How has Covid-19 changed healthcare?

The world of healthcare has enormously shifted from its usual practice since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic. There is almost an immediate halt on in-person consultations practice or clinical activities for the past months. It is bound to continue unless a widely successful Covid-19 remedy is available.

A vast number of clinics and other medical facilities have either reduced consultation hours or altogether ceased seeing non-Covid-19 patients for now. Meanwhile, healthcare employees by the thousands are currently on furlough (and still rising) up to when? Nobody knows. These measures, among others, have profoundly resulted in a drop in the industry’s revenue as patients continue to avoid hospitals and clinics for virus transmission.

Patient Care–What to Expect Soon
For the past weeks, this pandemic has been puzzling clinicians across the US and most countries in the world. Silently, it is massively producing an epidemic of patients needing clinical or hospital care. Patients with Cardiovascular related diseases are missing or avoiding hospitals out of Covid-19 fright, unlike before, that they use to occupy many hospital beds.
Sooner or later, this silent epidemic of various illnesses will significantly manifest as urgent while competing for medical attention with Covid-19. Physicians are much concerned about the situation of these possible patients who cannot or would not want to visit the hospitals.

Where did the patients go?
As months have been going by, there is undoubtedly a significant increase in the number of unattended non-urgent and elective medical cases or health conditions that are unintentionally ignored since the Covid-19 scare. These patients’ anxiety will build up as they are not getting timely medical attention or that feeling that their conditions get worse each day. Now, if there may be other options for being diagnosed or treated by physicians, it is not yet evident to the public and how to avail them. More importantly, how will their health insurance play its part in the coverage.