Marketing and the Health Care System

I ntroduction 

The activities of Human resource management have been in operation from as early as 2000 B.C. HRM is not, and it is not limited to a specific industry. It can be applied virtually in any organizations’ operational activities. In health care systems, HRM has gained much consideration globally. Precisely specified, like consumables and physical capital, human resources play a very significant role in health care systems (World Health Report, 2000). The non-clinical and clinical staff engaging in public health, as well as individual interventions, befits human resources definition. The skill, motivation as well as knowledge of such human resources demonstrate the health care delivery systems’ importance as well as performance. Since human capital should be handled as well as managed differently, from physical care, when ensuring the success of the system, the appropriate mix should be maintained between different health promoters as well as caregivers. The drastic increase in number viz, the cost of the consumables, prostheses, disposable equipment as well as drugs has resulted in an increase in the cost of health care. The increasing cost of health care can undermine the capacity of the publicly-funded system to hire as well as retain effective human resources. 

Key Roles of Human Resource Management 

The health care field has many building blocks that must interact effectively for the desired outcomes. One of these building blocks is the human resource management. Health care HR comprises health care providers, community health workers, social health workers, midwives, physicians, dentists, and nurses. All these care providers must be allied along with the management and support people who deliver their services indirectly to ensure the effectivity of the health care systems, including health economists, medical secretaries, health service managers, health supply chain managers, medical records technicians. One of the key roles of human resource management is dealing with performance management, planning, human resources research, development, hiring, as well as retention of the health care executives and personnel. In recent years, the health workforce has been placed high on the global health agenda. Awareness has also been created about the critical role of human resources in strengthening health care system performance as well as improving the health outcomes (Grepin & Savedoff, 2009). 

Human resource management plays almost identical roles in different fields. However, in the health care field, the association between management and human resource is unique. The uniqueness stems from the fact that almost all organizations offering health care have a dual system administration. The clinical and health service managers monitor and supervise two different employee groups with various health care responsibilities as well as training needs. For example, a clinical manager requires different training than a physical therapist or nurse. A clinical manager also has different responsibilities than the two professionals. 

Health care systems’ success is dependent on effective HR management, which is, in turn, ultimate to the enrollment as well as the sustaining of both clinical and non-clinical staff. Effective human resources management is also fundamental to professional development opportunities, counselling, meeting administration, performance monitoring, and training workplace safety, compensation management, as well as benefits management. In this case, health care human resource management’s main role is managing all the operations-related personnel as well as developing processes for improving patient-related safety. The human resource department also performs several other roles that are aimed at providing patient safety and quality health care services. 

HRM Functions 

In health care, HRM addresses different issues relating to employee benefits, training and retention, recruitment, legal and safety issues, job analysis, and design. The main role of HR management in health care is conducting employee employment as well as retention. The nursing profession has faced numerous labour shortages for several years. In this regard, employee recruitment and retention are of critical importance. When there are issues in the nursing profession, health care is undermined, bearing in mind that nursing is the health care industry’s backbone. Some urban, as well as rural communities are also faced with physicians’ shortage. In this regard, recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals are an area of importance as well as concern for HR management in the industry. Workforce agility can cause disparities that would require better planning, concentrating on the pay as well as reward strategies for overall better management of the workforce (World Health Report, 2003). H.R. departments need to monitor workforce migration due to their importance in human resource management. HRM should is not a revenue-generating department. Instead, it is a revenue saving department. In this c case, the department must work towards reducing turnover and increasing patient satisfaction. 

Job Analysis and Design 

HRM is tasked with analyzing jobs to assess the health care organization workflow. According to Dessler (2012), job analysis techniques can be used to determine various tasks associated with a job process. Through job analysis, the human resources department can have a clear insight into the ideal type of staffing and training for improving employee performance. Job designing tools can be used to enhance employee satisfaction by deciding types of tasks as well as their performance methods (Jackson & Mathis, 2006). 

Handling of legal, ethical and safety issues 

All levels’ Health care staff requires training for effective performance. It is the role o the HR department to offer much-needed training related to the ethical principles affecting the working environment. It is also the duty of HRM to resolve ethical dilemmas as well as a conflict by ensuring that the employees behave ethically in the workplace (Niles, 2013). 

