Role of HRM in healthcare supply chain management

Role of hrm in healthcare

Aims
The primary aim of the proposed research is to look at the interstices between human resource management and supply chain management in the general field of healthcare.  This is a very important consideration, when one thinks of the enormous changes that have taken place in Saudi/UK healthcare in the past few decades.  This could be due to external factors in the market environment, but it could also reflect on key human resource management (HRM) concepts, including employee motivation (happy and motivated employees are generally more productive), employee training, and the nebulous term of talent management within the supply chain management or logistical structure.  In the general healthcare environment, the supply chain for healthcare facilities such as hospitals and homes often has insufficient linkages to other parts of the organizaiton, including “clinical systems, revenue cycle, IT, and clinical operations.

The supply chain often is viewed as a “back dock” support service that provides the products and services required by clinical departments. To be fully effective, it must be an integrated link in the chain of clinical and non-clinical operations” (Mangiore, 2004, 1).  Thus, the main aim of the proposed research is to confront this problem of maximizing HRM effectiveness.

Objectives

The main objective is to eliminate obstacles that would otherwise impair employee productivity, such as possible problems in clarity of purpose, correlation to relevant concepts between extant information, or lack of incentives.  “The organization may be managed through an economy of incentives. Incentives are the rewards and sanctions imposed by management. Well-designed incentives align individual goals and collectively produce managerially desired action. Designed poorly, incentives may produce subunit conflict, apathy, and poor firm performance” (Jackson et al., 2006, 25).

One text uses the case example of Boeing, an aircraft manufacturer, to illustrate how new

information systems and new technologies can improve supply chain management and

help the bottom line of the company.  “Boeing invested in a number of new information

systems that increase production efficiency by providing planning and control over

logistics in every element of the supply chain.  Using EDI and Internet links, Boeing is

working with suppliers s that they can provide exactly the right part or assembly at

exactly the right time” (Schneider, 2007, 244).  This technique can also mean better quality control and revenue expansion for healthcare facilities as well, because it has translated into fewer inventory errors and better control of supply side economics in an industry with many suppliers and subcontractors.

Summary

An effective supply chain manager in the healthcare field is someone who is able to plan and manage as well as lead all activities within an organization that are concerned with sourcing, inventory, procuring goods and services, converting, and logistics management operations.  It is a position of great responsibility that requires strong leadership and , because the supply chain manager has to collaborate with and coordinate with “channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies” (Mangiore, 2004, 2).  The supply chain manager also needs to keep an eye on the future of operations and be ready for events that may threaten the supply chain, and in the healthcare field, training is vital.  Therefore, the proposed research will look into training credentials and incentives as its main purpose of relating vital HRM concepts to the healthcare field.

Benefits

The modern proactive healthcare organization is able to operate dynamically in a

changing supply environment by constantly embracing new technology with an eye on

the future implications of this technology as the supply environment changes over time.  But it can only do so if HRM principles are applied to the process, especially in terms of making sure that all healthcare employees using supply side systems are properly trained, and that they also have proper motivation and incentives to do the best that they can do for the patient.  Optimally, the result is a positive and unified approach to change in terms of possibility rather than risk or interruption.  Healthcare organizations need to lower their operational risk levels at the same time that they maintain a structure of being cost-effective.  But they cannot do this without maintaining a basis of attention to the client, and the supply side is intrinsically involved in this process.  Healthcare organizations can reap the benefits of HRM as well as supply chain management, to the extent that they are able to codify and properly train employees in the work.  The modern organization in the healthcare field must transfer processes that possess high levels of operational risk to a new paradigm that stresses training and motivation, two main HRM principles.  To do this, healthcare facilities need to redefine their organizational parameters, in order to optimize collaborative supply chain management.

REFERENCE

Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2006).  Managing Human Resources.  Plainsboro, OH:

Southwestern.

Mangiore, T (2004).  Top issues facing the hospital supply chain management today.

Healthcare Purchasing News.

www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BPC/is_11_28/ai_n6367820

Schneider, T. (2007).  E Commerce.  New York:  Thompson.