Managed Healthcare Executive February 21, 2025
A Q&A with David Smith, MD, MAS
MHE: How does COVID-19 impact the healthcare system in 2025?
Smith: COVID-19 continues to impact the healthcare system today, though differently than at the pandemic’s peak. In 2020 and 2021, healthcare systems faced overwhelming challenges including widespread staff shortages due to illness and large influxes of patients. Public health measures including lockdowns strained both healthcare and economic systems, and delaying elective and non-urgent procedures led to significant backlogs.
Today, while there are still COVID-19 surges, the healthcare system is better equipped to handle these waves. Nevertheless, illness can still cause staffing shortages, and surges of multiple respiratory illnesses—such as COVID-19, RSV and influenza—can overwhelm hospitals. When surges coincide, elective procedures may again be...
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