Employee retention, selection and recruitment 

It is the role of the HR department to conduct objective as well as potential recruitment of potential non-clinical as well as the clinical staff, ensuring that the selection process has legal defensibility as well. It is also the role of HRM to create a culture that minimizes turnover and enhance retaining of the organization’s valued staff. Staff turnover can cost an organization millions, and thus, there is every reason to address the problem. The main reasons why organizations suffer employee turnover include lack of motivation, dissatisfaction, and underpayment (Zurn et al., 2004). HR can address the problem of employee turnover by providing infrastructure housing facilities, job rotation, and salary incentives. 

Providing Health Care Benefits 

It is the role of the HR department to provide their employees with health care benefits as well as other varied benefits to minimize employee turnover and attract new staff. The HR department is not only tasked with providing the benefits but also to educate the staff as well. Employee benefits such as social security, medical leave, unemployment insurance, as well as worker’s compensation, are mandated by law. Other benefits, such as retirement plans and paid leave, are voluntary. Such a benefits program is vital to the HR department as they help the organization to attract as well as retain potential employees 

Health Care Employees Motivation 

It is the mandate of health care organizations to provide quality care. Nurses and physicians provide direct care to the clients while lab technicians, technologists as well as clinicians provide indirect health care services. While it is expected that all the health professionals should perform at a high level, other employees do not perform as expected, and in the process, they might endanger patients’ lives. It is the role of the HRM to ensure that the underperforming employees are motivated to perform well through career development programs, employee empowerment, and training. According to Dessler (2012), such programs are effective in improving employee performance. 

Strategic Roles of HRM 

HRM has many strategic roles, with the main one being strengthening the relationship between employer and employee. Strategic planning within an organization calls for long term goal setting for successful competition in the industry (Thompson et al., 2010). Successful goals’ implementation should be formulated based on the strength of the organization. Every organization has various goals, but the ultimate goal is having a competitive advantage over the rival organization. Satisfying the strategic goals requires the availability of skilled, semi-skilled as well as unskilled labour. HRM plays a critical role in the planning workforce as well as a strategy to ensure labour availability. The organization’s strategic planning is the main focus of Human resource management departments. These departments identify the functional processes needed for organizations’ long term goals realization. In the health care field, HRM has a strategic role in addressing the shortage of nursing labour as well as general physician geographical misdistribution. In this case, developing different strategies is important in ensuring the availability of high-quality health care services. Organizations cannot realize a vast pool of high-quality care services without help from HR experts. 

Conclusion 

There is a complex relationship between human resource management and health care. As such, organizations must ensure their human resource managers are adequately trained in all the perspectives of human resources for effective supervision as well as the leadership of the staff. In most large care organizations, there is a distinct HR department. The application of human resource management goes beyond the specific industry and can be applied virtually in all organizations’ operational activities. In the present global perspective, however, all organizations, despite their size, must have designated HR departments. These departments should consist of generalists as well as human resource specialists to manage the employees effectively. The role of HRM in the development of legal as well as ethical workplace environment should never be underestimated. HRM also helps in motivating employees, assisting labour union negotiations, job analysis as well as career opportunities to the employees. Strategic management in organizations is very dynamic. HRM plays a significant role in current as well as future changes in strategic management. Health Care organizations can apply various strategies to ensure that the industry is successful. Health care system success can be ensured by putting in place as well as demonstrating a strong understanding of issues pertaining to human resource management, bearing in mind that health is delivered to people and by people ultimately. 

References 

Dessler. 2012. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management . Upper Saddle River. NJ: Prentice Hall. Pg. 404-419 

Grepin & Savedoff. 2009. "10 Best Resources on ... health workers in developing countries." 

Health Policy and Planning , Volume: 24, No. 6. Pg: 479–482. Retrieved from: http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/6/479 

Jackson & Mathis. 2006. Human Resource Management. 11 th edition. Mason. OH: Thomson/Southwestern. Pg 524-565 

Niles, N. J. (2013). Basic Concepts of Health Care Human Resource Management . Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. 

World Health Report, 2000. World Health Organization. Health Systems: Improving Performance Geneva. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int.proxy.lib.uwo.ca:2048/whr/2000/en/whr00_ch4_en.pdf 

World Health Report, 2003. World Health Organization Shaping the Future Geneva . Retrieved 

from: http://www.who.int.proxy.lib.uwo.ca:2048/whr/2003/en/Chapter7-en.pdf 

Zurn P, Dal Poz MR, Stilwell B and Adams O. 2004. Imbalance in the health workforce. Human Resources for Health. Volume: 2 (13).