Reference no: EM134033854
HCA-465-O500
Health Care Administration and Management
Topic 1
1. With specific reference to activities found within health care organizations, describe how three departments other than HR might have evolved in a manner similar to the evolution of HR according to the organizational management principles of the health care institution.
If scientific management was the poor idea that some considered it to be, why was it so widely adopted in the early part of the 1900s during the industrial revolution? Provide at least one example where it is still in use today in health care settings and why it has not been updated.
Topic 2
2. Why should a department manager be thoroughly familiar with pay scales appropriate to department personnel but refrain from making specific pay offers to potential employees? Discuss one potential legal issue with discussing an employee's wage with an unauthorized individual.
3. What role should a department manager have in controlling the cost of unemployment compensation? Include the details of at least one best practice and a reference for the source used.
Topic 3
4. Provide an example within the past 5 years where an employment issue occurred due to a lack of employment vetting, reference checking, and credential verification. Why would it be important that employment vetting, reference checking, and credential verification be handled at one point?
5. How is it possible that employee referral programs, which often include the payment of signing bonuses and finder's fees, can often generate the lowest cost-per-hire of all recruiting practices? Does your organization or one that you are interested in use a referral program? Why or why not?
Topic 4
6. Viewing the Family and Medical Leave Act from the perspective of a working department manager, describe the ways in which this legislation has affected a supervisor's ability to manage. Include shift coverage, efficiency, quality of care, and at least two other considerations in your answer.
7. Why should a manager always remain objective, factual, and nonjudgmental in private anecdotal notes concerning employees when no other persons are intended to see them? In what circumstances might these notes become part of the employment record?
Topic 5
8. It is repeatedly stressed that the primary purpose of disciplinary action is correction of behavior. If this is so, why have specific behavioral problems been delineated that call for loss of employment upon a single occurrence? Provide an example of one of these behaviors and your support on why it justifies termination of employment.
9. How could a department manager prevent excessive absenteeism among employees? Explain two or more issues with late or missed shift arrival specific to health care organizations.
Topic 6
10. Consider an employee who always performs satisfactorily but has little or no opportunity to improve and can go no higher in the organization and does not aspire to do so. Why is it considered necessary to continue periodically appraising this employee's performance? Should the employee be required to continue with professional training? Why or why not?
11. Why is it necessary for a health care institution to have official written policies for addressing issues of medical ethics? Provide an example of how ethical standards can change over a period of time.
Topic 7
12. What are the advantages of using capable senior employees as mentors or trainers for newer employees? How long should someone be considered a new employee and for what length of time should a senior employee remain a mentor for new hires?
13. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of grooming an internal candidate and an external candidate as part of a succession plan. Provide two or three examples in your response.
Topic 8
14. Why do many organizations require that significant disciplinary actions be cleared with HR before they are implemented? Besides any legal risks that you may have already mentioned, what are some of the moral issues that can be addressed by using HR to review or clear disciplinary actions?
15. Describe three or four differing academic backgrounds that might be found among HR practitioners. What are the advantages or disadvantages of each in equipping an individual to provide HR services in a health care environment?