January 21, 2021
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY PRESSURES:
It's time to fully embrace telehealth--for the COVID-19 crisis and beyond (CRAIG SETTLES, 1/21/21, Fast Company)
Interestingly enough, COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders have led to a serious reduction in Emergency Room bed use, with a 42% reduction in ER visits last April compared to 2020. The CDC considers this a double-edged sword. It's good that there are less non-critical emergency visits, but bad if people who really need the ER are avoiding it because of fear of the virus.Telehealth kiosks might be the answer to this concern. Often low-income African Americans, other people of color, and immigrants use the ER as primary care. Kiosks can reduce ER overcrowding, provide emergency and general care, and save healthcare facilities money. Patients can go to a kiosk that enables two-way communication and feedback from healthcare professionals who can visually examine patients.Counties and cities are placing modified kiosks in homeless shelters and food banks. It's not just about putting hardware in the right places, though: "This strategy requires patient education and engagement to improve health literacy, plus staff training on the kiosk technology to address certain health issues and conditions," says Caplan."Food banks are an ideal spot to address the needs of the most vulnerable among us whether telehealth is delivering mental health or physical health," adds Emily Fisher, a telehealth doctoral candidate. "The kiosk could be its own 'health system.' Different providers can be available during certain hours the kiosk is in use. The health records can be kept in a digital or cloud-based platform. Patients could view their medical records online. Our group uses a palm scanner to create an image that links to the medical record of the patient. Patients don't need to remember numbers, carry paperwork, or access identification procedures."The bottom line is, that the right kiosk can save a lot of time and hassle for people who otherwise would go to an ER or an urgent-care facility. In 2019, USA Today reported that the average cost of an ER visit was $1,389 in 2017. Saving money by deploying kiosks is a given, particularly for public hospitals.
There is no salutary economic trend that Covid has not accelerated.
MORE:
Grocery stores were already in flux. The pandemic could change them forever (NATE BERG, 1/21/21, Fast Company)
Other changes are more directly related to the immediate ways daily life has been shaken up by the safety protocols the pandemic has necessitated. "The biggest change we've seen come into play is this split between customers who are coming into the store and the customers who are just there for a pickup," Price says, adding that the trend has led to a bifurcation of stores. "We're starting to see stores where there's an in-store shopping experience entry, where people walk in through the entry, there's produce, there's the frozen stuff, it's all the usual, and then there's this other side where you enter and it's more about getting in and out," he says. Many stores already had two separate entrances, so this change has been relatively easy to make.Stores are also using their ample parking lots to create loading areas where customers can pick up orders placed online without having to go into the store at all. This approach, Price notes, has some downsides, as workers are left to weave through rows of cars to find the correct recipient. A more orderly system is the fast-food-style drive-through, which Price says is beginning to be implemented at some Safeway locations and could be a permanent feature. "That will almost certainly over time start to change the way site organization and site entry works."The safety protocols of the pandemic will likely also lead to bigger changes inside stores, according to Price. For example, the days of the salad bar are over. Food and health safety concerns are leading to the elimination of the kind of self-serve and hot-food bars that were once a customer-centric feature of many grocery stores. Price says this may lead more stores to shift these types of food services to the back of the house and use the former self-serve space for prepackaged meals and snacks. And with the rise of grocery delivery services, some stores are even designating specific staging areas where their grocery pickers can prepare customer orders.Health concerns may also end up affecting a part of the grocery shopping experience that's been in the midst of its own evolution: the checkout line. In recent years some stores have shifted from the old model of several lines leading to several checkout counters to a centralized approach where there's one single line, and maybe an express line, and customers all wait for the next available checker. But this may be a short-lived experiment."It creates a backup that snakes through the store, creates obstruction, creates customer conflict, and creates congestion challenges with these six-foot distancing rules that are currently in place," Price says. With the pandemic's duration far from certain, the added spatial requirements could make the snaking-line approach a thing of the past. And, with emerging "no-checkout" technology being developed by Amazon, the front of the grocery store may be seeing an even more dramatic transformation in the near future.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2021 9:47 AM