Filling positions and filling shifts is a common challenge in healthcare today. Filling them with the right resources at the right costs is even harder. Availability of the right resource is often the single biggest influence on patient outcomes and satisfaction. Most individuals in healthcare are well aware that approximately 70% of a healthcare budget is comprised of workforce costs.
What it comes down to is that healthcare spending is determined on a shift-by-shift, day-by-day basis, as each workforce allocation decision is made. The workforce spend is the sum total of all the shifts in all the cells on all of the schedules on all of the units in all of the facilities across the healthcare organization. If each of these shifts on each of these schedules is just a little bit more expensive than it could ideally be, or does not make best use of a scarce resource, the cumulative waste and negative impacts to quality can be staggering.
What it comes down to is that healthcare spending is determined on a shift-by-shift, day-by-day basis, as each workforce allocation decision is made. The workforce spend is the sum total of all the shifts in all the cells on all of the schedules on all of the units in all of the facilities across the healthcare organization. If each of these shifts on each of these schedules is just a little bit more expensive than it could ideally be, or does not make best use of a scarce resource, the cumulative waste and negative impacts to quality can be staggering.
Achieving a slightly better outcome from each allocation decision is a very complex organizational challenge. Technology tools alone are too often seen as the panacea that will magically improve the workforce mix, create structured processes, and provide accountability where none exists. A further complication is the assumption that just buying and installing the software will ensure that it is embraced and used effectively. Workforce Edge takes a holistic approach to tackling the challenge of healthcare human capital deployment with an inclusive methodology that has proven to be effective in positively aligning all stakeholders towards the goal of cost effectively providing excellence in patient care delivery.
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Innovative Thinking
Staffing Model
Processes
Accountability
Change Management
Technology
This is where the Workforce Edge team comes in. Our experience enables us to bring fresh ideas and innovative strategies from around the world to offer for your consideration. Innovative thinking, together with an organization’s will to change are the ingredients required to launch a successful improvement initiative or transformation.
In order to understand your current workforce utilization and progress towards improved financial and quality outcomes, examination of your workforce model is required. What baseline staffing levels are you rostering to? Does that align effectively with your budget and your hiring levels? If you use master rotations, are they structured effectively to achieve your core staffing levels, and keep you on budget? Closely related is your mix of permanent and contingent staffing, your utilization of unit-specific and multi-unit positions, and the structure of your relief pools within each group of specialties. Achieving workforce utilization improvements may mean changing your mix to achieve a better match between “supply” and “demand.”
If processes and standards for planning staffing needs, building rotations and schedules, approving and backfilling leaves, managing relief pools, managing timesheets and attendance, and evaluating results are not documented and taught to all managers and others involved in performing them, how can anyone expect these critical activities to be performed effectively or consistently across the organization?
Traditionally, each front-line manager is accountable for ensuring that his or her individual unit is appropriately staffed, and of course this is an appropriate and critical part of the manager’s role. But who is responsible for ensuring that scheduling processes are consistent from manager to manager, that relief needs are projected in advance across programs, and that the workforce is satisfied with the way it is engaged on a day to day basis?
Staff planning, scheduling, utilization and process compliance decisions are made by individual people based on individual motivations and beliefs. Effectively changing these 1000’s of daily decisions in a predictable and sustainable way requires a deliberate focus on change management including the right communication, transition support, education, and leadership at each stage of the journey. An explicit change management and training plan is absolutely key to sustainable results.
While technology isn’t enough by itself, it is certainly important. Today’s market offers options that can help managers improve their planning, provide visibility into a widely distributed workforce, and make it possible to offer more choice and participation to employees than ever before. Of course, effective implementation is required before your chosen system can support your workforce utilization initiatives effectively.
Each organization’s situation is somewhat different, and the amount of focus needed on each of the elements above varies based on current state and goals. Maybe you already have a system in place and you need to improve your processes and accountabilities. Maybe your system and processes are fine, but your vacancy rate is high while casuals are leaving to get permanent work elsewhere. It is possible that gains can be achieved through improvements in one or two of the areas above. It is more likely that each area will need some attention in order to impact your results. It is absolutely certain that you will get the most impact from examining all of the elements and the cause and effect relationships between them, and then developing a comprehensive plan that addresses each element of the iMPACT model.