Challenges and Trends in Healthcare Human Resources

It’s often said that a company’s greatest asset is its employees, and this raises important HR challenges in healthcare. In healthcare, this is especially pertinent. Without the incredible work and sacrifices made by doctors, nurses, and administrative staff, the quality of American healthcare would falter. Creating an effective HR team is critical to managing human capital and ensuring patients get the best possible care. However, HR teams are under constant strain from a changing industry. Let’s run through the most significant HR challenges in healthcare and the trends influencing the industry.

Challenges and Trends Influencing Healthcare HR

American healthcare is under strain in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare spending is expected to reach nearly 20% of GDP by 2028, indicating an industry in crisis. Although individual healthcare professionals and clinical facilities cannot do much about the macroeconomic view, they can make changes at home. And the challenging issues facing healthcare professionals today require an efficient HR team to manage. Here are the biggest challenges your HR team could be facing now.

Employee Burnout

Burnout is the biggest of all the HR challenges in healthcare. It’s no secret that doctors and nurses work long hours in pressure-filled environments. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals have been stretched to breaking point. Although surveys differ, 48% of U.S. doctors reported burnout in 2020. Even more alarmingly, one in four had symptoms of high stress and anxiety. Numbers like this have remained relatively constant and apply to every healthcare professional. With HR responsible for helping to prevent burnout and ease the burden, this area requires fresh new approaches.

Staff Shortages

Staffing shortages are a problem that often gets swept under the rug because the healthcare industry has a record-low unemployment rate. However, the Association of American Medical Colleges reveals that the country could face a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. Due to how long it takes to train a new doctor, this issue must be confronted immediately. HR teams can address and anticipate staffing problems through cloud-based HR platforms to get real-time views of current and future staffing issues. Additionally, HR must collaborate with other stakeholders to make their facility an attractive workplace, which can also prevent costly turnover.

Digitization

The process of digitization has never ended within healthcare. Notorious for being relatively slow on the uptake, the healthcare industry continues to pursue the digitization of records and workflows. Again, HR has a massive influence on the speed and effectiveness of digitization, which can influence collaboration across every department and, ultimately, patient care quality. Naturally, this also means HR must provide support and guidance regarding compliance with regulations relating to patient privacy and data security in regard to medical records storage.

Workplace Safety

In most scenarios, poor patient safety is entirely unintentional. But if it results from a failure to follow procedures or low-quality employee training, this is on HR. Furthermore, workplace safety often relies on solving other HR challenges in healthcare, including:

• Hiring
• Staff training quality
• Shortages
• Burnout
• Overscheduling

The nature of the job means employees are always at risk from lacerations, drug exposure, and chemical spills. Today, the total injury incidence rate is 34.1 per 1,000 healthcare workers, a rate significantly higher than other industries. There’s no silver bullet for this problem, but HR remains responsible for training, compliance, and oversight.

Training and Investing in Employees

As mentioned, HR must have a firm knowledge of OSHA guidelines while executing meaningful training plans for new employees. Every new hire must be thoroughly trained before settling into their new roles, and this is one of the most essential functions of hospital HR management. Additionally, HR must construct and maintain systems for ongoing functional training for employees in every role, including specialists. Again, this is where technology can form part of the solution, with online tracking systems for managing training. Without these investments in employees, HR teams face more injuries and compensation claims.

Legal Compliance

HR is also responsible for compliance across a range of sectors. Particularly pertinent to the healthcare sector, HR is responsible for governing data in line with the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is the cornerstone of records management and compliance for healthcare businesses. This will include data collection, storage, access, security, and more. Failure to do so could result in multi-million-dollar fines. Although HR may not be responsible for designing and maintaining IT systems, they are responsible for creating a culture of compliance.

Workplace Culture and Morale

Culture isn’t just a buzzword. It’s what defines a workplace. Poor culture is toxic, and this could compromise patient care quality and safety in healthcare. Human resource management in hospitals requires that HR professionals engage with employees to create a caring culture that filters down to patients. Proactive communication, acting on employee feedback, and improving the overall experience can tackle a range of problems, including:

• Low morale
• Staff turnover rates
• Compliance
• Hiring problems

Data Management

As in every sector, data is the dominant force. Healthcare organizations have never produced as much data as today. Failure to manage data correctly could open your organization to low productivity, cyberattacks, and non-compliance with general and industry-specific data protection laws. Remember, records protection must balance providing easy access to relevant personnel and not leaving your organization vulnerable. HR must collaborate with internal cybersecurity teams and take the lead on education and enforcement. Furthermore, let’s not forget that compliance in healthcare is highly laborious, requiring complex paperwork and potential oversight across multiple locations.

Future HR Trends in Healthcare

Confronting HR challenges in healthcare requires innovative solutions. The most common hurdles to overcome have been constant for years, but although HR must take the time to address them, they must also keep an eye on emerging trends. Awareness of relevant trends can enable HR teams and employers to stay on top of a changing industry to create world-class facilities that provide the highest quality patient care. So, what are the emerging HR trends to be aware of?

The clear trend among trends is that technology is the way forward for confronting a range of the most common HR challenges in healthcare. However, as we saw with the slow uptake in digitization, the industry cannot afford to be equally slow this time around. As we enter a new era of technology, it will take open-minded HR teams to push for the changes that must be made to confront everything from burned-out staff to increased data risks.

Conclusion

Confronting the HR challenges in the healthcare industry requires an ability to adapt using emerging technologies and acknowledging which way the wind is blowing regarding employee demands and new legislation. In relation to the challenges of how your HR department uses data, you need a records management and storage system that allows for swift and easy access to data without compromising security. At Corodata, we support California businesses by using a tech-first approach. To learn more about how Corodata can empower your healthcare organization to confront this challenge, contact the team today.