The Business of Healthcare in a World of COVID-19

In our lifetime, there has not been a singular event that has so rapidly impacted life on a global scale as the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, aka COVID-19. History will tally the final comparison, but it’s not hyperbole to at least contextualize COVID-19 in the same conversation as the world’s great plagues, including the Bubonic Plague (14th century), Smallpox (16th century), or the Spanish Flu (early 20th century). And this is for a virus that was unknown and undocumented – anywhere in the world – as recently as 180 days ago.

In addition to the impact that COVID-19 is having on personal lives, it is also dramatically affecting the business of healthcare. COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the front lines of healthcare, turning nurses, doctors and emergency room staff into modern-day superheroes. It has consumed much of the available capacity of virtually every healthcare system and emergency room across the U.S. – if not by filling beds with patients, then at least by creating concern about virus transmission and causing patients to otherwise stay away from the traditional consumption of healthcare.

Where COVID-19 is altering, temporarily at least, our understanding of normal, it is creating opportunity for others. Across the healthcare ecosystem, there have been highly publicized anecdotes of collaboration and innovation. We have seen Bauer, a manufacturer of ice hockey equipment, pivot to producing face shields for frontline workers. We have seen the maker of Absolut Vodka and Jameson’s Irish Whiskey converting production facilities to instead produce hand sanitizer. General Motors has allocated production capacity to sourcing and assembling critical ventilator systems.