A new white paper from MedHQ outlines how hospitals can gain distinct advantages in three areas by outsourcing human resources (HR) for ambulatory facilities, better matching the needs of that more specialized, fast-moving environment. The paper, titled “Optimize Performance by Rethinking Hospital HR for Ambulatory Ventures,” explores efficiencies in benefits design and administration, recruiting/hiring/managing employee relations, and technology that would be impossible for an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) to replicate on its own.
“When you’re working within a hospital, the mission is to handle the whole variety and complexity of all acute and critical care needs,” says Tom Jacobs, CEO and Co-Founder of MedHQ, the only HR services company that specializes in the ASC market. “But in an ambulatory environment, you’re carving out one piece of the pie and putting it into a separate facility, managed separately. Since the complexity is less, the optimal HR support is going to be different as well.”
For hospital executives thinking about converting a hospital outpatient department (HOPD) to a stand-alone ambulatory surgery center (ASC) or forming a joint venture ASC with area physicians, the best HR often is an outsourced HR resource. Physician-owners and management companies leading successful ASCs increasingly insist HR be assigned to an outsourced specialist, to ensure their facilities benefit from the depth and breadth of expertise of a team of career healthcare HR experts.
When it comes to benefits, the white paper (available for free download here) asserts ensuring your ASC’s benefits are perceived as at least as good as hospital benefits is important in a marketplace facing shortages for nurses, OR techs and other staff. “There’s a perception that ASC benefit packages are less robust than hospital packages,” says Jacobs. “That’s simply not the case. An ASC benefits package can be customized and become a selling point.”
In addition to benefits, the paper outlines two additional areas where hospitals can gain distinct advantages by outsourcing HR for ambulatory facilities including:
- Recruiting, hiring and managing employee relations
- Technology
Identifying the right match in an outsourced HR resource can help hospitals develop and execute new strategies to improve success across the ambulatory platform, ensuring they keep physicians focused on efficiently providing quality care, and manage resources according to emerging best practices.
MedHQ’s Vice President of Human Resources Services Rita Hernandez-Figi says, “What’s different from the hospital is that we are focused solely on ASCs. We know the ups and downs, we understand this business completely, whereas for the hospital, ambulatory surgery is just a small part of what they do. For us, it’s all we do.”
Download your copy of the white paper here.