Question

Select an environmental trend that affects healthcare institutions and, as an HR Executive, describe how you'd utilize the SHRM model to address this environmental concern.

Answer 1

Strategic Human Resource Management(SHRM) mainly analyses the threats and oppurtunities in the extenal environment, conducts SWOT analysis for the institution, evaluates the findings of the analysis and prepares action plans to combat the threats. Also the model specifies about periodic re evaluations.

One trend that may affect the health care institution is emerging roles of Virtual health assistants(VHA). A Virtual health assistant is a person who helps with administrative and client support tasks like helping in scheduling an appoinment online, answering to queries, identification of conditions which needs to be addressed immediatly, and so on. This may enable the health care workers to render maximum time in direct and quality patient care. Patients may be beneffitted by avoiding unnecessary hospital visits for simple queries and waiting time for scheduling an appointment. A VHA can contribute even by working from home. Some of the administrative duties that a VHA can handle are patient data management,insurance verifications,billing, medical authorisations etc,where as the patient (customer) suppor tasks include online chat support,email or text support, answering to commmon queries etc. VHAs can be utilised in the field of digital marketing and software development like hospital mobile apps.

Application of SHRM model

1. Analysing the influence of VHAs in the peer organisations. The basic human nature is to rely on organisations that provides services on an cost effective basis, customer friendly manner without wasting their time.

2. Running a SWOT analysis to identify the strenghts,weakness,oppurtunities and threats. example:

Strenghts: qualified employees, a management open to favourable changes, high patient satisfaction feedbacks

in the past

Weakness: lack of updating with changing trends, poor co-operation from lower level employees to change

Oppurtunities: evidence based studies on successful application of newer technologies in health care system

Threats: negative impact on income, lowered patient satisfaction,technological glitches

3. The analysis can pay way to introduction of newer customer management techniques. Introduction of a mobile app which provides information on a patient's health and treatment history, a virtual assistant to clear the doubts and provide necessary advices may save patients as well as the heath care workers (doctors or nurses) time and effort.

3. Also revaluation of proper functioning of newely introduced services, appraising introduction of newer technologies and making necessary modifications may help in better employee as well as customer satisfaction.

4. It may also create new job oppurtunities, flexible work schedules and higher employe satisfaction.

Another External threat that could be addressed using SHRM model is huge turnover in the count of staff nurses.

To explain in brief HR executive could try identifing the reason behind the huge turnover using employee satisfaction surveys, clinical audits etc. Some reasons may be less employee friendly policies, tight duty schedules,increased work load due to scarcity of staff, over expectations, less pay or burn out.

By applying SHRM model the HR departement could formulate long term and short term goals to solve this issues. Some of the points that can be considered are:

• offering a flexible work schedule
• adressing on findings of employee satisfaction surveys
• revising the payment
• providing opportunities for inservivce education to update their knowledge and skills.