Focus on Both Short and Long-Term

During the height of the epidemic, many healthcare organizations were enjoying an income surplus and didn’t bother to prepare for the post-Covid environment. To meet urgent needs, they increased their resource levels to put up additional infrastructure. However, once the peak of the pandemic passed, they no longer needed that infrastructure, thus requiring a new strategy to use the resources in the face of serious resource and finance-related issues. The lesson here is to set reasonable expectations and projections (both short and long-term) to modify and adapt your business model as and when necessary. This may involve prioritizing initiatives that address immediate needs, such as increasing capacity or improving telemedicine capabilities, while also planning for the long-term by investing in research and development or building relationships with strategic partners. The healthcare market is constantly evolving, and focusing on both short-term and long-term goals allows companies to adapt to changing market conditions by adjusting their strategies and tactics. The strategy helps companies to manage their resources effectively and build a resilient business model that is able to withstand short-term challenges while also positioning the company for long-term success.

Use the SHAPE Framework

As the pandemic slowly fades away, healthcare organizations will need to rethink their revenue profile, to position themselves for the long term and to outperform the competition. To accomplish this, they must follow the SHAPE framework. So, what’s exactly is the SHAPE framework?

● Start-up mindset: It’s all about action over research, and testing over analysis. The key to flourishing in the cutthroat competition is to act as a start-up and not as a traditional conglomerate that avoids innovation. The pandemic can serve as a reference to what can possibly go wrong in the future. Healthcare organizations must therefore be on a constant lookout for technological innovations that can detect suspicious health trends that could trigger a potential contagion.

● Human at the core: Although going digital is the new norm, the best way to yield maximum benefit from your efforts is to combine tech with human resources. Organizations must figure out how their employees can achieve the best possible productivity by adopting the latest tech concepts. For instance, deploying telemedicine allows your organization’s best doctors to serve the remotest locations on the planet.

● Acceleration of technology adoption: The most successful businesses are doing more than just embracing digital technologies. They are successfully utilizing sophisticated analytics to combine new data sources, such as satellite imaging, together with their own insights from initiatives such as qualitative health research to drive better and quicker decisions and deepen connections with customers.

● Purpose-driven customer playbook: After COVID-19, businesses need to understand what their customers would value through quantitative and qualitative research methods and build new use cases and customized experiences based on such insights. For instance, smart wearable tech is an emerging trend that healthcare organizations can capitalize on to generate patient data, which can then be turned into valuable insights for future treatments.

● Ecosystems and adaptability: Adaptability is crucial in light of supply chain and channel interruptions brought on by emergencies. This will require altering the ecosystem and taking into account unconventional alliances with partners throughout the supply chain.