3 Ways COVID-19 Changed the Status Quo for Labs
There isn’t a single sector of healthcare that didn’t experience significant change during the COVID-19 pandemic. From family medicine to ambulatory services, all the way to post-acute and home care, the industry was forced to quickly adapt to the needs of the population as access to care and priorities shifted. One of the sectors that was impacted most by the COVID-19 pandemic was (and still is) laboratory services. Often the unsung heroes working behind the scenes in the healthcare industry, lab professionals were pushed into the spotlight with the widespread need for fast, accurate testing and results to stop the spread of COVID-19. The immediate impact was severe, but what are the long term effects? We’ve identified three major areas of clinical labs that have been forever changed by the pandemic.
Transformed work settings
When COVID-19 first appeared, it created a catch-22 for clinical laboratories across the world. On one hand, the pandemic skyrocketed the need for testing and turnaround times for results, and on the other hand, employers were responsible for the well-being of their staff, and had to take their safety into account when staffing labs. Practicing social distancing decreased the amount of staff that were able to work together in any given area, increased frequency of cleaning and disinfecting or staff members and equipment slowed down routine processes, and more cautious policies were put in place for employees who show any type of symptoms, resulting in shortages of active workers during the pandemic. https://www.clinicallabmanager.com/trends/lab-safety/lab-safety-and-preparedness-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-22039 Supporting points to be built out: Working from home became a more viable option for many lab professionals with the help of technology. , the Some lab workers were able to work remotely, a lot more off-site work is needed, etc. https://k2sci.com/news/what-kinds-of-careers-are-found-in-a-medical-laboratory/ Advances in technology have also improved the portability of devices, so that tests now can be performed routinely at patients’ bedsides, in ambulances, mobile clinics, doctors’ offices, and sometimes even in patients’ homes. Drive-through testing became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth is an issue for clinical laboratories because, if the patient never visits a traditional physician’s office, where and how will the lab access the patient to collect the specimens to perform the lab tests that were ordered by the patient’s physician? Fourth, use of digital pathology, whole-slide images, and telepathology will increase and probably become the norm. Many pathologists required to work from home during the pandemic now recognize the benefits of a digital pathology system that can allow them to read images and diagnose from any location away from the pathology laboratory.
Rapid technology adoption and innovation
Digital transformation in the healthcare industry was heavily accelerated during COVID-19. The bureaucratic, political, and cost-related limitations that stood in the way for digital transformation in the past were quickly reconstructed to keep up with the needs of those impacted by COVID-19. Supporting points to be built out: Significantly sped up innovation for labs – many labs received updated software (find a source)? They had to create multiple testing sites and find a safe way to ship and test the samples, without losing the patient identity along the way Need to report out to the public on trends – aggregated, accurate data was key to decision makers during the pandemic.
Shortage of workers and staff burnout
Even pre-pandemic, there was a shortage for laboratory workers in the United States. It is a career that requires constant concentration, and a small margin for error. A survey in late 2018 showed that although laboratory work https://www.biomerieuxconnection.com/2021/04/19/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-clinical-laboratory-professionals/ Supporting points to be built out: Little to no awareness to the incoming workforce (high schoolers, new college students, etc.), and the general public also knows very little about the career path, as they’re only really familiar with the healthcare workers they interact face-to-face with when receiving care. 85.3% of respondents to a 2020 survey from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) reported having felt burnout. The survey also found 44.4% of respondents were considering changing careers altogether, 33.4% thought about finding a job in a related field, and 24.9% were considering retiring—ominous signs considering the already dire clinical laboratory labor shortage. What would help? Not surprisingly, 58.9% said better wages, but 27.1% also said better work-life balance. https://www.aacc.org/cln/articles/2021/october/your-burnout-is-real The pandemic has also punched a few holes in clinical laboratory training this year. With many hospitals closing labs or imposing strict limits on who was allowed inside, students lost critical opportunities for hands-on training that usually make up the last semester of their education, said Conway-Klaassen https://www.aacc.org/cln/articles/2020/december/building-a-foundation-for-the-laboratory-of-the-future Conclusion, looping back to interoperability: Through the changes that laboratory organizations have experienced over the past few years, a consistent, ever-growing need is the ability to accurately manage, track, and share data. Investing in quality data management systems (LIMS, EHR, etc.) is key to success, but it is also vital that those systems are able to communicate to reduce errors, increase efficiency, and optimize processes.
