Human Resources- Wild Card

This week the assignment is a wild card blog entry. So I decided to look to the libraries database and found an interesting journal article which i will summarize and then give my opinion on.

The article I choose is the journal, The Health Care Manager and is titled, "Examining Human Resources efforts to develop a culturally competent Workforce." The article defines cultural competency as,"the ability of health professionals and organizations to provide services to patients with diverse beliefs, values and practice in a manner that meets patients cultural, social and linguistic needs." The importance of this topic is due to the increased prevalence of the minority population. If health professionals are not able to effectively meet the need of a diverse customer base then they will hinder the quality and access of service they provide and will lose a competitive edge in the market. Their is also a second part of cultural competency which deals with the recruitment and selection of a diverse workforce. The article states that studies show that a diverse workforce helps an organization overcome sociocultural barriers.

Increasing the diversity of a workforce can foster innovation, improve cooperation, increase and performance levels. These benefits will lead to improved quality, increased access, decreased costs and improved patient safety and health care outcomes. In order for an organization to be culturally competent they must have effective diversity management. Meaning, they must have policies and procedure which complement a diverse workforce and population. The focus of the article in on the efforts of the human recourse department to recruit and train staff in a way that fosters cultural competency.

For this article a questionnaire was sent out to 101 hospitals in the southeast region. The purpose was to inquire about the hospitals recruitment efforts, training practices and other efforts related to developing a culturally and linguistically competent workforce. Some of the interesting results obtained are as followed: 77% actively recruit employees from various ethnic backgrounds, 74% have persons from different ethnic backgrounds in leadership positions, 87% of staff are provided with training to care for patients with cultural difference, 44% have trained interpreters on staff.

Overall the findings indicated that most human resource departments focus their efforts on recruiting ethically divers individuals and training clerical and nursing staff to deal with diverse patients. The article suggest that HR focus on identifying the demographics pf the area they serve, to ensure groups are adequately represented. One way to ensure that diverse individuals are recruited properly is to partner with statewide or community based organization that support culturally diverse groups.

I found this article very informative. I like how in the survey they not only asked about the staff diversity but whether there were diverse leaders in the organization. The study showed that those with diverse leaders were more focused on diversity and seemed to realize the importance of providing patients with a more comfortable environment, one where their ethnicity was represented. It is important to keep the patient comfortable not only for cooperation's and satisfaction but for a positive word of mouth.

What does Human Resources mean to you and what is their role in hc orgnizations?

Human Resources to me is managing the key asset of the organization,the employees. The employees of an organization need to be managed separately from other asset of the organization because they have specific needs unlike the other tangible assets of and organization. The human resources department of an organization is responsible for designing and implementing strategies to manage the employees of an organization. This department is responsible for recruitment and the hiring and firing of individuals, performance reviews and management, training and development of employee's skills and the management of compensation and benefits as well as rewards.

Human Resources play a large role in a health care organization. Since a Health care organization's main purpose is to serve individuals who need health related services as a result of an injury, ailment or prevention of the two, the success of the organization depends on the skills of the employees. Therefore it is especially important for a health care organization to have a fully functioning and capable human resource team. This department will need to be able to hire, train, and retain quality employees to provide superior customer service, ensure patient safety and to produce successful outcomes for patients. Employees will need to stay motivated through proper compensation, benefits and rewards. Finally to achieve successful outcomes for patients and improve employee skills human resources will need to conduct performance reviews to inform employees of what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.

H.C. Quality:Wild Card

This is my last assignment for this class. I just finished posting my responses to other students quality improvement projects. I am happy that it was an assignment. I enjoyed looking at other students work. It almost works as a comparison to understand what I may have done wrong or misinterpreted. This helps me to do higher quality work in the future.

For my wild card I am going to do a current event in the news related to health care quality. The article is titled, Doctors critize insureres over ranking and it from the wallstreet juornal. The raticle talks about how doctos are critizing insurers for ranking groups based on cost or quality. They say it is swaying the popion of paients on where they seek care. Insurers say they are working to ensure that the rating are accurate and transparent. Consumers can get lower out of pocket charges if they see a doctor in a preferred ranking. Doctors are saying that these rankings are unreliable and often inaccurate. Doctors can be ranked higher is they order less "questionable" tests or if they have more favorable patient outcomes.

I think it is a good thing that insurance companies are doing this. Not only does it help to control costs overall for health care but it also helps the patient make a more informed decision on where they seek health care. If the rating are accurate and reliable then they are serving a purpose. This is something that could be regulated by a third party to ensure that the rating are not bias. I can see a few flaws in this. Doctors may be more inclined to order less test if they re being rated on the fact that they may have ordered a questionable test. This could result is less quality of care for the patient. This could also reduce access to care if the Doctor began to refuse the type of insurance all together. The Doctor may decide to switch to accepting a different insurance in place that doesn't use ranking. This could hinder access for the patient.

Ethics Week 8

Yeah last blog! I'm happy to be almost done with this semester. I finished my third mini paper, which actually ended up being my favorite. I wrote the paper on patient autonomy for end of life decision making. The Great Debate is all finished up. It was fun and way different from doing a face to face debate. It was much easier to respond to the opposition when you have time to write a well thought out response. The only assignments I have left to do are three more decision board response which I will finish up over the next two days. I am going to follow the same trend for my blog this week and reflect on the interesting points in the reading for the week.

