Healthcare mobile workers: Technicians are the forgotten heroes

As a nurse, I’m acutely aware of the sacrifices our healthcare professionals make every day to care for their patients. And, these sacrifices have been compounded in ways no one ever expected with the onset of COVID-19. I see multiple stories across the news and social media that offer much deserved praise for nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and others. What I’ve yet to see is praise for our healthcare frontline workers in the laboratory and other diagnostic specialties who also are risking their lives to provide incredibly important services to vulnerable patients.

Pandemic or not, clinical testing must go on. Blood draws and imaging services are critical to helping doctors identify, interpret and diagnose symptoms. Many people have postponed needed tests because doctors’ offices, clinics, and urgent care centers have closed, and many fear entering a hospital and risking potential COVID-19 exposure.

As the country begins to reopen, we are going to see a resurgence in elective surgeries and treatments for conditions that require lab testing and imaging studies, including infusions, infertility therapies, chronic care management, and general preventive care assessments involving cholesterol screenings, EKGs, and other tests.

A growing need for a mobile workforce in healthcare

The mobile workforce will become more and more important for many reasons:

• The need for COVID-19 testing services for both the virus and the antibodies will remain for the foreseeable future 
• The widespread adoption of telehealth services will lead to an increased need for testing to support remote screening and assessments
• Patients will demand more at-home testing because they remain afraid to enter facilities
• Doctors’ offices, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, and so forth will see increased demand for mobile testing services as the trend for care outside of the hospital continues