Page 28 - BusinessWest January 10, 2022

OUTLOOK 2022/HEALTHCARE >>
The Prognosis Is for Another Year of Stern Challenges in 2022
Dr. Robert Roose says he’s deeply opti- mistic that 2022 will be the year when, as he put it, “COVID no longer rules
most aspects of our lives.”
Elaborating, Roose chief medical officer for
Mercy Medical Center, said that soon — how soon, he doesn’t know — COVID will reach a point where it is a more endemic infection that has much lower risk for larger numbers of people in the community. He bases that belief on a num- ber of factors, including vaccines, rapid testing, and, soon, an oral, pill-based therapy that can reduce the risk of hospitalization amongst those that are most vulnerable to severe illness.
“The combination of these things has me opti- mistic that, for the summer, six months from now, and perhaps sooner, we will have lower rates of infection, higher proportions of our population immune to COVID — or at least the most severe effects of COVID — through vaccination or natu- ral infection, and we will have more therapies that are available for those that would be vulnerable,” he said. “And I’m optimistic that will happen this year.”
Roose is not alone in that assessment — oth- ers we spoke with expressed similar optimism
— but for now, all those in healthcare must cope with the present, when COVID still does rule most aspects of our lives, and when there are myriad
and the skyrocketing increases in cases due to Omicron.
While addressing these issues, Keroack echoed Roose when he said he is optimistic that COVID will become more endemic and, therefore, less
“I’m very much an optimist; I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. I’m optimistic about the year ahead, despite the many challenges we face now and into the future. But 2022 is
going to be challenging, especially the first few quarters, because of COVID and the ramifications
of both the current surge and previous surges.”
other challenges stemming from the pandemic. These include everything from intense work-
force shortages that are being felt in this sec- tor perhaps more than any other; high levels of fatigue and burnout among those working in most all healthcare settings,
especially hospitals; growing
mental-health issues that are
impacting people in all age
groups; and mounting non-
COVID-related health issues
stemming from individuals
putting off needed care dur-
ing the pandemic, or simply
not being able to get it (see
related story on page 41).
The sum of all these chal- lenges and others prompted Dr. Mark Keroack, presi- dent and CEO of Baystate Health, to use the word ‘cri- sis’ early and quite often as he addressed the state of
LYNNETTE WATKINS
his healthcare system at an
hour-long Zoom press conference a few weeks ago. Actually, he used the plural of that word, not- ing that his system was and is facing four crises: staffing, capacity management, a surging need for behavioral-health services, and, of course, COVID
controlling in the months and years ahead. But those other issues, and especially the workforce crisis, are expected to linger well into 2022 and probably well beyond.
Lynnette Watkins, who recently took the helm
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28 JANUARY 10, 2022
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2022
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