Health care product management
The Government is more pervasive in health care than in almost any other industry. Such interventions are rationalized on grounds of assuring either access or quality. New pharmaceuticals and medical devices must first be approved by the regulator. The relationship with the government is a pre condition for this industry which is through a rough phase. The government regulates and monitors the industry more strictly and it is now becoming tougher for the industry to meet the stringent rules and regulations. So it is important for the industry to regulate itself before the government imposes tough laws on them.
Today’s healthcare marketplace stands at the intersection of several important dynamic trends. Chronic economic pressures, a multi-layered, incredibly complex web of players — regulators, medical professionals, patients, third-party payers, vendors, employers, suppliers, administrators, grant makers, researchers, diagnostic services, and more. All the players need to be securely connected to send, receive and share the information each needs to fulfill its role in the industry.
Developing Efficient Networking
Health care infrastructure is very fragmented and often a low-margin business with increasing costs. Securing medical information in transit is of utmost importance. When medical centers, offices, hospitals, and medical consultants working remotely share and access information their connections must be properly secured. Inefficiency due to difficult or slow access to results can cause delays in diagnosing and treating patients. It must be ensured that those network connections work and increase the bandwidth at which the information is transferred.
New laws and regulations throughout the world are placing more and more demands on health care providers to secure and protect patient information, especially with the growing trend of using electronic means to share delicate information. An extensive functionality coupled with highly efficient reporting help organizations comply with regulations.
Combating Competition
Despite barriers to entry, the health care industry has become extremely competitive in recent years. This is because of the large number of firms in most market segments, a more aggressive role of public and private payers in attempting to control costs, and antitrust enforcement. Experts agree that the health-care system is fraught with inefficiencies and redundancies that have an effect on patient care. When an individual spends more time in the waiting room than with a doctor suggests some inefficiency is taking place. This can be attributed to some breakdown, bottleneck or miscommunication in the process. These problems, in turn, increase costs and decrease the quality of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers.
It is well understood that health care must cut costs and streamline operations to improve quality of care. This understanding has led a number of health-care organizations to adopt the Lean methodology. Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle has successfully applied it. It is not easy and acceptable to everyone when making the shift to a lean enterprise, whether it’s in a hospital, a physician practice or a nursing home. Like any culture shift, it will require commitment and time. There may be resistance, especially given the complex nature of health care. Lean may be challenging to implement at first, but it may be the best investment an organization can make to improve financial performance and the quality of care delivered to the most important customers (patients).
Recruiting
A unique challenge to human resources managers in health care organizations is the tremendous diversity in the types of positions that need to be filled to make any hospital or health care facility run. In today’s tight labor market recruiters need the skills and resources to understand the various positions that need to be filled, but they must be able to effectively build networks to attract such professionals to work for their organization. Given the health care industry’s tenuous economic position, many talented professionals are looking to other industries for career opportunities. Thus, health care organizations must market themselves as employers by providing a work environment that is so dynamic, challenging, and attractive, that candidates are willing to overlook concerns regarding financial stability. One way that some organizations have addressed this is by providing abundant skill building and development opportunities.
Managing and developing human resources
Managing and developing human resources
Turnover is inherently costly, and severely impairs the ability of any health care organization to effectively streamline the delivery of health care. Turnover consequences relate to the smoothness and continuity of organizational operations, employee morale, and the difficulty of replacing the departed employee. As a result, organizations are concerned about monitoring turnover, determining the variables that influence it, and managing turnover behavior.
Research surveys shows that “exciting work and challenge,” which came in first, followed by “career growth, learning and development” and “working with great people.” “Being recognized, valued and respected” and “meaningful work and making a difference” were sixth and eighth, respectively. Healthcare professions offer ample opportunities to satisfy employees in these areas.
Experts suggest that people leave the industry entirely, because many healthcare workers are disenchanted with their profession and feel undervalued. It may be suggested that employers build job satisfaction by acknowledging and appreciating their employees’ work.
Establishment of right kind of culture that encourages employee loyalty has an enormous impact on the organization. To gain executive support for this culture shift, it is important to develop a business case that ties the cost of employee turnover to the bottom line. Tracking individual managers’ retention stats, and using the findings to custom design training and development programs give each manager the specific skills and knowledge needed to better supervise, develop, mentor and satisfy staff.
Application of Information Technology
High costs, uncertain value, medical errors, variable quality, administrative inefficiencies, and poor coordination – are closely connected to the failure to use health information technology as an integral part of medical care. The innovation that has made medical care the world’s best has not been applied in health information systems. Unlike other industries, medicine still operates primarily with paper-based records. Now also doctors and nurses have to manage 21st century medical technology and complex medical information with 19th century tools.
A patient’s vital medical information is scattered across medical records kept by many different caregivers in many different locations – and all of the patient’s medical information is often unavailable at the time of care. For example, patients with medical emergencies too often are seen by doctors with no access to their critical medical information, such as allergies, current treatments or medications, and prior diagnoses. Physicians keep information about drugs, drug interactions, managed care formularies, clinical guidelines, and recent research in memory – a difficult task given the high volume of information. Medical orders and prescriptions are handwritten and are too often misunderstood or not followed in accordance with the physician’s instructions. Consumers lack access to useful, credible health information about treatment alternatives, which hospitals and physicians are best for their needs, or their own health status.
Physicians do not always have the best information to select the best treatments for their patients, resulting in an unacceptable lag time before new scientific advances are used in patient care. They also do not have ready access to complete information about their patients, do not know how other doctors are treating their same patients, or how other health care providers around the country treat patients with the same condition. These conditions set the stage for preventable medical errors.
These electronic health records must be designed to share information privately and securely among and between health care providers when authorized by the patient. Innovations in electronic health records and the secure exchange of medical information will help transform health care in - improving health care quality, preventing medical errors, reducing health care costs, improving administrative efficiencies, reducing paperwork, and increasing access to affordable health care.
Tags: economic pressures, health care infrastructure, healthcare marketplace, medical consultants, medical professionals, stringent rules
