Issues in HR in Health Care

¶ … Human resource issues in health care

In a more dynamic modern day environment, the pressure onto the health care sector grows exponentially, and this is the result of countless factors, such as changing life styles with direct impacts upon the quality of health, or the advancement of technology which also impacts life, health and the provision of health care.

In order for the health care sector to be able to respond to the multiple and rapid changes in the environment, it has to be a solid sector within. And an essential component to this strong sector is represented by the quality of the people within the system. In this order of ideas, a question is being posed relative to the human resource aspects which raise issues within the current system, and which also have the potential to raise issues in the future.

At the most basic level, the human resource issues refer to the knowledge, skills and preparation of the staffs so that they are able to provide the best care for the patients. In this order of ideas then, two issues are raised, as follows:

The selection and hiring of staff members which are skilled, qualified and able to become integrated within the culture and organization of the health care facility, and secondly

The continuous development, training and teaching of the staffs so that they know and apply the latests developments in the field of medicine, including technological advancements in the medical sector.

And while these issues are of an impending necessity, they raise the even more important aspect of costs. Currently, the medical system has managed to contain the costs of training and improving the quality of its staffs. Nevertheless, these expenses are likely to further increase in the future, and raise some serious problems for health care providers. A potential solution to this problem would be that of soliciting government funds for staff training and development, but also a restructuring of internal costs in order to improve the quality of the financial operations in the health care system. At this point, a collaboration with specialized financial consultants would be useful.

Another collaboration that is required in the future is that between the health care sector and legal specialists. This is advisable in order to help minimize any legal issues which could arise between the staffs and the health care provider. In order to protect the parties and the medical act, the recommended steps are as follows:

"Educating employees on employment law and company policies

Communicating verbally and in writing the expectations the organization has of the employees' performance

Enforcing labor laws equally to all employees to ensure there are no issues with discrimination of protected classes

Establishing routine performance appraisals of all employees

Providing employee feedback

Establishing exist interviews for all employees" (Niles, 2013).