Lack of substantive action on healthcare issues results in repeat problems such as hospital closures, staff safety concerns, workforce shortages, and cyberattacks. Delayed attention to hospital financial issues often overlooks patient safety and care, with Steward Healthcare's recent financial crisis highlighting this issue. Ongoing violence against healthcare workers reflected by legislation like the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act, shows increased risk and requires deterrent measures. Data gaps weaken responses to persistent healthcare staff shortages, affecting care availability. Lastly, increasing, yet insufficiently addressed, cyber attacks on hospitals pose a growing threat.

Leaders keep kicking the same healthcare cans down the road Beckers Hospital Review

"P" in HIPAA denotes portability, not privacy, allowing health data transfer between providers. Misunderstandings impair recognizing its actual scope. HIPAA devised primarily for providers and insurance companies' operations doesn't cover all assumed aspects. Limited scope covers specific entities and data, not including, for example, a fitness app's information. Originally, HIPAA designed for medical record health data now struggles to match current data exchanging state. Personal data becoming health identifiers has resulted in state-specific laws surpassing HIPAA's coverage to protect wider health data footprint. Washington State's My Health My Data Act shields personal health data beyond HIPAA's scope, including forbid data sales without consent and enabling health data deletion upon request. Law's effectiveness and influence remain unseen.

HIPAA protects health data privacy, but not in the ways most people think Engadget

Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago suffers cyberattack, causing downtime of phone, email, and electronic systems for nearly three weeks. No timeline provided for recovery. Outages persist but hospital continues patient care. Cyber threats against healthcare facilities increasing, despite potential for heightened law enforcement attention. Ransomware groups predicted to continually target critical infrastructure sectors.

Chicago Children’s Hospital Confirms Cyber Threat Activity HealthITSecurity

COVID-19 has spurred digital transformations in healthcare with majority executives seeing tech investments worthwhile despite high initial costs. EY US's Health Pulse Survey reveals adaptation towards digital health tech enhancing operational efficiency and reducing patient care costs. 90% report more time for provider needs post-digital administrative shift. AI is emerging as transformative with 60% investing and 96% seeing time and cost reductions. Yet paradoxically, 70% haven't seen ROI on digital health investments due to difficult tech cost-value tracking. Reskilling for new tech is being prioritized, with digital knowledge boosting provider credibility. Future value in digital health tech lies in modernization and connectivity for better data access.

EY Health Pulse Survey: Digital Health Solutions Boost Efficiencies and Automation, but ROI has Yet to Come EY