Being confined to our homes for the betterment of society, many of us have chosen what resources are best for our families. Some have investigated new family leisure activities or others potentially laid-off or furloughed, have looked at alternative approaches to income.
Economists explain that in a pandemic there will be both supply and demand shocks. A supply shock is anything that affects the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services at the usual prices. So, based on stay at home ordinances for example, company workers do not have the ability to produce certain products in need during the lockdowns. Whereas, the demand shock reduces consumers ability or willingness to purchase these goods and services at given prices. As we are all aware, there was an initial overabundance of hoarding when it came to food and other essential supplies (toilet paper, hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, etc.). As the unknowns of COVID-19 continues to drag on, we all are adjusting to the new normal.
Having four children and wanting to keep them active, we have begun to take them on off-road mountain bike trails. The new activity has also pulled them from dedicating as much time to electronics, which we have appreciated, even with digital learning. The mountain bike trails have provided social distancing while having fun. Our initial attempts to the trails found that some of the children’s bikes were not well suited for the off-road trails. With growing children, we needed to invest into bike upgrades. We learned quickly that locally, and nationally, new bikes at retailers were not lasting long on the rack. Even used bikes are moving at a rapid pace (trust me, I monitor Facebook Marketplace). Knowing that biking is an activity many have turned to for outdoor enjoyment, the bike manufacturers have struggled to keep up with the demand. Lesson learned; children grow, and for the adventures to continue, we will need to find the right bikes for our family members.
As the pandemic continues, another market greatly affected by the COVID economy has been the housing market. Interest rates have dropped considerably, giving many the opportunity to buy homes and refinance at lower rates. These low interest rates have brought about higher demand in those looking to purchase a home, with low supply of homes for sale. Homes are selling in a few days, in some cases sight unseen, with new buyers looking to upgrade their living situations. Lesson learned; our financial advisor made us aware that at our current mortgage rate we should refinance. With the low rates, our family also chose to refinance for the betterment of our budget, hoping to refocus monies on other future family activities.
As society adapts to the new normal from the pandemic, healthcare continues to struggle with revenue. Elective surgeries have been put on hold to minimize contraction of this deadly virus in hospitals. This has led to staff furloughs and looking for new ways to re-invent patient care. Telemedicine has become much more relevant compared to the past, where it was primarily being used in rural settings. Hospitals are looking into new predictive analytic tools to forecast COVID-19 cases. Healthcare leadership continues to look for alternative ways of minimizing losses while investing in new technology like predictive research models using machine learning to improve data analytics as cases increase throughout the US. As leaders look for savings and await federal aid, many of these cuts are projected to come from non-revenue generating areas of their Health Systems, ideally with patient care NOT being impacted. The pandemic has proven to demonstrate the vulnerabilities that still exist within healthcare. Manual processes have been found in the public health areas, hospitals, and ambulatory centers, where faxing and scanning workflows are considered a necessity to provide patient data for analysis.
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/upshot/coronavirus-response-fax-machines.html
About the Author: Shane Dickson
Shane is the Regional Business Development Manager at Extract with more than 13 years of experience in the healthcare marketplace. His healthcare background includes managed care, regulatory guidelines, quality analytics, and EMR software solutions in a number of modalities. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College while playing DIII collegiate hockey. Shane takes pride in listening to customers workflow issues to provide sound software solutions long-term.