GROUP LIFE INSURANCE FOR PUBLIC HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES IN THE LIGHT OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE ŁÓDZKIE VOIVODSHIP

<ns3:p>Human resources are considered essential for starting and operating any kind of business. In hospitals, human capital is crucial as it determines the quality and efficiency of hospital operations. Those working in public hospitals include medical personnel, other lower-level medical staff and administrative workers. All of them serve a crucial role in determining a hospital’s capacity, its capabilities, including its ability to function, and its perspectives for development. While hospital workers are covered for their professional, social or personal risks by social security arrangements, they can also be protected by additional voluntary insurance, including group life insurance for employees. Such supplementary coverage can provide a certain level of financial resources for the employee’s increased needs for services and benefits to help them recover health and restore their capacity to work. Primarily, this article seeks to find out about the most important parameters of group life insurance for workers in public hospitals. For its additional objectives, the article sets out to determine whether or not insurance purchases were successful, whether hospitals reach out to brokers to support them when buying insurance, how long they take their insurance contracts for, what criteria they use to select an insurer, and how much they pay for their insurance. The study covers contract award procedures conducted by all public hospitals in the Łódź Province in 2016-2021. For the identified tenders, a review was carried out of information found in „contract notices” and „contract award notices”, whether published in the Official Journal of the European Union or in the Polish Public Procurement Bulletin. For some of those tenders, the review also covered information found in their terms of reference, and especially the detailed descriptions of the subject of contract. Methods of descriptive statistics were used for data analyses. The results point to a number of benefits that come from buying insurance in a public procurement process. The study also presents the kinds of insurance coverage that public hospitals take out for their workers.</ns3:p>