titlebar

Region 9

Region 9 Resources

Region 9 Consultant
Kristen Fox Kristen Fox, MBA, SPHR
Director, Human Resources
Kadlec Regional Medical Center
888 Swift Blvd.
Richland, WA  99352
(509) 942-2207
Fax: (509) 942-2731
kristen.fox@kadlecmed.org

News


back to top

Spring 2009 Newsletter: Pulling Together
Every day I hear on the news what a critical point in history we are at.  The economic picture seems to get worse every day.  Recently our largest Hospital down sized 200 workers.  National Public Radio runs weekly stories on the budget challenges for Washington, Oregon and California (so far no news about Hawaii or Nevada!).  We are all in the same boat.  Yet our industry may be far better off than others, since we may be one of the last remaining industries still needing to employ people.  Certainly this is a time to encourage our nation’s workers to look closely at healthcare as a new potential career with our continued shortages in certain occupations.

back to top


IS EFCA ALIVE OR DEAD?  Gail Blanchard-Saiger
After many starts and stops, the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “card check” was introduced in both houses of Congress on March 10, 2009.  The bills were the same as the version that passed the House in 2007 but stalled in the Senate.  

EFCA would require an employer to recognize a union as the representative of its employees where a majority of employees signed authorization cards.  It would also require mandatory arbitration to establish the terms of a first contract if the parties cannot come to agreement within 120 days of the date the union is certified as the representative.  Finally, it would establish significant monetary penalties for unfair labor practices committed by employers. 

ASHHRA and AHA strongly oppose this legislation.  EFCA would eliminate the current secret ballot election process, increasing the opportunity for employee intimidation.  Equally as important, EFCA’s binding arbitration provisions would drastically change the negotiation process, reduce employee participation and limit hospitals’ ability to control important resources that should be directed toward patient care. 

However, a mere two weeks after its introduction, it appears that the Senate will prove to be an insurmountable hurdle yet again.  On March 24, 2009, Senator Arlen Spector, (R-PA) announced that he would not vote to close debate on the bill.  In 2007, Senator Spector voiced support for the bill.  As a result of Sen. Spector’s recent announcement, it is questionable whether the bill will reach the Senate floor for a vote.  Had it reached the floor, Democrats had enough votes to pass it.  

It is reported that within days of Senator Spector’s announcement, Senate Democrats began preliminary discussions with several moderate Republicans to try and develop a new proposal for reforming federal labor law.  Such a proposal could include some elements Senator Spector suggested in his remarks, including mandatory arbitration and equal access.  Several employer groups, including Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods, are also attempting to negotiate a compromise.  This will continue to be a dynamic issue.

For more information about EFCA, visit www.myprivateballot.com   or (ASHHRA website).

Leadership Conference - The upcoming Leadership Conference in Chicago is a must attend event for Chapter Leaders!

Announcing the 2009 ASHHRA Compensation Survey
I know I am always looking for resources to help set wage ranges and remain market competitive.  Here is your chance to participate in a survey specifically designed for our industry. 
Survey Benefits
• One source for industry-leading compensation information on executives, middle management, and staff
• Salaries
• Special pay practices
• Incentives
• Benefits
• Significant survey report savings over non-participant rates
• Access to multiple report formats, including hard-copy, PDF, and excel versions

To Participate
1. Click this e-mail link: comp.surveys@ihstrategies.com   
2. Type "2009 ASHHRA Compensation Survey" in the e-mail subject line.
3. In the body of the e-mail type the following: "I'm interested in the 2009 ASHHRA Compensation Survey. Please send me information on how to submit my organization's data."
4. Supply the name of your organization, the contact person's name and e-mail address, and we'll send instructions on how to participate in the survey. 
Confidential Results
• Consistent with Department of Justice & Federal Trade Commission guidelines, individual survey responses will be kept strictly confidential.
• The data will be reported only in the aggregate.
• Published survey results will not in any way link specific compensation information to the institution that provided the information.
Survey Deadline & Schedule
• Survey participation period: February 23 - April 3, 2009
• Survey deadline: April 3, 2009 
• Published report available August 2009

Survey Report Pricing
• PDF Results - Participant: $450 Non-Participant: $2000
• PDF & Excel Results - Participant: $750 Non-Participant: $2500
• PDF & Hard Copy Results - Participant: $850 Non-Participant: $2600
• PDF, Excel & Hard Copy Results - Participant: $1150 Non-Participant: $2900
• Web-based copy - Participant: $1450 Non:Participant: $3000

Price Discount
All ASHHRA participants will receive a 10% discount on the survey report.
If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Sharon C. Allen, Marketing & Membership Manager, at 312-422-3722 or via e-mail at sallen@aha.org.

