The Changing Perception of Healthcare

The following is a blog post by Reed Smith @reedsmith and David Shifrin @dshifrin
Smith and Shifrin both work at Jarrad Phillips Cate & Hancock which recently conducted a survey of a thousand people asking them for their opinions and perception of healthcare. Specifically, how that perception has changed due to COVID-19.
I thought this topic – the perception of healthcare – was interesting. Below is a blog post written by Smith and Shifrin to set up the next #hcldr weekly chat which they will be hosting on Tuesday April 28th at 8:30pm EDT (for your local time click here ).
Enjoy.

Americans’ perception of healthcare as a whole has shifted over the past 60 days.* Trust in clinical staff, which historically runs very high, is even higher. Americans almost universally have a favorable view of nurses and doctors. Even trust in hospitals is remarkably high. It’s an appropriate reflection of the incredible work caregivers across the country have done to prepare for the pandemic, respond to it, and in so many cases (all too often overlooked in the crush of attention given to COVID-19-related care), continue to deliver care for “other” acute medical concerns.
At the same time, people have expressed hesitancy to reengage with healthcare providers due to lingering concerns about safety. In short, the medical community’s passionate emphasis on the danger of the novel coronavirus and need to remain isolated has worked. Both providers and patients have cancelled elective procedures and primary care visits. People are staying home. The use of telehealth is up dramatically…and people love it. But, as we crush the curve and begin looking towards reopening the economy – and “normal” healthcare – we have to help people feel comfortable with the exact opposite of what we’ve been saying for the past two months and encourage them to return for care.
Certainly, this effort will have implications for the business of healthcare. It’s no secret that hospital revenue has been devastated. Especially in smaller or rural communities, facilities that shut down elective procedures in preparation of a surge that never came have been lying empty, putting their long-term viability in jeopardy.
But there is another cost to the delays in care and the reticence to return. Individual consumers are avoiding care – sometimes for routine management of chronic conditions, other times for emergent issues like heart attack and stroke. More than one-third of adults plan on waiting seven months or more to schedule an elective procedure. That’s both understandable and concerning (for all parties involved). The health implications caused by COVID-19 go far beyond the people infected by the virus. Even many procedures that are categorized as elective (think joint replacements, for example) have real and significant benefits for an individual’s health, wellbeing, productivity and quality of life.
And yet, as...