In the Perry book we didn't have a case to read but just a general section titled the ethics of managing people. It was a good conclusion to the book. Ethical dilemmas involve people making decisions and managers must support their employees and provide them with the tools necessary to make ethical decisions. Employees are a resource that is essential to the success of an organization and they should have a safe work environment. They should be protected from harassment and discrimination. It is the Managers job to make sure this thought becomes a realization. It must be extremely difficult for managers to not only work about their duty to the organization to perform financially and productively but to also protect employees and support them emotionally. This section make me think about the case in this book where the female intern worked with a male mentor and CEO. The CEO was trying to protect himself and the intern from potential wrongful actions associated with a sexual attraction. His actions back fired and he was accused of discrimination. It must be like walking on egg shells. This class has almost scared me to take a management position. I am an indecisive person in nature and i picture myself stressing my life away trying to figure out ethical dilemmas. I am sure when put in the actually situation it will come more naturally to make decisions. I think I have thus far prepared myself through education.
The rest of the chapter is almost like a handbook for ethical behavior in the day to day duties of a manager. I think I will keep this book to help alleviate my stress when trying to make ethical decisions.

The chapters in the Hofmann book are similar in topic to those of the Perry book. I was going to write my third mini paper on accountability but in the end switched to autonomy. I think accountability is an important topic. Accountability seems to be addressed in several ways. First organizations are accountable for their actions and should report their performance and errors to the public. This ensure that the public is well informed and able to make decisions for their best interest. Organizations are also accountable to their employees, as addressed in the first section of the Hofmann reading. Organizations are accountable for setting ethical and moral standards for employees to follow. These standards require explicit attention, articulation, education, practice, re informant and rewards. Basically you cant ask employees to act ethically and morally if you, the health care organization or executive, are not doing the same. This seems simple and seems to make sense, however some organizations find it difficult, or they just choose not to follow. Which ever the case it is important for any organization, especially a health care organization to set an ethically example for their employees and the community. If the health care organization which is utilized for saving lives and treating people, isn't ethical then who is?

Ethics Week 7

This weeks readings reminded me of my debate discussion. The first section Hofmann book talks about civic responsibility, and how it is difficult to manage limited resources under ethical and economic challenges while still aiming to improve community health. In my debate I am the affirmative side and the topic is whether health care organizations should be able to refuse demands for futile treatments. As one of my main points I talk about limited resources and the fact that health care organizations have a duty to promote overall community health and ensure that the proper resources are there when patients need them. Meaning they should not be "wasted" on futile treatments. We just finished our Q&A session and I will be writing my closing statement in the next few days. I found the debate enlightening. It was interesting to see both points of view, and that both points of view could be considered right. Which actually confuses me even more about ethical decision making. It is difficult to understand where to draw the line and what can be justified. Especially when talking about the life of a human being. Is it ethical to demand resources when then is no positive outcome and they would benefit another? How can you possible make that decision! I am very glad I am not a doctor, because I don't think anything would get accomplished. I would never be able to make a decisions. From a managements perspective I think it is easy to look at facts and analysis the situation for what its worth, without emotions. When you have that one on one connection with the patient and you can actually see and feel their pain, then it can be hard to do what is right for the overall community, not just that individual patient.

The next two sections in the reading for Hofmann discuss advertising in health care and its ethical implications. I actually watched another group debate this during my last semester. This too is also a difficult subject, one where the complexity of the situation is highlighted. Health care is a business and therefore has an objectives to produce revenues. However health care also has an objective to serve the patients best interest, which can be saving a patients life. Typically other businesses do not have this sort of complexity. Trying to meet both objectives and do it in an ethical manner is the real challenge. In regards to advertising the message can be bias and can be twisted. To ensure the organization is advertising to the consumer in an ethical way all relevant data must be presented in order to ensure the consumer is well informed. The consumer should not be persuaded to do purchases a medical product, medication, procedure or visit a certain health care organization if it is not in their best interest. Consumers should be able to make well informed decisions on what is best for them. Health care organizations should make themselves visible to the public. Knowledge is the key.

Titled post wrong

I titled my post wrong and I do not know how to fix it. The last post titled, ethics week 4 should be tilted ethics week 6- due on 6-29

H.C. Ethics Week 4

This week my boyfriend had a knee surgery, so I wanted to wait until it was over so I could write about it on my blog. My boyfriend had a torn muscle in his knee, his surgery was to repair the muscle and remove scar tissue and build up associated from the injury. His surgery took place in an ambulatory surgery center. We were scheduled to be there at 7:45am. We were in the car on the way home by 11:00am. The surgery itself was about an hour. The facility was easy to walk around in, lots of signs directing the patients and visitors where to go. The employees at the facility were very friendly, informative and caring. I was very pleased with the way I was treated as well as my boyfriend. When discharged we received detailed directions on how to care of the injury, we also received a follow up phone call to check in. Although I do not have many experiences at a health care facility to compare this one to, I believe the service was excellent and my boyfriend and I are satisfied with the outcome. I did encounter one ethical situation. When the doctor finished surgery he came out to the waiting room to talk to me. Due to patient confidentiality the doctor asked me to follow him into a room to update me on the situation an discuss the outcome of the surgery and the state of the patient. The doctor upheld his ethical duty of respecting a patients privacy by bringing me into a different room to keep our conversation private.

I noticed something interesting while sitting in the waiting room. A older couple entered the facility and had a hard time hearing the receptionist. Therefore the receptionist spoke very loudly with the patient. During the conversation the receptionist made it a point to tell the patient that the facility was an ambulatory setting and that her advanced directive, living will, could not be honored there because it was not a hospital. The interesting part was the receptionist did not mentioned this to my boyfriend during check in. I wondered whether this was an issues of equality. Was the receptionist treating the patients differently because they were older or my boyfriend because he was younger? Then I wondered why the organization did not honor advanced directives, why would they not give the patients the choice , why was the organization was not interested in the values and the wishes of the patient.