ASHHRA eNews Pulse
August 2021
 
ParkMed, Inc.

Message from the President
Dear ASHHRA Colleagues,
 
The summer months are coming to an end, the students are returning to school, and the countdown to the holidays has begun. COVID-19 cases have risen rapidly in Florida and other places, affecting young individuals and resulting in a large number of hospitalizations. With a number of hospitals at capacity and a severe scarcity of clinical and non-clinical staff, HR's task has been particularly difficult. I understand that the stakes have been high, but I beg that you maintain the light at the end of the tunnel shining brightly.
 
ASHHRA News
Update your address book with new contact information for ASHHRA (ASHHRA@ashhra.org) and ASHHRA staff.
 
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021  |  5:00 – 6:30 p.m. CDT
ASHHRA and ACHE of Massachusetts invite you for a 1.5 Virtual ACHE Face to Face Credit Session!
In the drive for gender equity, health care leaders have acknowledged the need for fully inclusive gender equity that recognizes the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and other dimensions of identity. Efforts to improve women's representation in the senior ranks of health care management must include women from all backgrounds and experiences. When intersectionality considerations are incorporated into gender equity strategies, organizations can reap tangible, proven benefits including better talent recruitment and retention, stronger DEI outcomes, and improved organizational performance.
 
TIAA
Health care HR professionals want to read about your best practices and case examples. Your article could be published in an ASHHRA publication. 
 
Currently, there is a lack of real-world, timely and accessible data on how employers are changing their workplaces due to COVID-19. As a result, employees, employers and policy makers are in need of strong information to make informed decisions about back-to-workplace policies, testing, practices and priorities. COVID-19 Workplace Commons is a worldwide community dedicated to enabling the sharing of information on workplace practices regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Phase III is now open.
 

Outcome Engenuity
Workhuman
Omaha Steaks
Industry News
Healthcare Dive
A new survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center concludes that telehealth could continue to be used on a large scale after the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, and could help prevent unnecessary emergency room visits.
 
Healthcare Finance
Technology has enabled clinicians and caregivers to connect with patients remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a much-needed connection in a time of social isolation. But in this new technological frontier, it's essential not to lose sight of the importance of compassion and empathy in caregiver interactions.
 
Medical Economics
The health care industry gained 37,000 jobs in the month of July but still remains down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest employment summary from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the addition of 32,000 jobs in ambulatory care services and 18,000 in hospitals was enough to offset the loss of 13,000 nursing and residential care facility jobs in July. The industry has not recovered fully though, as health care employment is still down by 502,000 jobs since February 2020.
 
Omaha Steaks
Becker's Hospital Review
Some employers may tack on health coverage surcharges for employees who don't plan to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to an Aug. 5 blog post from Mercer, an asset management firm.
The blog post likened the health insurance surcharge for unvaccinated employees to those for tobacco users. 
 
 
HealthAffairs
Amidst the lionization of nurses and doctors throughout this pandemic, let us also reckon with these uncomfortable truths: Working conditions are abysmal, and the rights of workers to organize have been stifled. The status quo is untenable. Among health care workers, post-traumatic stress symptoms are rampant, burnout and turnover are at historic highs, and job satisfaction is low. 
 
Chief Healthcare Executive
Poor cybersecurity hygiene within the health care sector leaves the field susceptible to ransomware attacks and security breaches, the prevalence of which is significant. An estimated 600 health care institutions and more than 18 million individual patient records were affected by ransomware attacks in 2020 alone. Employee negligence and simple human error make it easy for hackers to compromise patient data through successful phishing attempts and other similar scams. 
 
Accurate
AMN Healthcare Inc.
CNBC
Employers in the U.S. face an interesting challenge ahead – how to fill nearly 10 million job openings with about a million fewer workers than there are positions available. Companies have been using a variety of techniques, including signing bonuses, higher salaries and flexible working arrangements, to entice people. 
 
Healthcare Dive
After months of being sidelined in the COVID-19 vaccination effort and plunging volumes last year threatening financial solvency, primary care doctors are now giving more vaccinations but are still worried about the future of their profession, according to a new survey. Recent data released from the Larry A. Green Center and Primary Care Collaborative found that 40% of clinicians worry primary care will be gone in just five years.
 
HealthLeaders Media
For the first time, nurse practitioners (NPs) topped the list of most recruited providers in an annual report on physician and advanced practitioner recruiting trends. The report indicated that 18% of search assignments were for advanced practitioners, including NPs, physician assistants (PAs), and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), up from 13% the previous year. 
 
STAT
The World Health Organization issued its first global report on artificial intelligence in late June, highlighting concerns of algorithmic bias in health care applications of AI. It accompanies a growing number of news stories exposing AI’s shortfalls.
 
Fierce Healthcare
The 2021 Survey of America’s Physicians, conducted by the Physicians Foundation, found 8 in 10 U.S. physicians were impacted in a variety of ways due to COVID-19 and that the pandemic continues to negatively impact the well-being of physicians and patients a year later.
 
 

 

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