Special Annual Conference Scholarship
For many ASHHRA members, the cost of attending a conference is not covered by their annual development budget, and incurring such a large expense is simply not feasible.  MetLife Resources makes it possible for ASHHRA to give one member from each of the nine ASHHRA regions an opportunity to attend the ASHHRA 45th Annual Conference and Exposition, November 1 - 3, 2009 in Chicago, Ill., by contributing $1,500 per person.  This amount will cover the cost of the conference registration, plus defray some of the hotel expenses. Click Here To Apply

Each applicant should consider the following:
• Applicant must attend the 2009 conference
• Applicant must show financial need
• Applicant must meet submission deadline: June 30, 2009
• Recipient must be present for recognition at the conference
• Recipient must prepare a one-page post-conference report to be published in his/her ASHHRA regional newsletter.

To access the application, including requirements and guidelines,  click here  

Please Join Me in Welcoming Our New Region 9 Members:

HR West 25th Anniversary Conference
April 28-29, 2009
South San Francisco Conference Center April 13 -- Hotel group rates expire, book a room now.
Don't miss this opportunity to earn 14 recertification credits at just $42 per unit!
Contact Us
Web: www.nchra.org

Save the date for the WSHHRA Spring Conference!
April 23-24, 2009
Cedarbrook Center
SeaTac, WA
You may visit the Cedarbrook Center website at http://cedarbrookcenter.com. Hotel Rooms are reserved at a discounted rate. For reservations, email your request to: reservations@cedarbrookcenter.com. Be sure to reference our WSHHRA group reservation #103817, and include your arrival/departure dates, work address, and a contact phone number.

2009 Annual Conference
Hopefully you have already received information on next year’s annual conference in Chicago.  There is even a chance to register really early and save quite a bit.  If you register by December 31 you can save up to $75.00.  Pre-conference activities begin on Halloween and the conference.  The conference begins on November 1st and ends on November 3rd.  Please mark your calendar now so that you don’t miss this wonderful opportunity.  For those of you who may have difficulty financing the trip to Chicago, be sure to look out for the information on the Met-Life scholarships.  This past year Region 9 did not have a scholarship recipient because at the last minute our recipients were unable to attend the conference.  We want to be sure to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for next year.  I will look forward to multiple applications next year!

Mentorship Program
The ASHHRA Mentoring Program is designed to create a mentorship community for health care HR professionals to enhance and grow knowledge, skills, and abilities to excel in their career.  Using the five competencies of the HR Leader Model, the program will become a resource for finding and developing talent to ultimately advance the growth of the health care HR profession.

The recommended time commitment for this program is to meet at least once a month for one year and then evaluate if more time is needed.  For more information on the mentoring program click on the following link:

http://www.ashhra.org/ashhra/learning/mentoring.html

2008 4th Quarter Newsletter: A Season for Change
We just had our employee forum at our hospital and the theme was a season for change.  I cannot think of a more appropriate theme to talk about in our 4th Quarter newsletter.  However I first need to apologize for completely missing our 3rd Quarter newsletter!  I suppose that season of change came with a lot of activity which took my focus away. Hopefully all of you are surviving all of the change.  We now have a new President Elect which will most certainly have an impact on us all.  We are in a fast paced changing environment with multiple challenges on our industry and our nation.  I encourage all of you to embrace those challenges.

The Austin Conference
The 44th Annual conference was a great success.  I was happy to see so many of you at the Regional Breakfast.  Region 9 had 55 registered participants, and a good portion of them made it to the Breakfast.  Although we did not have any awards to give out at the breakfast, commitments were made to submit nominations for next year and to also submit for Chapter Recognition.  I know for a fact that many of our Chapters are doing wonderful things and would easily meet the expectations for Chapter recognition.

Barbara Glanz, Alma Hughs and Christine Kane were all amazing keynote speakers.  I also had the privilege of attending several outstanding sessions with speakers who often are keynotes at other conferences.  For those of you who caught Liz Jazwiec’s session, it was definitely well worth attending.

Finally, I was impressed with ASHHRA’s efforts to go green and provide all the handouts for the various sessions on-line.  For those of you who were unable to attend a specific session, but really wanted to get the materials, ASHHRA made it possible for all of us to almost be at two places at once!

Events

back to top