Introduction
The issue of providing adequate health care is a major point of concern among major health care institutions in the US. Studies reveal that health care in the US is the best in the world. However, is also true that approximately 100,000 people die in hospitals because of medical mistakes and accidents every year. Moreover, politics have dominated health care institutions in terms of financing. It is also true that the Medicare system in the US will be under extreme strain in years to come. There are various challenges that health care institutions encounter while undertaking their daily operations. These challenges revolve around transparency, regulation, and handling patients’ records in a confidential manner (Niles, 2012). These challenges can only be addressed if an organization remains committed to its objectives.
Various nonprofit making organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) stipulate that approximately 530,000 women die each year because of complications that are related to pregnancy. Moreover, about 3 million babies are stillborn and approximately 4 million children die in their first week of life. What is not clear is the effort that medical experts apply to enable them to cope with such challenges (Porter & Teisberg, 2006). There are various medical institutions that have sufficient financial resources, massive time commitments, and adequate talent but they still face challenges while trying to cope with challenges.
In this perspective, therefore, the Joint Commission for Accreditation of health Care Organizations set up measures to ensure that medical institutions implement safety measures every year. Approximately one third of America’s leading medical institutions agree to adopt the new six-part plan whose objective is to reduce the number of deaths that take place in hospitals significantly. They hope to achieve this by ensuring that they adopt new management processes that will enable them to be accountable, transparent, manage patient information precisely, and handle resources adequately (Mathis & Jackson, 2010).
When medical institutions are involved in any form of mishap, people easily lose confidence in them. It is therefore the duty of health care professionals to ensure that they adopt management processes that are efficient thereby enabling them to remain trustworthy in the eyes of the patients. However, despite the efficiency of most medical institutions in the US, various institutions find themselves at the mercy of a fluctuating economy and changing state regulations. In order for medical institutions to be efficient in their operations, they should ensure that they adopt long-term financial strategies to enable them meet their long term plans (Wolper, 2010). The goal this paper therefore is to conduct a GAP analysis of Mayo Clinic to help demonstrate why the institution has been efficient in its medical practices.
Hospital overview
Mayo Clinic is one of the highest-ranked institutions in the world. The entire health care field has been known to experience intense challenges in the past few decades. However, Mayo Clinic has been successful in its activities for a long time. In this perspective, therefore, the clinic has been engaging in various HR perspectives to enable it to maintain high standards of excellence. The medical institution adopts strategies that enable it to achieve high standards of patient and employee satisfaction. This has made the institution to be effective in terms of earning deep loyalty from the employees and the patients (Fottler, Khatri, & Savage, 2010).
Mayo Clinic is one of the largest non-profit making medical institutions in the world. The institution hires doctors from every field in order to ensure that they provide the patients with adequate care. They believe that the needs of the patients come first. The institution has approximately 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers. Moreover, the institution has 46,000 members of staff who work there. It has branches in Minnesota, Rochester, Jacksonville, Florida, Phoenix and Arizona (Mayo Clinic a, 2010). The medical field is experiencing immense challenges and Mayo Clinic is not immune to these challenges. Therefore, there are chances that the institution might start losing its culture of delivering high quality services when it reaches the peak of its success. In order to maintain its success, there are various approaches that the company should adopt. There are many Human Resource strategies and practices that the institution should adopt to enable it to remain competitive in the market.
Human resources
Staffing is an important managerial function that every institution should be efficient in. In this perspective, every institution needs to have a team of experts who are qualified to select and develop the personnel within the institution such that the employees can be able to perform the roles that are assigned to them effectively. In the case of Mayo Clinic, it remains at the forefront in terms of adopting the best staffing strategies (Nkomo, Fottler, & McAfee, 2010). This ensures that the services that the patients receive are of high quality. The senior members of staff at Mayo Clinic ensure that they hire the most qualified employees and also assign employees the roles that they have trained for adequately. This ensures that the patients get the best care from the employees within the institution.
In every institution, it is the responsibility of the human resources personnel to ensure that the employees are given the most comprehensive training mechanisms thereby ensuring that they are able to provide patients with adequate care. This is the case with Mayo Clinic. It hires its employees and gives them additional training so that they can manage to cope with the working conditions within the institution. Since the medical institution is affiliated with the University of Minnesota, most of its employees go to advance their skills there so that they can manage to handle the most complex illnesses in a more efficient manner.
Moreover, the institution established the Mayo Medical School in the year 1972 so as to ensure that its employees became equipped with all the relevant skills to address the needs of the patients efficiently. This institution has made significant contribution to the medical field. Most staff members in the institution are known to be efficient in conducting research pertaining to disease processes thereby enabling the institution to be regarded as an institution of a kind that adopts some of the best clinical practices in the region. Studies reveal that approximately 400 doctoral level physicians and research experts are employed at Mayo Clinic. Moreover, approximately 2,800 students pursuing medical courses and who have appointments in research receive their training at Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic b, 2010).
Attracting and retaining employees in an organization is a very important factor to consider in organizations. This ensures that organizations become competitive and sustainable. The Human Resources team at Mayo Clinic ensures that it selects the best employee for any job opening present in the institution. In this perspective, Mayo Clinic believes that effective recruiting is the vital factor that can enable the institution to realize its strategic plan. The institution believes that it should have sufficient personnel to offer assistance to the different patients who seek assistance from the institution. For example, the institution filled 6,000 positions in the year 2007 alone. The institution also reduced the time required to fill a job from a median of 35 days to 29 days (Ramlall, 2009). However, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients who visit the institution. As a result, the company has embarked on a strategy aimed at increasing both its recruitment and labor costs significantly. It ensures that the employees who are hired are able to demonstrate empathy as well as handle ambiguity. It also requires the employees to be flexible and to adhere to the principles that are set within the organization in order to deliver best services to the patients.
