June 18, 2012
Abstract:
Background: Many academic medical centres have introduced strategies to assess the productivity of faculty as part of compensation schemes. We conducted a systematic review of the effects of such strategies on faculty productivity.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Canada, Efficiency, Health human resources, Hospital administration | No Comments
May 11, 2012
“The challenges of the healthcare industry today require hospitals and health systems to apply all available resources to a strategy toward reducing cost and improving quality. One of healthcare organizations’ greatest resources — and often the key to the success of new initiatives — is their employees. Attracting and retaining skilled employees necessitates a nurturing environment that encourages and rewards innovation through both material and nonmaterial benefits.
While tangible benefits, such as health insurance and compensation, are important to employee satisfaction, what may be more important are intangible benefits, such as respect and recognition. “It’s not about the money,” says Paul Spiegelman, founder and CEO of BerylHealth, a company focused on the patient experience. “People want to feel valued.” In fact, most of the following pillars of success involve abstract concepts that, while difficult to define, may ultimately separate a “good” workplace from a “great” one.”
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March 29, 2012
This article looks at the impact of employee engagement on productivity and workplace performance. The author use the fact that “organizations whose employees understand the mission and goals enjoy a 29% greater return than other firms” to show the importance of organizations creating a culture that makes employees feel valued and engaged. Further, she demonstrates the impact of poor employee engagement on a number of factors, including productivity, quality, and safety.
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February 2, 2012
“December 15, 2011—Between 2009 and 2010, growth in the supply of physicians was more than double that of the Canadian population, according to a new report released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). While the physician population increased by 2.3%, a somewhat lower increase than the previous year, the Canadian population as a whole grew only 1.1%. In 2010, there were approximately 69,700 active physicians working in Canada—the greatest number of active physicians there has ever been in this country.
The 2010 edition of CIHI’s annual report Supply, Distribution and Migration of Canadian Physicians shows that over the past five years, the growth in the number of physicians in Canada has consistently outpaced population growth. In 1980, there were 151 active physicians per 100,000 Canadians; in 2006, there were 190; and in 2010, there were 203. Over the past five years, the number of physicians and the physician-to-population ratio increased in all provinces and territories except Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Although continued investments across Canada to train and retain more doctors means we now have more physicians than ever, it’s important to remember that numbers alone do not tell the whole story,” says Michael Hunt, CIHI’s Director of Pharmaceuticals and Health Workforce Information Services. ‘The demand for physician services depends on a number of factors, including the health care needs of Canadians, the way care is organized, the number of hours doctors are working and the scope of practice of other health professionals.’”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Health human resources | 2 Comments
November 28, 2011
“Ensuring that nurses can practise according to the philosophical underpinnings of their profession is recognized as an important factor in job satisfaction and is therefore a key element of retention and recruitment of the nursing workforce. Creating a culture of excellence requires making explicit a set of values and performance expectations to which all nurses can subscribe and that influences practice behaviours. The vice president and chief nursing officer of a large health region in Western Canada therefore sought to establish a foundation for building such a culture of excellence, through the creation of a mission, vision and Professional Practice Framework for the region’s nurses. The author describes the development of the nursing Professional Practice Framework for this health region, presents the results of a participatory approach to promoting nurses’ ownership of the model and discusses plans for assessing the impact of the framework on nurses’ practice and patient care.”
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Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Health human resources, Nurses, Nursing | No Comments
November 15, 2011
“This paper reviews the evidence for effective teamwork, primarily that gathered by a research team funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF). We also review the expert opinion provided by a group of 25 researchers and decision makers convened by CHSRF in late 2005 at a forum for discussion about issues related to effective teamwork. Included in the retreat were representatives from professional organizations and occupations as well as areas such as legal liability.
Taken together, the research and expert opinion provide a comprehensive overview of the benefits of effective teamwork and the conditions needed for its implementation. In addition, we review policy and management perspectives on the most significant challenges to the implementation of effective teamwork in the Canadian context, and potential opportunities to overcome these obstacles.”
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October 12, 2011
“Virtually every industry is still feeling the pain of the recession—still cutting costs and making workforce reductions. Yet these cuts often fail to generate real bottom-line results. This situation is all too familiar to the healthcare industry—and to hospitals, in particular. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently recorded the second highest number of mass-layoffs in hospitals since 2000. Such a trend cannot continue without serious repercussions on quality of care.
The story is the same for hospitals around the country. When finding themselves in financially dire straits, they often yield to their first impulse, which is to lay off staff. On the surface, this solution makes sense. After all, labor is a hospital’s number one expense—reflecting 40 to 50 percent of incurred costs. But more often than not, after just a few months, the hospitals pay for the staff layoffs with an epidemic of inefficiency. Remaining staff cannot keep up with key functions, services deteriorate, and patient complaints begin to rise. Then, to overcome dissatisfaction among patients, physicians, and employees alike, hospital managers are compelled to bring in costly temporary or interim help.
Moreover, an organization that goes too far in reducing the work force ignores future costs of “restarting” after economic conditions change, in terms of recruiting, rehiring, and training costs. As economic conditions improve, this organization will have added costs for rebuilding capacity that could leave it behind its competition.”
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Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Cost effectiveness, Health human resources | No Comments
September 15, 2011
In this paper, the BCMA examines the challenges of physician workforce planning through the lens of the medical career lifecycle. Each stage—medical student, resident, practicing physician, and near-retirement—offers opportunities for stakeholders to improve current policy and understanding on the individual choices that physicians make about what, how, and where they practice. Doing so will align physician resource planning more closely with the population’s need for health care services. Some of these can be implemented immediately by the government. For example, an increase in the number of government-funded residency positions would add greater flexibility in the postgraduate training system and allow opportunities for re-entry and enhanced skills training for practicing physicians. Others will take longer.
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Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health human resources, Health planning | No Comments
September 2, 2011
Temporary staff members working in a hospital’s fast-paced emergency department are twice as likely as permanent employees to be involved in medication errors that harm patients, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
Results of the research raise serious issues related to temporary nursing staff in particular because they already are a substantial and growing part of the health care workforce owing to the national nursing shortage. These fill-ins are used to plug holes in both short-term and long-term work schedules, and are seen as a cheaper alternative to permanent hires. They tend to earn more per hour, but don’t receive benefits.
Posted in Mass Media Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Emergency service, Health human resources, Safety | No Comments
August 30, 2011
The study found that “collaborative capacity”—the researchers’ term for an organization’s ability to foster teamwork even in the presence of rigid occupational hierarchy and the absence of formal teams—varied by patient care unit. In particular, it varied according to the presence or absence of a clear direction or mandate, a supportive organizational context, and leadership that promotes teamwork. Moreover, an emphasis on patient-centered care—which shifts the focus away from providers to put patients’ needs and preferences first—was associated with collaborative teamwork .
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