The challenges of health care in this country are also complex. Health Care use to be simple

1. you go to a doctor’s office for a check up,
2. you get sick and you go to the hospital
3. you get old and you go into a nursing home

Now levels of care a complex and diverse and each level of care implies a diverse set of needs blended with expertise and science; and hospital beds around the country are reducing the number of beds for life threatening illness

We now have

1. doctors offices
2. birth centers
3. day surgery centers
4. testing centers, e.g. MRI
5. special care centers, e.g. cancer
6. community hospitals
7. assisted living
8. hospitals for life threatening illness
9. wellness centers, e.g. prenatal centers, health education programs,
10. hospice

I could go on .

This means the job of HR is not simple and the credentialing and training needs implied are culture specific.

A quality HRMS system has to have imagination for understanding the hidden emotional intelligence and variations of needs and how staff of any credential carry that out on the job and translate it into performance.

Health Care is also a team-driven culture when a best practice more so than any industry that I have worked in.

I believe that within the Success Factors applications for health care there are over 3100 JCAHO defined competencies and skills integrated into the system.

That is an incredible testimony to the complexity of health care today.

It wasn’t the intervieweee (Barney) who made that comment – it was the interviewer. Nevertheless, your point holds.

HR is always in competition with (for example) nurse operations where the nursing staff self manages scheduling, license and competency management, etc… Additionally, there is competition for budget. When you can spend $1M implementing a state of the art HRMS, or you can contribute to a new c.t. scan machine, it’s a rough sell considering the mission of a healthcare organization.

Having said that, I’ve seen recruiting organizations going to to local schools, sponsoring nursing programs, and actively creating growth in their professional ranks. They do this not only to create more entry into their own workforce, but to create a larger pool regionally. I’ve also seen many other examples where HR in healthcare are being exremely proactive in finding unique ways to support their organizations, which are often in crisis.

Max, I haven’t listened to the interview (50 mins is a bit long for me too), but having read the quote above, I heartily disagree.