Health Care Human Resources Management

Assignment 1: Health Care Human Resources Management

HSA 530: Health Services Human Resources

Analyze two current trends in health care that are affecting human resources management that may likely impact your hiring decision as HR manager. Provide support for your analysis

One trend that is currently affecting human resources management (HRM) in the health care field is the shortage of nurses and physicians. With the all of the changes to health care over the last few years there has been an increase in patients due mainly to more and more individuals obtaining health insurance for the first time. Organizations are struggling to fill not only nursing jobs but other critical roles. They simple cannot keep up with the demand of care that is needed. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be a shortage of 900,000 nurses and 45,000 primary care physicians (Sandford, 2013). Those are alarming numbers. HRM needs to develop a strategy that will hopefully decrease that number so health care does not suffer in the future. The new health care legislation has made organizations reevaluate how they manage patient care. In order to keep up the demand of patient loads many organizations are opting to hiring Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practitioners. The hiring of PA’s and NPs will help with declining number of Physicians but they will still need nurses to help room patients.

Technology is another trend that is affecting HRM. Everyday there is some new piece of technology that it is introduced in the health care field. In order for employees to understand how those pieces function HRM needs to make sure that all employees are trained and educated on how the pieces of technology function and why it is important to the care of their patients. Some aspects of technology that HRM could face would be training of a new EMR system. HRM is not necessarily responsible for understanding how the system operates, but they are responsible for making sure all physicians, nurses, and other staff members know how to properly use it. This could be accomplished by working with the hospitals technology department and setting up training sessions for the employees to come in and see how it is ran and ask questions if they are unsure of how to use it. HRM is also responsible for ensuring all employees continue their education/training of all current equipment the organization is currently using.

Suggest a significant opportunity for HR to become more of a strategic partner within an organization. Justify your response

One way that HR could become more of a strategic partner would be taking time to understand why there is a shortage of licensed personnel (nurses and physicians). If they had a better understanding of what those employees did on a daily basis, they could possible come up with ways to help reduce the shortage. One idea would be determining if more education needs to be offered; do nurses feel they are not offered the proper access to continuing education? Another idea would be to examine if there are any other licensed professional that could help fill those roles. If they took the time to understand what each job really entails they would know if there other options for filling vacant positions. In order for HR to become a strategic partner they must first understand the ins and outs of the organization.

Recommend a model of human resources management that would be the most appropriate for this organization in question. Provide support for your recommendation

The acute hospitals main goal is to expand its services to the growing community, with this in mind; I would recommend the counseling model of HRM. In this particular model emphasis is placed on maintaining employees as effective producers (Fallon & McConnell, 2012). HRM’s priorities in this model is maintaining education and training of employees, help managers deal with personnel issues, recruitment and retention of employees and ensuring privacy is maintained on all levels. I recommend this model for this hospital because in order to expand its services to a growing community they will need to hire more workers. This model is known for existing in organizations that’s budget is largely revolved around employees (Fallon & Connell, 2012).

Recommend a strategy that HR could implement in order to develop more effective relationships between Human Resources and the organization’s managers and senior executives, indicating how each strategy will achieve the desired goal.

I would recommended that each department within the organization have a contact person within HR. This contact person would solely deal with one department. They would be in charge of all job postings for their department and any personnel issues that may arise within their department. This effectively opens up the lines of communication between managers and HR. Managers would always know who to contact if they have any issues. It will also help with employees within the organization know who to contact if they are having issues. HR employees would have the opportunity to know more about their designated department if they were only responsible for one instead of all departments. Overall, I believe this would help with improving communication within the organization.

Determine a specific employment law that may affect the hiring and selection process at the acute hospital in your community. Provide support for your rationale.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Law will affect the hiring and selection process at the hospital. It states that no applicant can be discriminated against because of their race, gender, sex, color, age, origin or status of disability or protected veteran (DOL, 2015). This law protects individuals from being denied a job opportunity they may be too old or young. HRM must hire the best candidate for the position regardless of their race, color, age etc. The community is growing; therefore, they will need to hire more individuals to ensure they are properly staffed to provide the best care possible to their patients. HR will be conducting interviews to fill possible old positions as well as newly created ones and they will need to keep in mind the EEO law. If a candidate feels they were discriminated against and can prove it, the hospital could be opening them up to a potential lawsuit. For that reason all HR employees should ensure they are not discriminating against any candidate and hire the most qualified one for the position.

References:

Sanford, K. D. (2013). Addressing staffing shortages in an era of reform. Healthcare Financial Management: Journal Of The Healthcare Financial Management Association, 67(12), 42-45.

Pizzi, R. (2001, September 14). Facing down the challenges of health care HR. Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://www.dol.gov/

Fallon, L., & McConnell, C. (2012). Human resource management in health care (1st ed.). Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett.