Business View Magazine March 2023

222 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 3 Another of Lake Region’s recent investments is a new PET/CT unit, which is a type of medical technology that many community-based health organizations may not have. This technology combines pictures from a positron emission tomography (PET) scan and a computed tomography (CT) scan. The PET and CT scans are done at the same time with the same machine, and give more detailed pictures of areas inside the body than either scan gives by itself. Lake Region continues to grow its collective telehealth capabilities, which began before the COVID pandemic, but really grew in demand afterward. Mattson called telehealth an important way to increase access to healthcare services now and in the future. He believes that staying on top of telehealth trends will be critical to the system’s growth in the years ahead. Another trend that COVID accelerated is the shortage of qualified healthcare workers in certain areas, particularly with providers and nurses. Those challenges likely will exist within the healthcare sector for some time, Mattson says. That can be especially true on the provider side for a rural-based healthcare system. Many new providers choose to work in an urban setting, and the rural lifestyle is not always desired by qualified applicants. However, Lake Region’s relatively large size and scope of services in an independent, community-based setting, and tis focus on being person-centered, gives Lake Region an edge for being a great place to give and receive care, Mattson adds. Keeping the morale of the entire staff high is important as well, Patterson says because COVID changed the way the industry looks at a work/life balance. Working in the healthcare field always had its stressful features, but the pandemic exacerbated many of them. Even today as the worst of the COVID pandemic appears to be over, healthcare professionals are retiring earlier or leaving their practices for jobs within the insurance sector. Staff turnover at Lake Region is not nearly as