To meet the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders were required to adapt many aspects of healthcare delivery. These changes, accelerated by the pandemic and now driven by consumerism, offer a unique opportunity to increase the efficiency of healthcare by repurposing pandemic-era adaptions. In this session, attendees will discover a ground-up approach to creating flexible hospital spaces and more efficient health systems. Innovations including the expansion of telehealth, drive-through centers, and remote patient monitoring will be explored.

Learning Objectives:

1. To identify adaptations to healthcare delivery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. To explain how pandemic-era adaptions can be repurposed.
3. To define the ground-up approach to creating flexible hospital spaces.
4. To evaluate recent innovations in healthcare delivery and their impact on health system outcomes and efficiencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important role of facilities leaders to support infection control efforts. As healthcare reflects on the learnings from COVID-19, it’s clear priorities for facilities leaders have been permanently altered. For example, we face air quality considerations that now encompass the entire facility rather than a few key areas. In this session, we will include perspectives from key healthcare executives, who will discuss the role of facilities leaders in infection control and how to elevate these leaders to a more strategic level.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define the strategic role of facilities leaders.
2. Evaluate key air quality considerations post-pandemic.
3. Explain the importance of air and surface quality in infection control.
4. Identify ways to continually measure air quality.

Although the backordering of PPE and other critical supplies received much attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, all supply lines were affected, including capital equipment and construction and replacement materials. Disruptions in receiving equipment and supplies can be incredibly costly, sometimes resulting in construction project delays or downtime on essential equipment. In this session, a panel of hospital executives will offer strategies to mitigate and manage supply disruptions as well as creative makeshift solutions to keep essential equipment in service.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the key factors that cause supply disruptions.
2. Discuss strategies to manage supply disruptions from brief backorders to extended delays.
3. Outline creative solutions to keep equipment in service when replacement materials are backordered.
4. Evaluate alternative sourcing opportunities to maintain supply continuity during disruptions.

Telemedicine visits increased by 154% over the same period from 2019, according to a survey by the CDC. This growth was the result of consumer demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with approval by third-party payors for these visits. In this session, a panel of healthcare leaders will discuss the move toward consumer-driven health, including what’s next for telemedicine and other digital tools to streamline the patient experience.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define consumer-driven health.
2. Explain the impact of consumer-driven health on patients and healthcare leaders.
3. Outline telemedicine’s opportunities and challenges.
4. Identify new digital tools that could improve the patient experience and outcomes.