Demystifying HR management

Hospitals these days are gripped with various kinds of litigations; be it compensation claims from patients or any statutory and regulatory issues from the government. D Samuel Abraham’s book titled ‘Human Resource Management in Hospitals’ seeks to provide insights, to newly appointed HR managers, hospital administrators and CEOs of hospitals in India, on various aspects of labour laws applicable to a hospital by highlighting settled law suits which have been pronounced by the judiciary and enforced by the executives in India.

What’s inside?

The book begins with a foreword written by Dr Sunil Chandy, Director, Christian Medical College, Vellore who says, “This book is very comprehensive on matters of legal jurisprudence. It is well researched and referenced and will therefore be a ready reference guide for students of law and judiciary. The case-based approach makes the book practical and readable.” Dr A Francis Julian, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India giving a preface to the contents of the book writes that this book would make the task of management of healthcare institutions and those of the administration easier and legally compliant. This gives the readers an idea of the book’s simplified presentation on legal literature.

In this book, the author has taken every effort to simplify the Indian law for hospitals with his lucid language. The law cases referred in the book are also well interpreted to give an clear understanding of the issues and how each case was dealt. The book mainly deals with three key areas pertaining to hospital management and administration, namely: basic introduction to hospital law, the legal issues related to HR functions and the relevant statutory provisions which require compliances. For better understanding of these subjects the book is divided in three parts

Part one – Introduction to law: In times when hospital administrators, HR managers and CEOs are faced with judicial disputes, due to the lack of understanding about our legal system they find it difficult to justify their conduct. Identifying this need, in the first part of this book, the author mentions that HR managers, CEOs and administrators within hospitals must know a few things about our constitution, rights, privileges, procedures followed in judiciary and certain fundamental principles on which our entire democratic system functions. He has bifurcated the chapter giving us a comprehensive understanding of the Indian legal system; especially laying emphasis on our constitution. It covers topics such as medico-legal cases and medical practitioners, medico-legal aspects of certain crimes, medical professionals and criminal laws and doctor-patient contracts which medical professionals and hospital administrator need to know. Chapter 9, 10 and 12 are interesting topics discussed in this part where the author in a simple way explains laws related contracts, consumer protection and laws specifically for medical practitioners. Chapter 12 in particular, speaks about laws that protect the conduct of medical professionals which is indeed an important resource for all healthcare providers.

Part two – Legal issues in human resource functions: After presenting a broader perspective of how our legal system functions, the author in the second part of the book provides useful information on human resource management. In the introduction to the second part, the author writes, “This part is the heart and soul of this book and unique from other books; while all other books of HR discuss the principles part of it, which discusses mainly the practical part. It also takes the HR manager to the exact scenario to face real life situations.”

In this part, the author has concisely put together various kinds of issues that HR managers can come across. He has covered important issues such as types of appointments, legal guidance of HR functions, principles of natural justice to be followed while dealing with the HR issues and various procedures followed by the labour court, high court and remedies to be followed by hospitals while taking disciplinary action against employees. The must read topics from this part are: Chapters 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 which speaks of the right procedures that need to be followed while taking disciplinary actions against an employee, how to deal with cases of sexual harassment and how to deal with challenges that arise while taking disciplinary action. It a bold step by the author to discuss sexual harassment at workplace as this subject is seldom spoken when it come to a healthcare set-up. Many such cases go unnoticed; however, the author has given a bird’s eye view to all important aspects of HR management- which is certainly commendable.

The other interesting part is the chapter on ‘Settled law in human resources’ in which the author has cited various examples of cases that deal with industrial relations. Apart from these significant topics discussed, the author has provided description on 25 cases and their judgement so that readers can utilise them as reference for further reading.

Part three – Statutory provisions and its compliance: For those who have read the author’s earlier book, ‘Laws on Hospital Administration’, would easily connect with the third part, as its contents appear to be quiet similar to his previous book on hospital administration. In this part, the author has explained about 18 important laws that are mentioned in the Industrial Disputes Act. Although, the Industrial Disputes Act is common to all industries, HR managers of hospital need to be well versed with these laws mentioned in this act feels, the author. Giving emphasis on the same, Chapter 9 and 10 in this part highlights the application of industrial laws within hospitals.

The book gives the look and feel of a text book meant for students, the subject is noteworthy and can serve as a reference guide for hospital HR managers, CEOs and hospital administrators. Apart from the good topics discussed and simple language used, the content of the book is also well edited. The editors of the book, C Sampath and Hannah Paul have also retained the original style of the writer while maintaining consistency and making the tone and language crisp and lucid.

Thus, Human Resource Management in Hospitals surely gets a thumbs up for its insightful contents and intelligible approach.

[email protected]