Human Resources in healthcare administration - Case Study Example

Human Resources in healthcare administration Assignment The case highlights the staffing shortage in the department ofradiology in a hospital. The administrative director of this department has had difficulties in hiring and retaining special procedures technologists. As stated in the case, there are currently three special procedures technologists and all are fully utilized. The senior technologist, Arthur Morris, has been talking about the understaffing problem in the department. He has reiterated the need to hire another technologist to help address the shortage.

Unfortunately, he has threatened to quit his job in 9 days if another technologist is not hired within 12 days. As the director of the department of radiology, I will treat the ultimatum issued by Arthur with urgency and care. Specifically, I will engage him and his colleagues in negotiations to allow for more time to address the staffing shortage. I will explain to him the challenges faced by the department in hiring the technologists, and strategies in place to address the problem. Furthermore, I will involve all the relevant persons, including the department’s employees, in seeking solutions to the problem.

The demands raised by Arthur are justified and legitimate. Ignoring the ultimatum will lead to a further shortage and hence the department will be in a crisis, and this will significantly affect the operations of the hospital. Since he is the senior technologist, ignoring the ultimatum and allowing him to leave may result in the departure of the other two technologists. The major issue in the case is the inability of the hospital to hire and retain technologists for special procedures. This has put enormous pressure on the existing workforce, and this is causing discomfort among them.

This presents a significant problem because the current staff is unable to cope with the heavy workload, and the current staff members are willing to terminate their services. Unfortunately, the ultimatum has been issued by the senior technologist, who is the leader of the group. Should he leave, it is likely that the other two will leave as well. Given the difficulty in hiring these specialists, allowing the current members of staff leave will only make bad matters worse. Furthermore, promising the current staff that this shortage will be addressed soon is risky since it is not guaranteed that the problem will be addressed in time.

Overall, the staffing challenge in this department makes it more difficult to retain the current workforce, and this puts the operations of the department and those of the entire hospital at risk. The present case, which illustrates the challenge of human resource shortages in hospitals, relates to the Training Tomorrow’s Doctors Today Act of 2013. This legalization was introduced by Allyson Schwartz and Aaron Schock and aims at addressing the physician shortages in America. According to the legislation, 15000 news slots in the Graduate Medical Education (GME) will be introduced in America over a period of five years.

Hospitals will thus be allowed to apply for the slots in order to address their shortages. As presented in the case above, shortages in healthcare present significant challenges to the operations of hospitals in America. Through such legislation, addressing such shortages in advance will help hospitals prepare adequately to handle increases in the number of patients in future. Tomorrow’s Doctors Today Act of 2013 is a major step in helping hospitals address their shortages to avoid scenarios similar to the one presented in the case.

ReferencesLibrary of Congress. (2013). H.R.1201 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Training Tomorrows Doctors Today Act. Library of Congress. Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1201McConnell, C. (2010). Case 42: Ultimatum. In Case studies in health care supervision (1st ed.). Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers p. 98.