Federal Law
On a federal level, the benefit package provided to the people employed in the healthcare environment is regulated by the Family and Medical Leave Act (Hanson & Glass, 2015). According to the latter, the staff members have permission to take leave on a range of occasions, including family issues, personal health concerns, and an injury suffered during a service by a veteran (Glymph et al., 2015). Similarly, the Affordable Care Act, which is, perhaps, the most famous health-related regulation, suggests that the members of the U.S. healthcare system should be provided with a set of options regarding the retrieval of the necessary healthcare services (Miranda et al., 2015). Apart from having some loopholes, the Federal Law seems to be in discord with the Florida State Law.
State Law (Florida)
According to the latest update in the Florida healthcare legislation, a very strong emphasis is placed on the increase in the number and quality of staff competencies. Particularly, a very close assessment of the skills acquired by the healthcare staff members must be carried out; particularly, the employees must be accredited by AAAHC or any other organization of the same influence (State requirements for accreditation, 2016).
The Florida healthcare staff’s interests, in their turn, are represented by the Florida Health Care Human Resources Association (Financial, legal, and business profiles, 2016).
Despite the fact that the current provisions of the Florida State Law open a plethora of opportunities for the staff members, it still overlooks some of the most topical issues that the Florida healthcare employees are currently facing. Particularly, the underrepresentation of the employees’ interests in the target environment can be deemed as an essential issue that needs to be handled in a fashion as expeditious as possible.
Another possible area for concern when it comes to talking about the Florida State Law applied to the healthcare HR department, the process of facilitating the patients’ safety should be addressed. According to the Florida State Law, two organizations, i.e., Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) and the Department of Health (DOH), are legally eligible for checking the employees’ records for a criminal background. The organizations identified above are responsible for either granting the employees with an approval, or claiming them not to be eligible for providing the corresponding healthcare services (McCaughey et al., 2016).
On the one hand, the approach described above can be deemed as fairly sensible as it serves as the primary tool for maintaining patient safety. The introduction of a set of more rigid regulations for checking the staff’s experience for a possible criminal record is obviously a necessity. On the other hand, when not controlled properly, the measures described above may easily lead to power abuse and open possibilities for discriminating against certain members of the population by manipulating the law.
In light of the fact that the current benefit package provided to the Florida healthcare system members could use a certain update, one should consider the idea of redesigning the existing regulations to make the position of a healthcare system member more appealing. Seeing that there is a significant shortage of employees in the healthcare setting, causing the rates of staff burnout to rise consistently and the dissatisfaction rates to grow, it will be reasonable to view the current compensation package update and the incorporation of new benefits into it as a necessary step to be taken.
Reference List
Financial, legal, and business profiles. (2016). South Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report, 8(1), n. p. Web.
Glymph, D. C., Olenick, M., Barbera, S., Brown, E. L., Prestianni, L., & Miller, C. (2015). Healthcare utilizing deliberate discussion linking events (HUDDLE): A systematic review. AANA, 83(3), 183-188.
Hanson, N., & Glass, N. (2015). Workplace domestic violence leave laws: implementation, use, implications. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 8(2), 109–128.
McCaughey, D., Kimmel, A., Savage, G., Lukas, T., & Walsh, E. (2016). Antecedents to workplace injury in the health care industry: A synthesis of the literature. Health Care Management Review, 1(1), 1-14.
Miranda, H., Gore, R. J., Boyer, J., Nobrega, S., & Punnett, L. (2015). Health behaviors and overweight in nursing home employees: contribution of workplace stressors and implications for worksite health promotion. The Scientific World Journal, 2015(915359), 1-10.
State requirements for accreditation. (2016). Web.