January 6, 2022 | Net Health

3 Minute Read

Employee Health 2022: What to Expect

When it comes to employee health, it’s wise to be prepared, especially in a hospital setting where your employees and patients have the potential to affect each other’s wellbeing. While we can’t see the future, we can have a good sense of what may be in store for Employee Health (EH) departments and what to expect in 2022:

Comprehensive Vaccine Tracking

It’s unclear if employees will need to receive regular COVID-19 booster shots in the future. If so, employee health software can help to track their compliance. But even if we win the battle with COVID-19, EH departments will most likely be required to continue to track flu vaccine statuses. The World Health Organization found that cases of both influenza types A and B are already higher than last year.1 

Therefore, it’s crucial to make sure EH departments can easily collect and securely store employee vaccine compliance data. That’s because paper records simply don’t allow for EH departments to be agile when it comes to tracking changing vaccination guidelines, regardless of whether we have one or two viruses to contend with. 

Coping With Nursing Shortages

Nursing professionals are leaving the field at an alarming rate, yet they are some of the most important resources hospitals have.2 While some nurses have decided to leave their roles on the hospital floor for Employee Health departments where they face fewer risks, others have left medicine altogether.3 Now, hospitals are struggling to cope with both the immediate staffing shortage as well as concerns about the low number of nurses in the training pipeline.4 

Hospitals may have to work hard to both attract and retain nurses in 2022. Streamlining administrative tasks in order to reduce work burdens and adopting telehealth solutions to enable hybrid work options are two potential interventions. 

Continuing Telehealth Opportunities

Telehealth has played a crucial role in access to care for hospital employees and the general public since the start of the pandemic, and the implications for Employee Health departments are twofold. On the one hand, the right employee health software can provide a secure way of getting employees the help they need via videoconferencing or chat, while easily integrating with existing digital health records. But telehealth also requires staff to adopt new technological requirements, adding to their daily screen time and resulting in digital fatigue.5 EH departments can help head this off by adopting employee health software that makes these encounters maximally efficient.

Addressing Reporting and Compliance Issues

As COVID-19 variants spread, it can sometimes place an extra burden on hospitals to report to, and comply with, government authorities. While we cannot predict how the pandemic will unfold in 2022, having an agile tracking system will help place EH departments in a good position to pivot back to standard regulations if needed. 

As it has become clear, there’s little room for error when it comes to optimizing employee health data in 2022. But with the right tools and software solutions in place, EH departments can be more confident and secure paving the way into the new year.

 If you’d like to learn more about EH software you can trust, check out Net Health Employee Health.


References:

1 World Health Organization, “Global Influenza Programme: Influenza Update N° 407,” November 22, 2021.
2 Relias Media, “ANA: Nursing Shortage Is at Crisis Point,” November 1, 2021.
3 Nurse.com, “Managers Struggle to Cover Shifts During Pandemic-Fueled Nursing Shortage,” October 19, 2021.
4 International Council of Nurses, “The Global Nursing Shortage and Nurse Retention,” 2021.
5 Harvard Business Review, “Telehealth Is Working for Patients. But What About Doctors?” November 13, 2020.
6 Association of American Medical Colleges, “The Growing Threat of Ransomware Attacks on Hospitals,” July 20, 2021.

 
 
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