In hospitals around the world, there is a vital need to staff accordingly in order to increase the efficiency and fulfillment of health care workers. Since working in healthcare can be very stressful, it’s of great importance for workers to be placed in a position that suits factors such as age, knowledge, leadership skills and credentials. After all, healthcare professionals are the most important human resources in healthcare. Therefore, this paper will include evidence-based management strategies and best practices for resourcing health care services and how to staff accordingly.
EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR RESOURCING HEALTH CARE SERVICES
There has always been a limited amount of resources available in the health care sector. Furthermore, employing excellence in sourcing strategies can dramatically decrease hospital costs leaving more room for money to be used in the most critical areas. There is no use spending a lot of money on expensive office supplies when similar products can be used at less expensive rates. In the article entitled “ How sourcing excellence can lower hospital costs,” Lichtenberger et al. emphasizes the importance of a central procurement group. Lichtenberger et al. states that “ a hospital [which] lacks a central procurement group must set one up and help it develop its skills and infrastructure to source basic indirects [such as] office supplies to landscaping services and low preference clinical items” (19). These low preference items include but are not limited to bandages for wounds, latex gloves, and syringes. While these items are vital for health care workers to perform their jobs, these items should not cost a great deal, and this is why the central procurement group is important.
In addition to evaluating which items are of high priority and low, the central procurement group “[should] develop collaborative partnerships with physicians, other health care professionals, and administrators to make decisions about basic indirects and low-preference clinical items” (21). By engaging in this practice, there will be an increase in team morale because everyone is included in the input of what is really needed the most in the work area. In this way, no team member feels they don’t have a voice as to what tools they most need to efficiently perform their services.
A central procurement group present in a Western European health system showcases perfectly how these groups can save the hospital money. After this group “improv[ed] its members’ skills sets, the sourcing process used, and the tools employed to support the process, the group was able to deliver an incremental 9% savings” (23). Therefore, the evidence is clear that central procurement groups aren’t only necessary but vital to the efficiency of a health care system’s resourcing.
EVIDENCE-BASED STAFFING PLAN
In order for the heart failure clinic to retain healthcare workers in good physical state during work hours, staffing accordingly is of utmost importance. If nurses are too tired, their ability to perform well can be drastically impaired. Thus, the American Nurses Association has devised legislative plans for more efficient staffing. In the article, “ Optimal Nurse Staffing to Improve Quality of Care and Patient Outcomes: Executive Summary,” the American Nurses Association stated they had “introduced a legislative model [which] promotes the establishment of minimum upwardly adjustable staffing levels and includes consideration of the intensity, complexity, and stability of patients” among other important factors (24). In order to create an efficient staffing plan, the numbers must not be the only key factors considered but instead the well-being of direct care nurses. Since they are at the front lines every day they need to remain mentally sharp which is why one tip the ANA suggested was “limiting the number of hours an RN can work per week” so there is less risk of sleepiness on the job (27). Through measures such as these, there will be an increase in patient-nurse relationships due to alertness in the nurses.
A Model for Cost-Effective Care
While the Health Care Reform Act brings its own set of problems to the issue of restrictions on staffing plans, there are tools that are available to help uninsured patients receive the best treatment in health care. A great example of a model is called Partnership and Empowerment Program” and help cancer patients who are uninsured receive a comprehensive treatment despite their financial challenges. In the article, Partnership and Empowerment Program: A Model for Patient Centered, Comprehensive, and Cost-Effective care,” RN Brown explains how patients have a pretreatment appointment with an oncologist, an initial treatment appointment with a staff oncology nurse and therapy continuation and end point. This model not only emphasizes personalized care for the patient but also uses the best human resources available for the patients showcasing how resources can be found to better serve health care patients.
CONCLUSION
While the health care system is intricate in nature, there are proven methods to make the staffing process more suitable for health care workers. With acts such as the health care reform act which put more pressure on health care workers to service more people, it’s up to the nursing professionals to come up with the best way to resource necessary items and take care of the well-being of their most important human resources through proper, intelligent staffing.
- Brown et al…Partnership and Empowerment Program: A Model for Patient-Centered, Comprehensive, and Cost-Effective Care.
- Lichtenberger et al… (2010). How Sourcing excellence can lower hospital costs.
- American Nurses Association (2015). Optimal Nurse Staffing to Improve Quality of Care and Patient Outcomes: Executive Summary.
