Human Resource

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jennifer Burden, Human Resource Manager with HCA Physician Services located at 3 Maryland Farms Suite 250 Brentwood, TN 37027. Jennifer has been with HCA for two years but has been in Human Resources for seven years of which three years in HR management positions. Although she did not have previous experience in the healthcare industry she is highly recommended by her current and former employers. In addition to being a graduate from David Lipscomb with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, she is also a member of SHRM. A former employee of Uline and Hewitt Associates Jennifer has held positions as benefits coordinator, HR specialist, and most recently as Human Resource Manager. Some of her most important functions are investigating discrimination complaints, resolution of employee grievances, assist management in ensuring that policy and procedures are met, conducting performance evaluations, representing HCAPS in unemployment compensation hearings and EEOC investigations, overseeing recruitment and selection activities, analyze and review discipline records and grievance activities, planning and conducting staff and management developmental training programs, administers pay systems and other programs for HCAPS which includes participating in local and national salary surveys, and reviews job descriptions.

HCA Physician Services is a separate division of Hospital Corporations of America. HCA as it is know today was founded by Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr in early 1960 by purchasing Parkview Hospital located in Nashville, T. In 1968, Dr. Frist, SR Frist, JR and Jack Massey created a new company know as Hospital Corporation of America. Through the years they acquired nearly 500 hospitals and surgery centers throughout the world. Currently HCA owns or manages 191 hospitals and 82 surgery centers and is the market leader in healthcare services. HCA Physician Services operates as a separate division of HCA and is not directly tied to the hospital side of the business as it works closely with the physicians and practice management. HCA employs115,000 employees worldwide of which 710 fall under the Physician Services umbrella.

HCA Physician Services function is to provide technology and service to help physicians manage their practices which in turn allows them to focus more on their patients. Physicians service offers many service that are needed from an administration standpoint such as purchasing, consulting, accounting , billing, collections, physician recruiting, and all human resource functions.

HCA Physician Services Human Resource department is structured with one HR manager, two HR coordinators, and one HR specialist. The role of the Human Resource department in the organization is to insure ongoing employee development, accurately communicate and implement all aspects of employee relations, oversee and administer benefit and compensation programs for all employees.

At HCA physician Services the Human Resources department is usually not involved in strategic planning. Most of the strategic business planning is done at the Vice President level from HCA their parent company.

Some of the most pressing issues facing HCA are cost of healthcare coverage, and the shortage of qualified nurses. The rising costs of healthcare coverage for HCA employees have increased so drastically that even though they are a large company they had no choice but to pass along some of the cost to the employee. In the healthcare field, the biggest obstacle is the national shortage of qualified nurses. For HCA, the problem is not monetary compensation or offering a competitive overall compensation package, but not being able to recruit qualified registered nurses. HCA has taken an aggressive role to partner with local colleges and technical schools to insure that there are opportunities available for students that want to pursue a career in nursing. For example, HCA has started a joint venture with Belmont University in building a new school of science/nursing. They also partnered to offer scholarship and loan repayment programs that will be available nationwide to qualified candidates.

The most difficult aspect of managing the HR department at HCA Physcian Services from an organizational stand point is the lack of communication from the corporate office. Since the HR department is not involved on the planning process decisions and new policy's developed at the corporate level tend to not be communicated to other divisions in a timely manner. Sometimes this wreaks havoc on the HR department at Physicians Services especially when it involves them to take action on a particular item. For example, when the corporate office decided to change healthcare insurance providers they did not inform