Kronos for Healthcare Helps Banner Health Improve Patient Care and Save Millions in Labor Costs

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From Alaska to Arizona, Banner Health’s dedicated medical professionals work to fulfill the organization's mission of providing excellent patient care to thousands of people in need. Banner offers hospital care, home care, hospice care, long term care, nursing registries, surgery centers, laboratories, and rehabilitation services. The organization is the leading nonprofit provider of hospital services in all the communities it serves. Its Western region facilities serve a number of rural areas, many of which are the only inpatient facilities available in their communities.

The variety of Banner's healthcare system means a diverse employee population and a host of challenges. In the past the organization managed its large number of employees and facilities with outdated systems and manual processes for employee time and attendance. Banner also had numerous pay practices to manage, which varied from facility to facility as state laws and benefits plans required.

First Banner Health chose Workforce Timekeeper, part of the Kronos Workforce Central® suite of products, to reign in and automate these productivity-killing processes. The organization then added Kronos' advanced scheduling tools to further reduce labor costs. And recently Banner Health extended its Kronos for Healthcare solution by purchasing labor analytics and absence management. The end result? A comprehensive workforce management solution that Banner Health estimates will save it tens of millions of dollars in the coming years.

Effective scheduling helps control labor costs

Banner Health originally implemented Workforce Timekeeper and the return on its investment was almost immediate. The solution's powerful engine was able to accommodate the organization's 300-plus pay rules, eliminated 17,000 manual timecards, and contributed to reducing payroll errors. Payroll processing time was also reduced by 24 hours.

Getting the system up and running was enhanced by Banner's decision to utilize Kronos' Platinum Plus service plan. It includes a senior-level technical account manager that serves as an extension of Banner Health. The organization also significantly increased employee satisfaction, thanks to a skillful implementation that combined training, communication, and management support across every facility.

"Hard work and creativity made our implementation of Workforce Timekeeper an overwhelming success," recalls Kathy Schultz, senior director of information technology. "And the benefits were so tremendous, we couldn't wait to see what we could accomplish by adding Kronos' advanced scheduling tools." Because Kronos for Healthcare solutions are fully integrated, Banner's scheduling and time and attendance data is available in a single database. This gives managers new visibility and control — a single place to go for all the information they need to manage their teams.

"Previously, managers didn't know what type of hours employees had worked or what resources they had available in a single location," explains Schultz. "We didn't have enough insight into our entire resource pool, which left managers challenged when it came to scheduling."

Access to high-quality, real-time information has changed all that. "Now our managers know what an employee has worked. When employees are scheduled to work. Who is available for certain shifts. And who has the required skills, certification, and training across the system," Schultz says. "By having all of this information at our fingertips, we can look anywhere in the organization for someone who can fill a shift. This reduces our reliance on third-party contract agencies and saves the organization substantial dollars."

Banner Health also uses Kronos for Healthcare to interface with and manage contract employees, improving workforce productivity and the accuracy of labor data. Managers can review all their workforce management data in real time — including time punches, employee attendance, and expected verses exception hours — by comparing budgeted hours against actual hours worked.

Schultz says that while Banner Health is excited about the potential cost savings, integrating Workforce Scheduler is really about achieving the highest quality patient care. "We're confident in our ability to get the best person scheduled to a shift: the right person in the right place at the right time. It's helping us ensure that every patient is receiving the best care from the most qualified caregiver."

Managing exception hours = huge savings

One particular Banner Health facility has led the way in its use of Workforce Scheduler. By effectively managing exception hours worked by its staff, Banner Thunderbird Medical Center saved more than $1.2 million in a two-year period.

How did it do it? The center knew it could utilize Workforce Scheduler's advanced functionality to better identify and manage worked exception hours — defined as any regular or overtime pay above an employee's scheduled hours. So Banner Thunderbird provided additional education classes on advanced scheduling. It made its policies on exception time crystal-clear. And it held managers accountable for updating employee schedules.

The result: better allocation and use of the center’s labor resources. And reduced labor costs that have resulted in millions of dollars in savings.

Kronos is a hit with employees and management

Schultz believes the advantages of the web-based Workforce Central suite will really impact employees when Banner Health introduces them to self-scheduling and open shift selection. According to Schultz, employees love being able to review their schedules at home or via the Internet. Employees can also access the system on PCs, kiosks, and hundreds of data collection terminals throughout Banner's facilities. A recent survey also indicates that managers are happy with the system as well: Nearly 70 percent reported saving time when creating their schedules for each four-week schedule period.

"Workforce Central has been well-accepted by our employees and management," says Schultz. "Managers like the integrated system and the data it provides them about where and when their employees are working. And senior management points out routinely that Workforce Central is an example of how a system should be implemented and run."

$30 million in savings projected due to labor analytics, absence management

Recently Banner Health extended its Kronos for Healthcare solution to include labor analytics and absence management. By using the business intelligence and leave management software to make smarter decisions about its workforce, Banner expects to achieve additional cost savings of $30 million over six years. To help the organization balance its software expenditure with other pressing clinical investments, Kronos offered Banner a no-interest capital lease.

Banner Health's newly-expanded Kronos for Healthcare solution will provide the organization with expanded real-time visibility into workforce performance issues. And it will enable frontline managers to make quick, timely adjustments to labor levels and fluctuating patient volume to further control labor costs and improve productivity.

Says David Kaubisch, vice president of finance at Banner Health, "Tracking time, scheduling employees, and gaining real-time visibility into labor analytics data from a single, integrated solution will help us make decisions that positively impact labor budgets and productivity. Having achieved significant cost savings with Kronos before, we are confident that we will deliver the projected ROI on time."