Abstract
BackgroundThe complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries. An effective defence against crises is only possible if the organizational resilience and the capacity to handle crises become part of the hospitals’ organizational culture. To become more resilient to crises, a raised awareness—especially in the area of human resource (HR)—is necessary. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the process robustness against crises through the identification and evaluation of relevant HR crises and their causations in hospitals.MethodsQualitative and quantitative methods were combined to identify and evaluate crises in hospitals in the HR sector. A structured workshop with experts was conducted to identify HR crises and their descriptions, as well as causes and consequences for patients and hospitals. To evaluate the findings, an online survey was carried out to rate the occurrence (past, future) and dangerousness of each crisis.ResultsSix HR crises were identified in this study: staff shortages, acute loss of personnel following a pandemic, damage to reputation, insufficient communication during restructuring, bullying, and misuse of drugs. The highest occurrence probability in the future was seen in staff shortages, followed by acute loss of personnel following a pandemic. Staff shortages, damage to reputation, and acute loss of personnel following a pandemic were seen as the most dangerous crises.ConclusionsThe study concludes that coping with HR crises in hospitals is existential for hospitals and requires increased awareness. The six HR crises identified occurred regularly in German hospitals in the past, and their occurrence probability for the future was rated as high.
Highlights
The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries
An acute loss of personnel following a pandemic possesses the characteristic that more patients have to be treated and that less staff is available because more employees are infected, too
Our results indicate that demographic change and sparsely populated areas are seen as the most important causes for staff shortages
Summary
The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries. The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment makes hospitals more crisis-prone than less complex industries [3]. The researchers demonstrated that hospitals in rural areas are less prepared for crises than hospitals in urban areas They noted that current standards and crises plans are papers that are commonly placed in the shelf when a crisis occurs and the implemented standards provide no guarantee or assurance that the crisis response will be adequate. They showed that no outcome measures exist to determine if a crisis plan will be followed or is effective. These findings are supported by the research of Rebmann et al [9] who identified that US hospital staff is often not updated on crisis plan changes
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