Then again, no institution works without its staff, no matter what AI might be telling you right now. It’s important to have hard-working, intelligent, human staff because being in healthcare means handling peoples’ lives. That takes a careful touch and a steady hand – and often more soft skills than hard. Reform starts with workers. Empowering frontline staff to shape better workflows and processes drives innovation.

However, all of these soft skills are dampened by bad working conditions. For example, poor staff-to-patient ratios overburden healthcare teams and lead to mistakes, infections, readmissions. Burned out, overworked healthcare staff provide lower quality care. Improving working conditions improves retention and outcomes. Additionally, outdated EHR systems and complex admin tasks contribute to clinician burnout. Upgrades and automation would help.