The role of healthcare in society

Healthcare

The role of the healthcare sector has remained relatively constant throughout the past recent decades, but the means in which the players in the healthcare sector strive to attain their objectives has changed. One of the most relevant examples as to how the healthcare industry has suffered modifications refers to the role of the human resources.

External and in-house education

Within the healthcare industry then, the human resource is the most valuable resource, the single one able to ensure adequate patient care and support the health of the overall society. And as the role of the personnel continually increases, a question is being posed relative to the training and education of the staff members. When, on the one hand, the employees are sent for training outside the entity, they benefit from an ability to capitalize on additional expertise, but they might also be presented to information less relevant to the clinic in which they work. When on the other hand, they are trained in-house, the information to which they become exposed could be limited, but it would have the specific feature of being highly relevant for the respective healthcare unit and the position occupied by the respective staff.

Authority

Another issue to be discussed at the level of the staff is represented by the authority, namely the formal and informal authority. The formal authority is characterized by the fact that it imposes norms and regulations with which the subalterns have to comply, whereas informal authority is generated through respect, admiration and credibility and it has the ability to influence behavior and attitude (Salvador, 2010). Informal authority is more so linked to mentoring and influencing, as well as with knowledge and expertise as source of authority. Whereas in the case of formal authority, this is more so linked to power, rather than an ability to motivate and influence.

Involvement of employees

A recent trend has been that of implementing programs and cultures which focus on the staff member, including their integration in the decision making process. Such a course of action is supported by benefits of higher employee morale, as well as increased organizational access to various standpoints and potential solutions. Nevertheless, the success rates of this endeavor have generically been decreased as the communication is less effective upwards than it is downwards. The explanation for this would be constituted by the failure of the managerial team to listen to the input provided by the staff members.

Human resources management

In this increasingly complex setting, the role of the human resources department is an organization wide one, which includes every aspect of the relationship between the firm and the employee, from before the commencement of employment, and in the aftermath of the employee's living the firm. The members of the human resources department select those individuals who are best skilled and trained for the profession required, but aside from technical skills, they also assess the ability of the candidate / employee to become integrated within the working unit. The healthcare sector is extremely challenging, filled with traumas which take a toll on the lives of the staff members. The HRM department then ensures the healthcare professionals are best able to cope with the emotional and technical pressures of the job and support the organization in reaching its objectives. This great importance and role played by the HRM department constitutes the grounds for the need of the department to respond to the highest practical level in the organization.

HRM operations in healthcare institutions

In some healthcare organizations nevertheless, the role and responsibilities of the human resources department are completed by the actual medical staffs. These meet with the candidates, select the candidates, conduct the interviews and so on. This often occurs as a result of decentralization, but a question is then posed relative to the benefits of centralization and decentralization and their long-term impacts.

Centralization and decentralization of HRM

Centralized HRM operations are conducted within the HRM department and they assume that all employee related actions be implemented by the human resources specialists. Such an endeavor creates a context in which the human resource actions are taken in an objective and professional manner. Specifically, the decisions are made based on the organizational benefits and the technical considerations at an overall organizational level. In the case of decentralization nonetheless, the human resource decisions are taken in a less formal manner and they are influenced by personal bias of the medical staff conducting the interviews. The benefit is nevertheless that of the staff decisions being made not on grounds of organizational benefits, but on skills and abilities at a medical level.

A centralized human resource department then supports organizational gains and objectives, whereas a decentralized human resources act supports professional and medical benefits. It is expected that the future brings about a partial decentralization and this would be manifested by the higher levels of involvement from the medical staff in staffing decisions. The technical operations would remain under the umbrella of the HRM department, but the medical experts would also participate in the decision making process.

Communication

The overall success of the operations undergone by the healthcare organizations depends directly on their ability to communicate. In the sector, it is crucial to quickly transmit the information, as well as efficiently process and integrate it. Face-to-face communication is essential in creating trust and establishing both authority, as well as respect and collaboration. In this however, attention should be paid not to invade someone's personal space. The first signs of this indicate the interlocutor' tendency to move away from the speaker or his reticence to what the other is saying. Additionally, grapevine has a main disadvantage of sending information in that it includes the bias of the speakers. This can be reduced through the creation of an organizational culture focused on facts and truth, as well as efficient communications between management and staffs in order to reduce any chance for misunderstandings.

Medicare and Medigap

At the level of patient care, the Medicare Program is noteworthy. It represents a program through which the United States government ensures medical care for people over 65, people under 65 with specific disabilities and people of any age who suffer from final stage renal disease. Its main benefits include hospital insurance, medical insurance and drug prescription coverage. In a context in which the patients desire to gain an increased coverage and fill in the gaps left by the initial program, they can purchase the Medigap insurance (Website of Medicare).