1. Given your answer to question 1, what type of data would you need and how would you conduct a financial analysis to determine if this request is financially feasible and beneficial for your hospital? What are the financial elements of critical importance that you want to make sure you address in your analysis?

The request to hire two additional hospital members should be accompanied by a thorough financial analysis that is designed to demonstrate the overall feasibility impact. In Question 1, it was determined that the 200 bed hospital facility needed to begin recruitment efforts to locate two qualified physicians to replace two tenured ones who were retiring. Of primary concern was patient health and the ability to address their needs on a consistent basis. To accomplish this, the hospital realizes that it must ensure that the hospital is consistently staffed with the amount of medical staff that can adequately provide patient care on a continual basis. This means that at least two physicians needed to be hired to replace the two who were scheduled to retire at a date in the future. As such, the first type of financial analysis to be performed would be an analysis of the compensation structure.

The type of data to be requested during a review of a compensation structure will pertain to salary information (Payscale, 2009). This means that a review of the salaries of the two retiring physician’s salaries in terms of dollar amounts are needed for a proper assessment. This data is useful because it gives the hospital administrators information that provides details about how much money they are spending on human resources. As such, this data in turn can be utilized to determine if it is feasible to continue to pay physicians salaries that are at least equal to those of the two retiring physicians. Included in the financial analysis is the amount of funds that are allocated for the associated benefits that the two retiring physicians are currently receiving from the hospital. In the case that it is determined that the hospital can cut costs while maintaining quality services by paying the two new physicians lesser salaries, this may be the feasible route to embark upon.

The two retiring physicians at the hospital were given senior status and this means that they were most likely being paid a very good salary. Consequently, the hospital would have to compare the salaries of the two retiring physicians with those. To do this, they must first perform an assessment of the salaries that are paid to these two professionals. (add source) has said that leaders are those who are in the forefront of workplace environments. This is because they have the experience that propels them into leadership positions. According to Goodall (2011),

Physician-leaders who have greater credibility may act as role models formedical staff and their presence may help hospitals to attract talented medical personnel.However, such explanations are merely suggestive; the mechanisms are not properlyunderstood. The next, and vital, step for researchers is to design longitudinal inquiriesinto the possibility that physician-leaders improve the (later) performance of American hospitals (Goodall, 2011).

Along with the level of respect that comes along with leadership roles, attractive salaries. As such, the hospital desires to remain competitive by offering attractive salary packages that are aligned with the salaries that are currently been offered in the medical profession.

Payscale (2009) has said that organizations have to develop pay structures that align with the current market values. As such, they must survey the market to determine what other companies are paying their employees so that they in turn can develop salary packages that are comparable. This also holds true for employment benefits such as health and life insurance because these two are important factors that are considered when developing salary and compensation packages. Thus, the human resources department would want to be a close match to these salaries so that they have a fair chance of attracting highly qualified medical professionals who would be interested in working for them (Prasetya and Kato, 2011).

In the event that a temporary agency is contracted to provide physician human resources, the hospital may consider the extent of the benefits that will be offered. This means that it may determine whether it is feasible to offer additional benefits such as extended health insurance benefits that are typically provided for regular, full time hospital employees. This is because it may be feasible to offer partial benefits simply because the employment duration will be temporary and not long term.

The hospital’s human resources department must also consider the feasibility of training the new physicians once they are hired (Goodall, 2011). As to be expected, the hospital will have hired medical professionals who have successfully completed medical school. In like manner, these professionals would need to be acclimated to the operating procedures of the 200 bed hospital. As such, the human resource department must also consider the overall costs of training these professionals. Moreover, consideration should be given to the fact that the newly hired medical professionals are not productive during their training period. This means that instead of caring for patients, they will be consumed with training that regards the hospital’s operating procedures. As such, there will be a loss of productivity. This is pertinent to the hospital because there will be a period of time where funds are allocated to pay for the costs that are associated with the salaries of the newly hired physicians. However, they will not be performing productive work during their training period to offset these costs. As such, the hospital is not reaping any tangible benefits at this time (Goodall, 2011).

In conclusion, several elements have critical importance that require an adequate addressing during the period of financial analysis. To begin, an assessment of the pay structure must be performed to determine if it is feasible to pay new hires the same salaries as the tenured physicians who are retiring. In like manner, the human resources department wants to determine ways to offer attractive salary packages that are comparable to those that are currently being offered in the marketplace (Payscale, 2009). In addition, the amount of lost productivity that occurs during the time that it takes to train the two, newly hired physicians must also be considered (Goodall, 2011). This is because productivity will decrease with the loss of viable human resources. This is critical because patient needs still have to be met to preserve overall health. For this reason, the overall cost of training should be considered, especially in relation to the loss of productivity and the associated costs.

References

Goodall, A. H. (2011). Physician-leaders and hospital performance: is there an association? Social Science & Medicine, 73(4), 535-539. Retrieved from http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/51917/1/669637114.pdf

Payscale. (2009). How to conduct a compensation analysis. Retrieved from http://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2009/11/how-to-conduct-a-compensation-analysis

Prasetya, A.,& Kato, M. (2011). Employees’ perception towards the performance assessment system and salary system. Retrieved from http://www.ipedr.com/vol7/5-D00019.pdf