Nmh human resources

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RUNNING HEADER: NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Group B

June 23, 2016

HRMG4201

Dr. Kohntopp

Walden University

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is well known for being a teaching hospital. Over the years they have expanded with new facilities where they can offer new services such as diagnostic or therapeutic services (Stewart & Brown, 2014). They consistently set goals for the hospital, encouraging them to grow and continue to receive high performance ratings. Even with all of their success, they had problems with their courses. Northwestern Memorial Hospital completed an internal audit that revealed that their educational courses were very repetitive (Stewart & Brown, 2014). This resulted in the hospital creating the Academy, which correlated the learning programs with the business goals and strategy (Stewart & Brown, 2014). They are now able to offer over 200 courses with many different programs as well as management training for higher level employees (Stewart & Brown, 2014). This is very beneficial because continuous education can increase employee productivity as well as diminish the need to hire newly educated employees. Another benefit from having the educational programs in the hospital is that many students will end up being hired by the hospital, which was the case with the first class to graduate from the Nuclear Medicine program (Stewart & Brown, 2014).

The issue faced by Northwestern Memorial Hospital was that they had a very redundant educational program, even though they are known for being one of the top teaching hospitals (Stewart & Brown, 2014). This is a problem because they are not using their resources as effectively as possible. They are paying people to teach the same courses with minor differences, when they could be teaching one large class and creating an opportunity for other courses to enter the programs. For example, instead of teaching the same six Body Mechanics class, they could teach one conjoined class in order to free up a room and an instructor for another class such as a CPR class (Stewart & Brown, 2014). The redundancies proved easy to solve with the creation of the Academy. This was created “to establish standardized training policies and solutions, link the education programs closely to the organization’s business strategy, provide staff easy access to learning, and utilize the most efficient technologies” (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p. 373).

At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, there were a number of critical thinking elements. Critical thinking is aimed at achieving the best possible outcomes in any situation, in order to achieve this, it involves gathering information. For example, conducting the audit and the discovery of unnecessary redundancies within the hospital’s education offerings and being able to develop the Academy to provide standardized training policies and solutions. Being able to utilize efficient technologies is also another element of critical thinking and decision making. The Academy provides an online catalog and registration system for all the hospital’s education programs, with over 200 courses (Stewart & Brown, 2014). They were able to develop three schools to offer onsite programs that are open to both employees and community members alike. Having a school of Nuclear Medicine was very productive for them because the first class graduated in 2003, which brought more skills to the area they were lacking in (Stewart & Brown, 2014). Northwestern Memorial Hospital was able to identify the inconsistencies and create a solution to the problems. They were also able to understand the links between ideas and determine the importance and relevance of these ideas; hence the hiring of students to eliminate the hospitals vacancies for the first time in five years. This also led to the elimination of staff overtime resulting in massive cost savings of about $800,000 (Stewart & Brown, 2014).

The outcome of the initial problem was very productive. They were very successful at reducing the redundancies and actually created a fantastic program. This was a positive change for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and helped them maintain their status as being one of the top teaching schools. They were not only able to reduce the training and procedural problems, but they also reduced the costs. The savings from the agency usage and staff overtime could easily be used for another expansion project, new technology and machinery, or implementing another new program and acquiring all necessary items. They were already able to open a “2 million square foot healthcare facility” in 1999 (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p. 373), but they would be able to expand upon that or implement any renovations necessary.

Chapter 9 Question 1: What is the strategy pursued by NMH? Can it be easily classified as differentiation or cost reduction? As internal or external labor orientation?

The interesting thing about the way the NMH trains, recruits, and retains the staff at their hospital does blur a few lines when it comes to HR strategy. Our text states, “Organizations pursuing a differentiation strategy are less concerned with controlling costs than with gaining a competitive advantage by offering superior service or products” (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p. 383). Differentiation strategy is a business-level strategy that seeks to produce goods and services that are in some manner superior to what is produced by competitors (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p. 48). NMH keeps recruiting costs down because of their direct access to students in their training programs, but at the same time is able to recruit individuals that give them a competitive advantage because of superior service through well trained recruits.

NMH prides itself on being a world class facility and one of the best teaching hospitals to date. NMH can also be classified as having internal labor orientation. Internal labor orientation is a human resource perspective that emphasizes hiring workers early in their careers and retaining those workers for long periods of time (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p. 57). “NMH hired many of the students, eliminating all hospital vacancies” (Stewart & Brown, 2014, p.373). That is a successful internal labor orientation success story.

Chapter 9 Question 2: Describe the various ways NMH is delivering training and other related learning opportunities to its employees?

In 2002 the Learning Academy was founded. It manages all management development, clinical and other functional education; enables the creation of new training and certificate programs while building outside workforce development partnerships. The Academy established standardized training policies, and solutions and as of today utilizes online catalog and registration system for all of the hospital’s education programs. The Academy hosts skill development sessions; where managers and employees learn how to work on scheduling strategies, personal development planning and interviewing techniques.

There are over 200 courses ranging from communications, project management, information services, and budgeting to an array of healthcare specialties (Stewart & Brown, 2014). They also delivered 55,000 hours of training to 21,000 employees with a 91% satisfaction rate as well as delivering 3000 hours of management training to higher level staff (Stewart & Brown, 2014). There is also the “Lunch and Learn”, where staff can learn flexible scheduling strategies, personal development planning, and interview techniques (Stewart & Brown, 2014).

Chapter 9 Question 3: What benefits did NMH gain by developing the Academy and its associated schools?

NMH has ensured access to numerous local community professionals that may be seeking employment. They have greatly enhanced their ability to properly train professionals who want to transition to different disciplines within the organization. They have also strengthened their team by providing world class education to current employees. Through innovation, they have cemented a legacy and standard for how to train, recruit and retain top level professionals.

Chapter 9 Question 4: If the NMH School of Nuclear Medicine cost the organization $200,000, what was the return on investment for this particular Academy program?

If the cost to open the School of Nuclear Medicine was $200,000 and the resulting cost saving was $800,000, the net gain is $600,000 or a 300% return on investment. However, it is not clear that the case study truly outlined the $800,000 as the return on the School of Nuclear Medicine. Instead, the savings came from their ability to eliminate staff overtime and agency usage.

Resources:

Stewart, G. L., & Brown, K. G. (2014). Human resource management: Linking strategy to

practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley