Free Essay. The Cost of the Health Care Workforce

In the health sector, there are many costs, such as labour-driven costs. Like other costs, these costs need careful evaluation. The health of individuals is vital to the endurance of all consumers. When patients are sick, they visit Urgent Care Facilities, Emergency Room (ER), or they visit their Primary Care Physician. Many injured patients visit their caregivers or visit Urgent Care Facilities (House, 2017). When patients fail to get help due to the limitation of these services, maybe the operating hours do not allow, they resolve to emergency facilities for faster solutions. One major problem facing Emergency Rooms is the cost of services provided, which is very high. Failure to pay for the services can reflect in lawsuits for liability, non-payment of the services from the patients, and rates of medical and pharmaceutical materials. The essay elaborates more on how Health Care facilities have several drives for labor costs.

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Drivers Affecting Labor Costs

Three drivers influence the labour costs in Health Care. First, it is the supply chain of the medical equipment used and wasted in hospitals. Wastage of medical supplies leads to a higher cost price that accumulates to thousands of dollars or more annually. For example, varieties of a single item ordered based on the surgeon's preference. Instead, there ought to be a consensus of which supplies should be ordered hence minimize wastage. Medical supplies are costly and accumulate in enormous numbers, for they are used on hundreds of patients daily; thus, their usage should be controlled and monitored. Another drive in the health care industry is technological development. Technology helps to improve communication and information efficiency (Fergus, 2018). Hospitals must serve their medical equipment routinely to avoid malfunction and breakdown at a later time.

It is also essential for hospitals to invest in technology used for many years, for instance, electronic medical records and electronic health care records. It provides easier access for health care professionals by allowing patients to access their information which promotes a follow up on the patient's condition establishing a more straightforward diagnosis and treatment. It is crucial for Medical equipment and health records to always be up to date. The final cost draining drive is workplace staffing in hospitals. There is not enough staff, which causes employee turnover to increase (Harmermesh, 2014). Agency health care and overtime rates increase as well, which leads to a rise in labour costs. A hospital facility receiving many patients needs to increase the number of employees to treat the patients. It will avoid overwhelming present employees. Thus the number of staff is a crucial factor influencing labour costs.

Solutions and recommendation activities

Improvement of the key drivers, the hospital should incorporate the Quality Assurance unit throughout the facility responsibility, to assist in evaluating the increase of prices that can be better managed. It will help in categorizing the jobs and concentrate on different duties in the facility (House, 2017). The Quality Assurance department can work with the IT department and Critical Analysis department to better monitor the supply use, check the medical equipment, software programs, and finally, that the staffing numbers are well managed. For instance, if there are physicians and nurses on vacation, then fewer patients should be booked around that time.

Conclusion

Although today's healthcare is consistently changing, to improve the healthcare of patients and employees, it is best to keep the hospital's costs as low as possible. Better services should be increased and offered. Solutions on what to cut on considered, and making sure that the quality of services is still good to increase the profit margins.

References

Fergus, L. (2018, January 22). The Cost of the Health Care Workforce. Retrieved from https://www.cafepharma.com/boards/threads/the-cost-of-the-health-care-workforce.617645/

Harmermesh, D. S. (2014). Retrieved from https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/3/pdfs/do-labor-costs-affect-companies-demand-for-labor.pdf

House, B. (2017, March 1). How Business Owners Can Maintain Profitability and Company Value with Rising Labor Costs. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/bob-house/how-business-owners-can-maintain-profitability-and-company-value-with-rising-lab.html