In a health care setting, optimizing workflow and productivity is critical to aligning staffing needs with individual patient care. By implementing automated and intelligent workforce management solutions, providers can improve patient outcomes on a large scale. Here are three stories about providers putting the right care giver, in the right place, at the right time.
Improving patient satisfaction and patient experience
Without a way to collaborate on operations or track capacity and nursing resources, staff at Augusta, Georgia's Augusta University Health (AU Health) was discharging patients in the emergency department without inpatient beds to assign them to. To address these concerns, AU Health implemented two unique yet integrated solutions to manage their capacity and workforce.
In less than seven months, this change helped AU Health save $3.37 million by reducing average length of stay and managing bedded cases and conversions.
"We can now see where our issues are very clearly. We can see what is coming in and how to deploy resources based on what to expect." - Billy Cleveland, capacity manager at AU Health
Watch how our unique partnership with AU Health has helped solidify the health system's IT infrastructure and advanced its strategic goals.
Better EHR documentation leads to data-driven business decisions
Looking to better drive decisions through data, Banner Thunderbird Medical Center (BTMC), a general medical and surgical hospital located in Glendale, Arizona, implemented a solution that could leverage EHR (Electronic Health Record) documentation.
The workforce management solution helped the BTMC to align labor resources with their strategic goals and patient needs while aggregating data to support staffing decisions. The solution helped administrators remodel BTMC's staffing based on the needs of individual patients, while nurses could determine alternate levels of care for individuals based on acuity data.
"We used Cerner Clairvia acuity scores to determine what types of patients would be appropriate for the IMCU [Intensive Medical Care Unit]. With this information, we then met with system leaders and physicians to create policies and guidelines for the IMCU. We also created a new level of education and training for the IMCU nurses." - Joyce Rudders, RN, MSN RN, director of Critical Care, Intermediate Care and Progressive Care Services at BTMC.
Discover how our intelligent forecasting solutions can reduce costs and provide more efficient, patient-centric care.
Read More: Banner Health leverages Clairvia data to drive business decisions, reducing holds outside the ICU
Optimizing nursing staffing and reducing overtime
Nurse management at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), the first and largest pediatric hospital in Southern California, sought to optimize their approach to nursing staffing by increasing productivity while reducing overtime hours. The award-winning hospital implemented a workforce management tool that could calculate a patient's acuity based on information captured in the EHR.
With this platform, CHLA pulled productivity reports for its nursing units, adding an outcome-driven acuity solution to assess and assign patient acuity scores. The solution informed the nursing staff of changes in patients' statuses, enabling nurse managers to alter staffing to meet the needs of individual units. The platform ultimately helped CHLA improve nurse staffing, reducing overtime by 8.5 percent and saving more than 2,000 skilled nursing hours in just six months.
"The acuity system helps us understand patient needs at that point in time and gets nurses to think in nursing outcomes and not in tasks. This helps ensure we are putting the right nurse, with the right patient, at the right time." - Gayle Luker, RN, BSN, CPN, administrator at CHLA
Read More: Putting the right nurse, with the right patient, at the right time
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