Issues that keep a Healthcare CFO up at night Healthcare is a complex industry that is highly regulated. The 2020 pandemic has also forced many changes to the healthcare landscape that leaders have had to adapt quickly too. In this discussion, in no less than 200 words, please identify and articulate examples in these situations with data to illustrate your point of view. In addition, please reply in no less than 100 words to one of your classmates' posting. Both postings should present quality, thoughtfulness, and unique perspectives. Graphs and other visual illustrations are highly encouraged. Below is my classmate's (Daniel) post, you should respond it for 100 words: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDCs mission is "protecting America from health, safety, and security threats." (https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm) COVID-19 regulations fall under the CDC to create regulations that will help in reducing the risk of infection. "Healthcare Facilities: Managing Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic" was published on the CDC's website and last updated on Dec 22, 2020. Unfortunately, they failed to enforce any regulations during the pandemic and only offered ambiguous guidelines to healthcare facilities. The CDC provided the following guideline topics: 1. Operate effectively during COVID-19 2. Adjust the way healthcare is delivered to reduce in-person care 3. Follow infection prevention and control recommendations tailored to their setting 4. Provide necessary in-person clinical services for conditions other than COVID-19 in the safest way possible, minimizing disease transmission to patients, HCP, and others. To summarize, 1 and 2 the CDC recommended the use of telehealth to reduce the amount of contact and traffic entering the hospitals and other healthcare environments. 3 dictates the use of a standard procedure, tailored to the convenience of the healthcare service provider. 4 states the obvious and suggested that mandatory clinical services should be done "in the safest way possible" (as if that isn't how a hospital should be operating in the first place). All healthcare leaders are required to follow what the CDC dictates, and were left to "figure it out". Even almost a year later, vaccine administration policies are absent and hospital administrators have begun to take action as they see fit. Although this is the first time in modern medicine that a disease this devastating has infected the entire world, enough research has been conducted to understand the virus, how it works, and how to slow it down. "Guidelines" should not be part of the pandemic response plan, mandatory regulations to help protect our healthcare facilities and control the chaos that COVID-19 has caused is what is necessary. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-hcf.html