictions of the top topics were what we predicted in our HIMSS 2023 preview. The two biggest themes at HIMSS are the two topics that are top of mind at most healthcare organizations: workforce and revenue.
I think it’s probably fair to say that HIMSS 2023 attendees are burnt out of talking about how burnt out everyone in healthcare is right now. Plus, it seems like this problem is likely going to get worse. I guess the one bright spot in all of this is that many of the health IT solutions that are being shared at HIMSS are things that can help with some of this burnout. One challenge is that many doctors and nurses are skeptical that IT is going to help alleviate their burnout.
Unfortunately, this is a reasonable feeling for clinicians and other healthcare workers. Clinicians views are skewed because of how EHR software has impacted them and their work lives. While EHRs have made their lives easier in some ways, the use of EHR software has also forced them to document so many more things to meet regulation and reimbursement requirements. Said another way, we now can get access to the data that’s being documented by a doctor or nurse and so we’re asking them to document more data than they would have on paper. Plus, we want it documented in a granular manner which takes work. It’s no wonder why many in healthcare are skeptical of health IT’s ability to alleviate the burnout they’re feeling.
Needless to say, workforce is on the top of minds of most healthcare leaders.
When it comes to revenue, it does seem like there’s a little bit of the haves and have nots. Many healthcare organizations work on very thin margins. In fact, almost all of them do. Sometimes this is hard to reconcile when you hear that some healthcare organizations have billions in the bank. However, those revenues often come from something other than patient care. Many have investment funds and other sources of income that puts money in their coffers.
COVID really hurt a lot of healthcare organization’s revenue situation. Plus, revenue was becoming an issue even before COVID. We often heard of healthcare organizations being paid less for the care they provide. Not to mention the shift to more patient pay which is more challenging than payers in a variety of ways.
I could go on and on about the challenges of revenue which ironically also contributes to burnout of the workforce.
Of course, while those two topics are top of mind for healthcare organizations at HIMSS 2023, the real talk of the conference is around ChatGPT and Large Language Models. The excitement for these technologies is palpable. However, it also comes with a touch of fear. Many can see the potential and health IT vendors are all evaluating how to incorporate it into their solutions. It’s still too early to really know the answer for how things like ChatGPT are going to impact health IT, but there are a lot of people thinking about it and seeing how they can leverage the potential that comes with it.
I jokingly tweeted out before HIMSS23 that it’s pretty cool that all the vendors at the conference have become healthcare AI vendors that can address workforce issues and revenue challenges. That’s not quite true, but it’s pretty close.
