HJNO Jan/Feb 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JAN / FEB 2021 11 Dianne Hartley, Editor Tell us a little about the HR department at your organization. TRACEY SCHIRO, MBA, OCHSNER HEALTH Ochsner Health’s HR team consists of a hub and spoke model, with a robust system team and regional teams to serve as boots-on- the-ground across our facilities. We have traditional HR functions— compensation and benefits, talent management, performance management, recruitment, HR solutions and an HR call center. We also have a workforce development program for current and potential employees including training for medical assistants, nursing professionals, pharmacy technicians and more. Some additional programs in our department include Diversity and Inclusion, which we are scaling across the system, and the Ochsner Learning Institute, which provides professional development to our team. GREGORY RUPPERT, MBA, TULANE HEALTH SYSTEM Tulane’s HR team supports all three campuses of Tulane Health System – Tulane Medical Center, Tulane Lakeside Hospital and Lakeview Regional Medical Center. Our department plays a strategic role in successfully achieving long-term goals as well as managing daily operations of facilities. The top priority of our HR team is to provide a stable workforce through team member engagement and retention. We are a customer service department with focus on making sure team members have the tools, skills and resources needed to be successful. KENNETH CORTEZ, PHR, SHRM-CP, TERRE- BONNE GENERAL MEDICAL CENTER TGMC has 1,540 employees. Our HR department consists of six professionals – director, HR manager, comp and benefits supervisor and three HR representatives. We provide the full spectrum of HR-related services includ- ing, but not limited to, benefits, compensa- tion, leave administration, employee rela- tions, training and education, onboarding, orientation and allied health processing. Editor Which positions do you have the most difficulty filling and why? SCHIRO RNs and allied health roles are proving to be the most challenging currently. There’s been an ongoing national shortage, particularly of nursing professionals, but we’ve seen this become much more competitive as COVID-19 hot spots have emerged across the country. We’re also seeing more needs in IT and analytics. Larger markets often have a larger pool of qualified candidates for these roles, but the adoption of remote work has made it easier to hire talented professionals who may live elsewhere. RUPPERT: The need can change daily. While hiring nurses is always a top priority of hospitals, vacancies in clinical support and allied health greatly impact patient care. CORTEZ Allied : This has become apparent over the past two years, especially in the areas of radiology and lab. There are a limited number of schools that have these programs in our area. Radiology students come primarily from Delgado Community College. There is a new medical lab tech program at Fletcher Community College that may provide a pipeline in the near future, but most of MLTs and MTs currently come out of LSU. Management: Positions at this level can be a challenge to fill due to concerns about work-life balance. Nursing: LPN – LPNs have become hard to fine due to the two-year RN programs that are available. RN – This is an area of nationwide shortage and has been so for at least five years now. Nicholls State University has been expanding offerings in their BSN program, which should help to alleviate some of the deficit in the near future. Editor Do you feel filling positions has become more difficult recently and why? SCHIRO Ochsner is lucky in that we didn’t furlough team members during COVID- 19. Many other health systems across the country experienced layoffs, which opened a talent pool for our organization. The shift to remote work has also allowed our team to work with individuals outside of the Ochsner footprint. Nursing shortages, which were a challenge prior to the pandemic, have remained significant. As hot spots emerge across the country, agency nurses and nursing resources have become much more competitive. This has driven our investments in workforce programs and partnerships to help build our pipeline of nursing and allied health workers. We have relationships with Xavier University, Chamberlain School of Nursing, Loyola, Delgado and others to train nurses and allied health professionals. We’ve also recently announced a program called Ochsner Scholars, which will support our workforce development efforts and academic partnerships and provide medical school reimbursements to help keep physicians in Louisiana. We’re focusing on primary care and behavioral health to start, which are some of the community’s greatest needs. These are important programs and investments as they support today’s needs and set us up for long-term success. RUPPERT While staffing has always been an