Sandra K. Collins

Changing workforce demographics necessitates succession planning in health care.

Health care organizations continue to be plagued by labor shortage issues. Further complicating the already existing workforce challenges is an aging population poised to retire en masse within the next few years. With fewer cohorts in the age group of 25 to 44 years (Vital Speeches Day. 2004:71:23-27), a more mobile workforce (Grow Your Own Leaders: How to Identify, Develop, and Retain Leadership Talent, 2002), and an overall reduction in the number of individuals seeking employment in the health care field (J Healthc Manag. 2003:48:6-11), the industry could be faced with an unmanageable number of vacant positions throughout the organization. Bracing for the potential impact of these issues is crucial to the ongoing business continuity of health care organization. Many health care organizations have embraced succession planning to combat the potential labor famine. However, the health care industry as a whole seems to lag behind other industries in terms of succession planning efforts (Healthc Financ Manage. 2005;59:64-67). This article seeks to provide health care managers with a framework for improving the systematic preparation of the next generation of managers by analyzing the succession planning process. The proposition of these models is to initiate and simplify the gap reduction between theoretical concepts and future organizational application.

Succession planning: perspectives of chief executive officers in US hospitals.

A study was conducted to explore the perceptions of chief executive officers in US hospitals regarding the origins of leadership and how they felt about internally developed successors versus externally recruited successors. Furthermore, the study examined how this group of executives utilizes the succession planning process, what factors impact successor identification, what positions are applicable for succession planning activities, and who is ultimately held responsible for leadership continuity within the hospital industry.

Employee satisfaction and employee retention: catalysts to patient satisfaction.

Over the last few years, most health care facilities have become intensely aware of the need to increase patient satisfaction. However, with todays more consumer-driven market, this can be a daunting task for even the most experienced health care manager. Recent studies indicate that focusing on employee satisfaction and subsequent employee retention may be strong catalysts to patient satisfaction. This study offers a review of how employee satisfaction and retention correlate with patient satisfaction and also examines the current ways health care organizations are focusing on employee satisfaction and retention.

Valuable human capital: the aging health care worker.

With the workforce growing older and the supply of younger workers diminishing, it is critical for health care managers to understand the factors necessary to capitalize on their vintage employees. Retaining this segment of the workforce has a multitude of benefits including the preservation of valuable intellectual capital, which is necessary to ensure that health care organizations maintain their competitive advantage in the consumer-driven market. Retaining the aging employee is possible if health care managers learn the motivators and training differences associated with this category of the workforce. These employees should be considered a valuable resource of human capital because without their extensive expertise, intense loyalty and work ethic, and superior customer service skills, health care organizations could suffer severe economic repercussions in the near future.

Corporate social responsibility and the future health care manager.

The decisions and actions of health care managers are oftentimes heavily scrutinized by the public. Given the current economic climate, managers may feel intense pressure to produce higher results with fewer resources. This could inadvertently test their moral fortitude and their social consciousness. A study was conducted to determine what corporate social responsibility orientation and viewpoint future health care managers may hold. The results of the study indicate that future health care managers may hold patient care in high regard as opposed to profit maximization. However, the results of the study also show that future managers within the industry may continue to need rules, laws, regulations, and legal sanctions to guide their actions and behavior.

A Ministudy of employee turnover in US hospitals.

A ministudy was conducted to collect self-reported employee turnover rates in US hospitals. The results indicate many hospitals are struggling with high employee turnover rates. Widespread variances in ratings were observed across hospitals, which may be due to lack of consistency in how they each calculate their employee turnover. This makes benchmarking for the purposes of performance improvement challenging.

Chief executive officers in US hospitals: a reexamination of workforce demographics and educational issues.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the “employment of medical and health services mangers is expected to grow by 22% from 2010 to 2020” (http://www.bls.gov.ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-6). The US Bureau of Labor Statistics notes this is substantially faster than the national average for other occupations. Information from this report finds its way into popular media, news shows, and other information outlets, which increases the number of prospective applicants to college and university health care management programs. (For the purposes of this article, no differentiation is made between various programs geared toward preparing health care managers; this includes, but is not limited to, degrees in hospital administration, hospital services administration, health care management, etc.) In 2007, the authors conducted a survey of chief executive officers in US hospitals that sought to identify educational and demographic information of individuals holding top management positions in US health care institutions. The survey was repeated in 2012, at the 5-year interval, to determine if chief executive officer information had changed.

Employee recruitment: using behavioral assessments as an employee selection tool.

The labor shortage of skilled health care professionals continues to make employee recruitment and retention a challenge for health care managers. Greater accountability is being placed on health care managers to retain their employees. The urgency to retain health care professionals is largely an issue that should be considered during the initial recruitment of potential employees. Health care managers should analyze candidates rigorously to ensure that appropriate hiring decisions are made. Behavioral assessments can be used as a useful employee selection tool to assist managers in the appropriate placement and training of potential new employees. When administered appropriately, these tools can provide managers with a variety of useful information. This information can assist health care managers in demystifying the hiring process. Although there are varying organizational concerns to address when using behavioral assessments as an employee selection tool, the potential return on investment is worth the effort.

Lean Daily Management: Exploring the Effectiveness in Reducing Product Returns and Overnight Shipment Occurrences in a Materials Management Department

Lean Daily Management (LDM) is a performance improvement process used by health care organizations to reduce waste and increase value. Designed to transform health care professionals into organizational problem solvers, LDM tools have been used throughout the health care industry, but full integration of this performance improvement initiative has largely evaded health care organizations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of LDM, research was conducted to evaluate the costs associated with product returns and overnighted products as monitored by a materials management department, which found that these were specific areas where excessive resources were frequently used.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer Perspectives on Health Care Administration Academic Preparations

A dynamic health care industry continues to call upon health care leaders to possess not one but multiple competencies. A post hoc review of 3 secondary data sets (previous parallel surveys administered in 2007, 2011, and 2015) was conducted to determine what preferred academic program of study (master of health administration, master of business administration, or a clinical degree preparation) may exist by current hospital executives and potential trending of executive degree preparations over time. In addition, any relationships among individual hospital administrator, individual personal characteristics, and their preferred degree preparations were also investigated at an exploratory level. Findings suggest and support the researchers’ hypothesis that the preferred degree preference for a career in hospital administration (master of business administration, master of health administration, or clinical) is highly dependent on an individual executive’s graduate degree earned. Many areas for future research are identified from this study that include additional survey analysis and future research questions related to initial findings.