To ensure that an organization keeps running smoothly without reducing its productivity, it is important for it to retain its key employees who fully understand how the operations of the organization are carried out. In this perspective therefore, Mayo Clinic ensures that it retains its most qualified employees thereby ensuring that the good name of the institution prevails. It does this by ensuring that the employees with valuable skills are provided with better working conditions. It also ensures that they are rewarded heavily thereby making the employees find working with the institution better. As a result, the institution ensures that its employees are paid sums that are competitive in the market thereby ensuring that the employees do not run away to other competing institutions. As a result, the institution has been able to retain its employees in a more adequate manner compared to other institutions (Ramlall, 2009).
Operations
In order for any medical institution to gain the trust of its patients, employees and the society where it operates, it should be able to deliver optimum services to its clients. Mayo Clinic adopts a unique style of providing care to its patients. In this perspective, it brings together a team of experts with diverse medical experience thereby ensuring that the patients are able to receive quality care from the team of experts. The medical staff from the institution provides quality, compassionate, and affordable care to every patient who visits the institution. Because of the unique care that the institution provides, the number of clinic patients who visit the institution add up to 1,113,000 annually. The hospital admissions are 123,000 whereas the hospital days of patient care are 588,000 (Mello, 2010). These figures illustrate that most patients entrust the institution to provide them with adequate care.
In order for patients to develop a positive attitude towards a medical institution, a medical institution should ensure that it provides equitable and affordable services to its patients. In the case of Mayo Clinic, the institution is well known for providing affordable care to its patients for the various kinds of treatments that it performs. Moreover, the institution offers employment opportunities to a diverse group of medical practitioners who are able to address the needs of the patients in an adequate manner. This has the effect of reducing the wait times for the patients in hospitals. In this perspective therefore, the medical staff is able to address the needs of the patients in a faster manner thereby ensuring that the institution remains efficient in its activities (Mayo Clinic b, 2010). This has made the institution to win the trust of the members of the public.
The manner in which a medical institution makes use of its equipment also determines whether it is efficient in its operations. In this perspective therefore, the senior management at Mayo Clinic ensures that only the qualified members of staff are allowed to handle the most complex equipment. This is in order to ensure that no harm is caused to the patient as a result of improper handling of the hospital equipment by an unqualified personnel. Moreover, before any newcomer is allowed to operate the hospital equipment, he is always given directions by an expert before he can be entrusted to handle the equipment on his own. This is because any small mistake made by a new comer may cause severe injuries to a patient (Wolper, 2010).
To improve the processes within the institution, Mayo Clinic implements the most advanced equipment to enable it cater for the needs of its patients adequately. Most of the operating equipment at Mayo Clinic is up to date. This has had the effect of ensuring that the medical needs of the patients are addressed in a faster manner compared to other medical institutions in the US (Nkomo, Fottler, & McAfee, 2010).
Resource optimization
Resource optimization plays an essential role in terms of enabling an institution to stabilize its activities. In this perspective therefore, the estimated total revenue that the company earns in a year is $ 8,476,000. The income from current activities adds up to $ 610,000 whereas the total assets for the company amount to $ 10,129,000. Mayo Clinic spends its resources in a transparent manner thereby enabling it to invest in projects that benefit its employees, patients, and the society where it operates. Moreover, the turnover of the employees is estimated to be approximately $4.1 billion. On the other hand, the turnover cost per employee is $3,500. The long-term care workforce is estimated to be approximately 2.6 million (Fottler, Khatri, & Savage, 2010). This form of resource optimization has enabled the institution to emerge as one of the top rated medical institutions in America. Moreover, the company is known to be at the forefront with regard to complying with various regulations that govern medical institutions. Mayo Clinic has implemented the new six-part plan that was proposed by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. The goal of this plan was to ensure that the number of deaths that take place in hospitals reduced drastically.
Facilities
Mayo Clinic ensures that it makes use of the efficient facilities in order to ensure that the patients receive proper care. The design of the buildings is appealing in that patients feel delighted whenever they visit Mayo Clinic premises. The hospital also has an adequate space which enables it to provide its patients with adequate parking space. Moreover, the institution has branches in various parts of the country thereby making it possible for patients to receive care from any hospital the branch that is close to them (Niles, 2012).
References
Fottler, M. D., Khatri, N., & Savage, G. T. (2010). Strategic Human Resource Management in Health Care. London: Emerald Group Publishing.
Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human Resource Management. New York: Cengage Learning.
Mayo Clinic a. (2010). Physicians of the Mayo clinic and the Mayo foundation. Minnesota: University of Minnesota.
Mayo Clinic b. (2010). The Mayo Clinic Book of Home Remedies: What to Do For The Most Common Health Problems. Minnesota: Oxmoor House.
Mello, J. A. (2010). Strategizing Strategic Human Resource Management. Web.
Niles, N. J. (2012). Basic Concepts of Health Care Human Resource Management. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Nkomo, S. M., Fottler, M. D., & McAfee, B. (2010). Human Resource Management Applications. New York: Cengage Learning.
Porter, M. E., & Teisberg, O. (2006). Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-based Competition on Results. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Ramlall, S. (2009). Strategic HRM at the Mayo Clinic: A Case Study. Web.
Wolper, L. F. (2010). Health Care Administration: Managing Organized Delivery Systems: Managing Organized Delivery Systems. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.