By Dan Hounsell

What hasn’t changed for healthcare facilities managers in the last year? Whether it’s air filtration or touchless restroom technology or office configuration, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of facilities in some way, and that includes IT systems.

New realities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic are reshaping healthcare IT in ways that affect leadership, employees, and patients, according to HealthLeaders.

Various changes include:

• Moving to a hybrid of virtual and in-person meetings
• Shifting to certain patient monitoring and visits at home instead of in hospitals or clinics
• Consumerization of healthcare
• Accelerating a move to and dependency on cloud-based platforms
• Questioning the expense of traditional desktop phones

In particular, cloud computing in healthcare as a vital platform is a clear winner emerging from the pandemic, said Rasu Shrestha, chief strategy and transformation officer and executive vice president at Atrium Health. "It's here to stay," he said. "The scalability, the elasticity is exactly what we needed more of as we lived through the pandemic."