Victorian Public Health Agencies Select Kronos for Healthcare to Provide Leading Rostering Solution for 105,000 Employees
MELBOURNE, Australia, April 24, 2007 — The Victorian Department of Human Services has selected Kronos for Healthcare from Kronos® Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) to provide state-of-the-art workforce management solutions for Victoria's $11 billion public health sector. Kronos for Healthcare will enable healthcare professionals to adopt a centralised and standardised approach for managing a diverse and complex workforce, including automating and streamlining rostering and time management processes to allow for a greater focus on providing quality patient care.
Kronos is another component of the Department's HealthSMART initiative, a $323 million whole-of-health information and communication technology (ICT) program to support the delivery of high-quality, consumer-focused health services through a partnership between public healthcare providers. Kronos was selected after a rigorous tendering selection process and ultimately selected by end users of the product.
The Victorian public health sector is a large, complex system with more than 105,000 employees in 14 metropolitan health services and five rural alliances, which represents more than 100 hospitals and approximately 800 primary health agencies.
"Investment in information and communications technology improves the quality, safety, and efficiency of Victoria's public health sector," said the Honourable Bronwyn Pike, Minister for Health. "Strategic initiatives, such as the implementation of Kronos for Healthcare, put Victoria's public health system in a pre-eminent position by harnessing the power of technology to support the delivery of high-quality, safe, and efficient healthcare."
Kronos currently provides workforce management solutions to more than 4,000 healthcare clients worldwide through its Kronos for Healthcare solution, which delivers benefits to healthcare patients, employees, and agencies.
The solution's automated rostering function enables healthcare agencies to roster the right number of qualified professionals onsite and on duty as demand requires, ensuring patients receive quality and timely care.
Employees also benefit from the system as it automatically collates rosters with pay policies, reducing payment grievances and eliminating paper-based management and manual data entry. Through its self-service functionality, the solution allows employees to be involved in the rostering process — resulting in more accurate information, proactive planning, and satisfied staff.
Also a valuable business management and planning tool, Kronos for Healthcare features a comprehensive reporting system that can generate multiple reports, such as overtime and variance analyses of actual time worked versus time rostered.
In addition to improving management of the workforce, mitigating clinical risk, and reducing the real cost of care delivery, Kronos for Healthcare provides extensive and fully inclusive mechanisms for analytic data capture and detailed reporting for effective future workforce planning.
"Continuous measurement of staffing to requirement, as available in Kronos for Healthcare, contributes to positive healthcare outcomes for patients and results in improved employee satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, cost containment," said Sharon Lowry, manager, Asia Pacific healthcare division at Kronos.
Victoria's HealthSMART initiative
Under the direction of the Victorian Department of Human Services, HealthSMART will adopt a more standardised approach to information systems, which will result in improved patient care, reduced administrative burden on healthcare professionals, and greater purchasing power to update technical infrastructure in the public healthcare system.
"Healthcare organisations are increasingly looking to technology to improve their effectiveness and efficiency, and equip them with new capabilities to meet the needs of changing healthcare workforces and growing demands on resources," continued Lowry. "Kronos for Healthcare allows health systems, like that in Victoria, to remain proactive with employee retention and focus on their top priority — providing quality patient care."
About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos Incorporated empowers organisations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. At Kronos, we are experts who are solely focused on delivering software and services that enable organisations to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide. Kronos serves customers in more than 50 countries through its network of offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. Widely recognised as a market and thought leader in managing the workforce, Kronos has unrivaled reach with more than 30 million people using a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos at www.Kronos.com.
