Reference no: EM133225033

Question: Adult and Pediatric Primary Care (APPC), a five-doctor clinic with 40 employees and two offices, is a financially viable, growing organization with an expanding patient base. The practice is five years old, started by two physicians who left a larger group with a goal to provide high-quality care. At the time they started, they hired an experienced medical office manager, a front-desk receptionist, and two medical assistants. Over the past five years, they have added more physicians and staff as patient volumes grew. The physician owners are very cautious about adding cost to the operation, always making sure that patient revenues could appropriately cover their overhead. At a recent practice meeting that included the physician owners and the office manager, the agenda included a discussion point about adding a human resources professional to the administrative team. The office manager indicated that she was spending a significant amount of her time dealing with HR-related duties at the expense of her other duties, such as bill ing management, vendor negotiations, and shopping for an electronic medical records system. Although she felt that she was skilled at hiring and training, she did not feel her competencies included, at the level necessary, the other areas of HR such as legal compliance, performance management, and benefits and compensation management. Consequently, she was recommending hiring an individual with those skills. The physician owners generally agreed with her recommendation but voiced concern about the additional expense of adding a non- revenue-producing staff member and wanted more detail as to what an HR professional would do for a practice their size. The meeting was adjourned without making a final decision regarding adding the HR staff member pending more research by the office manager on the specific duties the HR professional would perform and a cost-benefit analysis on the position.

Describe the potential value a human re- sources professional could bring to APPC.