Healthcare workers and providers throughout the country are facing unprecedented levels of stress as they deal with the ongoing pandemic, while also providing non-pandemic related healthcare services to those in need. Behavioral healthcare providers in particular have experienced a different type of COVID stress, as they try to ensure that clients are receiving the mental healthcare that they need while dealing with new conditions arising from the pandemic, and states that have stay-in-place and lockdown orders. While technology can only go so far in alleviating the COVID stress that healthcare providers are struggling with, it can help. If Lightning Step can help make even one documentation process more efficient for your organization, then that’s one less thing for your workers to have to worry about.

At Lightning Step we love spending time in our app, but we are always optimizing it so you spend as little time as necessary in it. Removing a minute here, a process step there, this is what we care about first and foremost. We’ve built cool features and impressive integrations, but it’ll always come second to giving you time back in your hectic day.

John Crighton, CTO

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Healthcare Industry

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had a serious impact on the healthcare industry and healthcare workers. A 2020 KFF.org study found that 64% of households with an essential health care worker said that worry and stress had caused them to experience at least one adverse impact on their mental health. This is coupled with the strain on behavioral healthcare providers as the pandemic fuels the behavioral health crisis in the US, both with new mental health diagnosis caused by stress and isolation, and the increased risk of worsening symptoms for those with pre-existing behavioral health conditions that faced a disruption to their care.

64%

of households with an essential health care worker said that worry and stress had caused them to experience at least one adverse impact on their mental health.

93%

of patients indicate that they now use telehealth portals to fill their prescriptions.

The rise in telemedicine has quickly flourished to meet the demands of the pandemic, one of the biggest benefits of technology in healthcare through the pandemic. 93% of patients surveyed in a recent study indicate that they now use telehealth portals to fill their prescriptions. While online treatment is a wonderful supplement to our collective approach to healthcare, it is causing new issues for healthcare workers. They are now facing the phenomenon of ‘Zoom Fatigue’, a condition widely discussed throughout the pandemic that is led by excessive use of Zoom or other video call platforms for work. The most prominent cause of Zoom fatigue, also called virtual fatigue, is the increased cognitive demands of video conferencing. It can also have negative impacts on those with image-related mental health disorders such as body dysmorphia, as you have to see yourself on the video call throughout the day.

Some of the other issues that healthcare workers are facing, as they try to cope with the pandemic:

Compassion fatigue
Burnout
Isolation
Collective trauma
Anxiety
Depression
Cognitive impairment
Decision fatigue

Why is Technology Beneficial in Providing COVID Stress Relief?

Just as people found positives during COVID, like getting back in touch with old friends and spending more time with family either remotely or in-person, technology can also have a lot of positive impacts on the COVID stress that behavioral healthcare providers and workers are facing. By providing technological solutions to manual problems and creating efficiencies in the workplace, we can save your organization much needed time and worry. COVID stress is already enough for your workers to deal with, if we can save them 30mins of time per day that they’re currently spending on manual processes, then that adds up to 2.5 hours per week or 1,040 hours of saved time per year. This is time that could be spent looking after their mental health, stepping away from the computer, catching up on work that they’ve had to deprioritize or spending time with their families.

The advantages of Lightning Step’s fully integrated EMR:

Less errors to catch, go back and fix, our technology does that for you
CRM and integrations move prospects into financial review and admission faster
Communicating about the status of the team and clients is much faster, alerts allow for quick response to crises
RCM automatic scrubbing means less time retrying claim submissions, faster payout from insurers
Billing services can eliminate entire workloads from your team
Once you trust your data system, everything gets faster

The challenges presented by our current predicament give birth to innovations and solutions. You may need to allocate more resources for the influx of patients seeking in-house treatment or monitor the meds necessary to provide them the best care possible. Instead of considering each of these goals as separate tasks, you may be able to integrate them into a cohesive program. Lightning Step’s program is designed for organizations that are meeting the needs of today with insights into tomorrow. In one comprehensive dashboard, you can assess individual care needs as well as overall facility stats, make sure there are sufficient meals for all of your residents to cover the surge in registration and keep tabs on bed assignments and therapy schedules. Whatever your specialties may be, the Lightning Step program is customized to bring your goals to life.

Contact us today to find out how we can alleviate COVID stress for your workers and save essential time for your organization.

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