Emergency department volume is down 50%. Major healthcare companies are taking bailouts. Healthcare revenue is plummeting, and nearly 1.4 million healthcare workers have lost their jobs.
The reason is pretty clear: basically, would-be patients are scared. People are postponing elective surgeries and procedures, but are also ignoring early signs of true emergencies like strokes and heart attacks. Up to 70% of a hospital’s patients come via the emergency department, so when people stay away from the ER, the entire healthcare edifice suffers.
Forget EBITDA. Now, companies are calculating “EBITDAC” — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and coronavirus. In the midst of this twin economic and health disaster, healthcare as an industry has found itself with a major communications challenge on its hands, and not one it’s well-positioned to tackle: convince people it’s safe to come in.