Many organizations are still using manual methods to perform daily staffing activities.
Emerging technology solutions present a modern approach to managing staffing that creates positive outcomes for leaders, staff and patients.
In a June webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Hospital IQ, Suellyn Ellerbe, RN, a senior healthcare executive, consultant and educator, discussed the benefits and challenges of acuity-based staffing and why a more holistic, enterprise-focused approach is needed to effectively transform daily staffing practices. Bryan Dickerson, senior director of workforce solutions at Hospital IQ, then presented Hospital IQ’s Staffing solution and demonstrated the features that enable unit leaders and the staffing office to make more informed and strategic decisions.
Four insights:
1. Acuity is only one data point to consider when developing an effective staffing plan. As opposed to fixed-ratio staffing, acuity-based staffing is based on actual needs of the patient, nurse competencies and care complexity. Ms. Ellerbe sees benefits in acuity-based staffing, which she characterized as a "balanced care approach so that staff are assigned based on patient needs rather than just numbers." Acuity-based staffing, however, has had past challenges in implementation due to poor staff adoption and difficulty in accounting for real-time changes. Hospital IQ allows unit leaders and the staffing office to make more strategic decisions by considering much more than an acuity score. It provides visibility into relevant staff, patient and system-wide insights for a more enterprise-focused approach when making important staffing decisions each day.
2. Hospital IQ provides a holistic enterprise-wide solution for small and large hospitals alike. A broader view of staffing needs and availability provides valuable insights for the best use of available staff resources. "With the constant evolution in healthcare," Ms. Ellerbe said, "it becomes more and more important that a holistic approach is used to really transform staffing practices," and this "creates a sustainable approach to staffing." This process leads to many benefits including cost savings by reducing premium shifts and more transparent staffing across all units. Equitable staffing also finds better ways to fill sitter needs, meet regulatory requirements and improve staff satisfaction.
3. Staffing is more effective when done proactively. Hospital staffing is usually a reactive process in response to daily hospital census and staff availability. This requires near-constant adjustments and back-and-forth communication between unit leaders and the staffing office. Using accurate forecasts of patient census, Hospital IQ can identify staffing gaps up to 7-days in advance and proactively align staff to demand, reducing time consuming, last-minute churn.
4. Hospital IQ enhances existing workforce management systems and processes. By integrating with existing systems, Hospital IQ's robust system tracks key data points that are used to allocate staff to units and assign patients to nurses like float pool availability, special unit requests and staff limitations such as light duty. Hospital IQ also provides automated suggestions for floating based on the available resources, work history and staff preferences.
Hospital IQ is a sophisticated tool that enables better decision making across the organization. This efficiency saves time for nurse leaders and the staffing office . "Giving back time is really the key enabler for a transformation to a proactive staffing solution," Mr. Dickerson said. "We all know that nursing leaders don't need more work that takes them away from the bedside."
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