Human Resources in Healthcare:An opinion

Human Resources Development is chiefly concerned with management of people such that their health is at peak levels for maximum work productivity.Maximum productivity can be achieved through two means:- betterment of the employee's health (group insurance + occupational health) and efficient training.

 Healthcare is the field of activities that seeks the betterment of people  such that "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being" is realized.Hence, doctors, nurses and pharmacists alone find themselves overburdened as they have not been trained and resourced  such that the mental and social aspects of well being are redressed adequately.

Many nations have set up public health systems to suitably reduce the number of patients visiting general hospitals through a system of cyclical checkups that are financed through state sponsored insurance schemes. However, these facilities too progressively become congested and have very high running costs.

Therefore, a special body of professionals is needed to address the wellness issues of the resident population before they seek medical advice by applying preventive methods.Human resources personnel are best suited as that special body due to their training to act as an interface between local bodies,legal representatives,sponsoring businesses, healthcare corporations,training facilities,marketing professionals, and medical professionals.

An underlying assumption in human resources personnel's capacity to interface is that they possess a varied profile and are from the same background as the organizations or peoples they interact with on a regular basis.In other words, lawyers, accountants,economists,social workers,civil engineers,psychologists, academicians need to be recruited in larger numbers  to pursue HR as a vocation full time,contracted or on deputation from the interfacing organization.

HR in healthcare is far beyond calculation of remuneration benefits or recruitment of expert medical professionals.The paymaster function must be handed over to corporate lawyers and accountants.Recruitment of medical personnel only concerned with the physical curative aspects of health must be entrusted solely to department heads.

 

The focus of HR in healthcare has to be on :

 

1.Preventive healthcare facilities - the mental and social aspects of  health.

2.Healthcare economics- making health infrastructure more Affordable,accessible and applicable every year.

3.Training of Manpower- The availability of  a employable workforce for future use is very unlikely based on present trends.

A system overdependent  on doctors/nurses only underlines the need of private educational institutions for training both doctors and allied health professionals in very large numbers...1000/yr/facility - similar to the boom in engineering/management institutions.