Labor Relations and Superbugs: ILR Research
Despite the importance of cleaning, hospitals frequently outsource the function, “increasing the likelihood that these workers are under-rewarded, undertrained and detached from the organization and the rest of the care team,” according to ILR research. As a result, outsourcing could have the unintended consequence of increasing the incidence of infections in hospitals, according to research by ILR Associate Professors Ariel Avgar and Adam Litwin.
Additional research by Avgar on employment practices that undermine high quality patient care is also relevant to health care during the coronavirus.
He says:
"The coronavirus has the potential of exposing one of our health care system’s underlying weaknesses: employment practices that undermine high quality patient care. Far too many health care organizations—hospitals and nursing homes—rely on temporary and contingent workers and allow for poor working conditions to persist.
"Employment relations research has long documented the link between the manner in which healthcare workers are treated and the quality of care they are able to provide. Faced with mounting pressures coronavirus is likely to place on health care organizations, this link will only be exacerbated, and patients will likely pay the price.
"Confronting this crisis will require a health care workforce that is well trained, integrated and committed to the organization. These characteristics do not emerge on their own and are the product of workforce investments and high road employment practices."
Avgar’s research studies the role of employment relations factors plays in the healthcare industry. He examines the effects of a variety of workplace innovations, including new technology, delivery of care models, and innovative work practices, on patients, frontline employees and organizational performance.
Litwin’s expertise is at the intersection of employment/labor relations and technology, with a particular focus on the health care industry. His research, anchored in industrial relations, examines the determinants and impact of labor relations structures and technological change. As a technologist, Litwin also writes on issues involving technological change, work and workers in the health care sector.