Healthcare researchers and scientists have succeeded in presenting numerous concepts and procedures to improve the quality of medical services available to more patients. Within the past ten years, healthcare technologies have become common in different facilities across the globe. Consequently, more patients are receiving high-quality health services due to these advancements than ever before. This analysis seeks to examine the nature of these developments and the unique human resources management (HRM) attributes associated with them.
Trend Description
Modern innovations make it easier for nurses, physicians, and clinicians to meet the diverse medical needs of their patients. Some of the leading advancements recorded within the past ten years include wearable and sensor technologies, wireless communication systems, telehealth services, electronic health records (EHRs), and mHealth (“The impact of technology,” 2019). Such systems were making it possible for patients to save around 5.1 US dollars per month (“The impact of technology,” 2019). The introduction of EHRs was a superior move that minimized medical costs by around 3 percent (“The impact of technology,” 2019). By 2015, around 80 percent of medical professionals were using medical apps and mobile devices to communicate and meet patients’ health needs (“The impact of technology,” 2019). Additionally, 25 percent of physicians were relying on mHealth to offer personalized services and care (“The impact of technology,” 2019). These statistics support the idea that such technological trends will support patient care delivery, reduce costs, and minimize sentinel events. With such changes, HRM experts need to consider the most appropriate strategies to guide and train more professionals to use them and improve the experiences for more individuals.
HRM Characteristics
In healthcare institutions, HR departmental leaders need to consider specific attributes and characteristics that can support their followers to deliver high-quality services. Some of them include the ability to communicate efficiently with the targeted practitioners, application of evidence-based functions, empowerment and development of all workers, and trustworthy. The department should equip individuals with desirable resources and match their competencies with the intended roles and activities (“The impact of technology,” 2019). The availability of the intended resources, the ability to recruit skilled medical professionals, and identification of the unique functions are some of the unique characteristics that can equip HRM to respond to this trend. The HR department should also have the potential to guide and mentor followers to adopt and apply emerging technologies successfully.
HRM Metrics
HR metrics are powerful initiatives aimed at ensuring that the performance of the HR department is in accordance with the demands of more workers. The first one is the cost of HR per individual and it guides the relevant leaders to manage available resources and finances to support the intended goals (Manimaran & Kumar, 2016). In a healthcare organization, this aspect will ensure that all clinicians and caregivers receive the relevant HR inputs and work hard to support the delivery of positive results (Manimaran & Kumar, 2016). The second metric is the HR professionals to workers ration and it is intended to ensure that the workers receive the intended support and empowerment. With such a practice, professionals in a clinical facility will have the intended resources and guidelines that can eventually improve the quality of services available to more patients.
The third one is that of turnover and it examines the number of individuals in an organization and those who quit their jobs. In healthcare organizations, this metric needs to be as low as possible since patients require personalized care and constant monitoring. The fourth metric is that of HR software effectiveness. This concept will dictate the ability to assign roles and eventually maximize organizational performance (Kruse & Beane, 2018). In medical facilities, such an aspect will guide leaders to determine how roles are assigned and designed to improve patients’ experiences. The final one is that absenteeism and it will indicate the percent of medical professionals who fail to report to work within a specified period. When this ratio remains low, more individuals will in a position to receive high-quality medical services.
Strategic Importance
Managers of health institutions should consider the best HR practices that will support with the introduction of modern technologies to meet the demands of more patients. Medical facilities will need to acquire additional resources, offer the best training, and recruit skilled professionals to support the use of innovative systems to minimize sentinel events and maximize the quality of medical services available to more patients (“The impact of technology,” 2019). The HR department should consider these trends and utilize them to measure the outlined metrics, such as absenteeism, turnover, and HR cost per worker (Manimaran & Kumar, 2016). This new model should guide future HR practices by ensuring that modern innovations are implemented to measure employee performance and maximize patients’ overall experiences.
Conclusion
The above analysis has identified modern innovations as resourceful and capable of improving the speed of medical care delivery. HRM professionals should make such developments part of their models to equip more health professionals with the relevant skills. They will have to hire competent people who are conversant with such technologies and utilize them to minimize sentinel events. Proper managerial practices can ensure that more physicians and nurse practitioners are prepared for this trend and ready to offer personalized medical services to their respective patients.
References
Kruse, C. S., & Beane, A. (2018). Health information technology continues to show positive effect on medical outcomes: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internal Research, 20(2), e41. Web.
Manimaran, A., & Kumar, S. A. S. (2016). Human resource management in the healthcare industry – A literature review. Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(6), 124-128. Web.
The impact of technology in healthcare. (2019). AIMS. Web.