19 MAY - 2023CXO INSIGHTSAcross Canada, the healthcare network is suffering. Hospital leadership and executives are evaluating the post-pandemic effects and are considering strategies to facilitate a return to a pre-pandemic status. Is a return to "normal" in the best interest of the population? Healthcare professionals are exhausted, the rate of vacant positions continues to rise and, in some cases, waitlists continue to grow as access to care is still limited. The healthcare system was already stretched to the limit; the pandemic has stretched it beyond the breaking point. If we continue to operate in the same way, we cannot continue to expect different results. In order to increase hospital capacity and optimize access, we need to consider fundamental ways to offer gold-standard patient and family centered care.As challenging, as the pandemic was to navigate for healthcare professionals, there have been several lessons learned. Flexibility, adaptability, and agility are strengths that we embraced over the past 3 years, and these helped us get through very difficult times. We must strive to integrate some of these attributes into our new vision of healthcare. The use of artificial intelligence became part of our regular discussions as well as innovative ways to provide care via telehealth. We learned how to optimize patient care outside of the hospital setting and reinforced the value of healthcare prevention. Most importantly, the pandemic highlighted the vital role our health professionals play, the value of teamwork and the necessity to focus on retaining our expert staff as well as recruiting new professionals. How do we do that when we are experiencing the current health workforce crisis? As a priority, By Cindy McCartney, RN BScN MScHQ, Frédéric De Civita, MPA , Centre universitaire de santé McGill, McGill University Health CentreHealthcare in 2023 : Getting back to the basics Cindy McCartney
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