Home care worker protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act

Healthcare/Statistics/Human Resources Leadership

Human Resource Management in Healthcare

The article taken into consideration in this assignment is Home Care: The Fastest Growing Low-Wage Industry by Candace Howes. In accordance to Howes (2015), essentially all the growth and development in the Long-standing Services and Supports industry is encompassed in home and community-based services that are progressively being more subjugated by the fast-growing for-profit home care agency industry where charters are making considerable and noticeable progress (Howes, 2015). In contradiction of nurses' aides in hospitals and nursing homes, who are undertaking, in fact, similar jobs, home care workers employed by these agencies and by public entities are not covered under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act). In turn, this makes it prohibitive for them to link with unions and repudiating them the right to minimum wage and overtime protection (Howes, 2015).

I agree that home-care health nurse aides ought to be eligible for minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Such coverage is a change that is significantly required for home health care workers. This is largely because these individuals work more than 40 hours every week, taking care of the disabled and elderly individuals. For a long time, these individuals were not getting paid. These individuals ought to be eligible for minimum wage as their work is hard and demanding and the effort should not go to waste (Young, 2015). In accordance to Paychex (2015), home care is a field that is growing at a fast rate. With the rapidly aging population of the United States, there is an increasing need for growth in home care services. Statistics indicate that according to the federal Administration on Aging, by the year 2060, the United States will have about 100 million older individuals, a number that is double the present figure. The inference is that these people will require considerable and regular assistance in health care, housekeeping, social contact, as well as activities for the day-to-day living (Paychex, 2015).

Assignment 3: Statistics

Statistics is employed extensively in healthcare and has a significant impact. To start with, statistics is used for resource allocation. Statistics in healthcare field is employed in the apt apportionment of scarce medical resources. The use of statistics has led to improvements in effectiveness in the sense that statistical data is vital in ascertaining arrangement of goods and services to produce, resources to apportion in creating them and to which populaces to convey them. Statistics in healthcare are imperative to efficiency in allocation and production. In essence, consistent and steadfast statistical data diminishes the risks of trade-offs in healthcare (Casto, 2015). Another importance lies in quality improvement. Health care providers make every effort to produce effective goods and services competently. Statistics are significant to health care establishments in gauging performance achievement or catastrophe. By instituting targets, or standards of service superiority, quality improvement managers can measure impending results. Analysts chart the general growth and feasibility of a health care enterprise expending statistical data collected over time (Casto, 2015).

On the other hand, importance of statistics encompasses product development. It is imperative to point out that pioneering medicine starts and, at times, concludes with statistical analysis. Information and data are gathered and prudently reported in clinical trials of new technologies and treatments to weigh up the benefits of the products against their risks (Casto, 2015). Research studies regarding the market propel developers in the direction of exceedingly competitive product lines. Statistics incidentally affect product pricing by labeling consumer demand in quantifiable units (Casto, 2015). In addition, according to Thor et al. (2007), statistical process control is a multipurpose tool, which can aid different stakeholders to manage change in healthcare and improve the health of patients. Statistical process control also referred to as statistical quality control processes are more often than not employed in total quality management within the health care facility. This increases the effectiveness.