Investing in long-term health system resilience
Ensuring resilience amidst challengesAs consumers, we often take for granted that our healthcare system will be available when we are most vulnerable—when we or our loved ones are sick or injured, and especially when that affliction threatens disability or death. Some of us are even lucky enough to assume that in our time of need, we can access that care promptly and conveniently without fear that the financial cost will damage our livelihood.
Today’s healthcare leaders shoulder the burden of assuring the long-term resilience of our healthcare systems so that assurance can persist amidst increasingly complex challenges, including climate change, workforce shortages, global volatility, and pervasive cyber security threats.
Frameworks for everyday resilience and long-term readinessThe World Health Organization (WHO) recently unveiled a framework for building climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems, and bipartisan efforts in the US are working to address the healthcare workforce and cyber landscape. However, financial rating organizations, including Moody’s and Fitch, have recently downgraded dozens of healthcare organizations due to ongoing operational and financial pressures, signaling a lack of resilience.
When navigating these challenges, healthcare leaders must consider both everyday resilience and long-term health system readiness. Two complementary frameworks can help guide these decisions:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Planning Frameworks provide detailed considerations at the federal, state, and community levels. When applied to healthcare, the framework incorporates preventive factors, including population health and disease surveillance with governance, processes, and tools to mitigate and respond to emerging crises.
The WHO Building Blocks of Health Systems outlines the organizational dimensions for day-to-day and emergency operations. Modern advancements in communications platforms, data and artificial intelligence, and supply chain operations can be analyzed through each dimension to improve resilience.
Slalom's Health System Resilience Framework integrates the WHO Health Systems Framework with the FEMA Emergency Preparedness Lifecycle.
Haldane et al. summarized the components of a resilient healthcare system in their analysis of lessons learned from 28 countries following the COVID-19 pandemic:
Adapt capacity within and beyond the health system to meet the needs of communities
Activate comprehensive responses
Preserve functions and resources
Reduce vulnerabilities of catastrophic losses
Slalom contributors: Jacque Myers, Susan Rueckwald
