Kronos for Healthcare Helps Bay Area Hospital Control Labor Costs While Minimizing Compliance Risk

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Bay Area Hospital, a licensed 172-bed acute care regional medical facility, is the largest hospital on Oregon’s coast and Coos County’s largest employer. With a staff of 1,000 clinical and administrative employees and 130 physicians, the hospital provides a comprehensive range of diagnostic and therapeutic services. In 2010, the hospital received a Gold Seal of Approval for quality and patient safety. To further enhance Bay Area Hospital’s high-quality patient care, a 97,000-square-foot expansion project is under way, which will include cardiac services and allow for private patient rooms throughout the facility.

CHALLENGES

• Paper-based hiring and HR processes were time-consuming, inefficient, and prolonged time-to-hire
• Manual scheduling of clinical staff required supervisors to keep track of staff certification and licensing expirations to ensure only qualified staff were on the floor
• Managers had no real-time visibility into staff time to help them control overtime and unit labor costs
• Tracking employee leave on paper sheets to meet FMLA and Oregon Family Leave Act requirements was difficult and created inconsistencies and overgranting of leave time

SOLUTION

• Kronos for Healthcare, a complete workforce management solution designed to streamline processes for increased productivity, better control of labor costs, minimized compliance risk, and enhanced quality care.

BENEFITS

• Workforce Talent Acquisition streamlines the hiring process and automates communication and information sharing to onboard new staff quickly.
• Human resources module tracks employee skills, certifications, and licensing status to help ensure only qualified staff can be scheduled.
• Self-service tools let employees track their time, see certification expirations, and review training information.
• Managers access real-time labor data to better manage their units and help control labor costs, leveraging a 2.3 percent productivity improvement to create savings of more than $1 million.
• Automated tracking of all leave time has minimized the hospital’s compliance risk, eliminated unwarranted leave granting, and greatly reduced an HR coordinator’s leave-tracking time

THE STORY – Bay Area Hospital

Hiring, scheduling, and managing 1,000 employees with the hospital’s paper-based systems was challenging. HR relied on manual processes for applicant tracking, benefits administration, and training management. Employee attendance and leave balances were tallied on separate spreadsheets in a time-consuming process that led to overly generous leave granting. Supervisors developing schedules had to keep clinical staff certification and licensing information in their heads and make scheduling changes with crossouts and sticky notes.

Frustrated by these inefficiencies, Bay Area Hospital leadership felt a critical need to implement a complete workforce management solution. They wanted a vendor with experience in the healthcare industry and a solution that accurately tracks multiple types of leave. As a longtime customer of a Kronos® automated timekeeping solution, the hospital turned to Kronos for Healthcare. By eliminating paper processes, Bay Area Hospital can better control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, improve workforce productivity, and deliver quality care.

Automated talent management streamlines hiring process

All employees are now hired through Workforce Talent Acquisition. Instead of distributing copies of paper applications and entering applicant data into multiple systems, the process is completely automated.

In the system, applicants can set up a profile, apply for multiple jobs without rekeying information, sign up for job alerts, and attach résumés. The solution emails acknowledgment of submitted applications, sends application status updates, and contacts applicants when they are no longer being considered for a position. If a manager thinks a candidate is better qualified for a different position than the one applied for, the manager can proactively invite the candidate to apply for the new position. The hospital also uses Kronos healthcare assessments to help predict a candidate’s likelihood of success in a given position.

“With the capabilities of the Kronos hiring solution, we can reach a wider audience, it’s easier for candidates to apply, and managers and supervisors can cast a broader net for talent,” says Cindy Kronsberg, HR supervisor.

Real-time visibility helps control labor costs

After an applicant is hired, an employee’s basic information is automatically transferred into Workforce HR. Skills, certifications, and licensing information is then populated into this and other modules, allowing for immediate scheduling. Using the solution’s self-service tools, employees can view their personal information and benefits, track their time, see certification expirations, and review training transcripts. “The integrated solution has allowed Bay Area Hospital to realize considerable labor cost savings,” notes Suzie McDaniel, Chief Human Resources Officer.

Using Workforce Timekeeper and Workforce Scheduler, managers have real-time labor cost data to better manage their units. “It’s all integrated into one system, so they can see who arrives late, leaves early, misses breaks, and causes incidental overtime,” explains Sheila Bellotti, payroll coordinator. With visibility of labor costs and their impact on unit costs, managers are enforcing missed breaks and preventing unnecessary overtime.

Improved workforce productivity delivers $1 million in savings

Supervisors are also better able to manage workforce productivity. When creating a schedule or filling an open shift, they can see who is approaching overtime and who has the right skills and certifications to provide quality care.

“The focus on productivity and effective use of our labor is at the forefront of our organization, so we use Visionware often and with religious fervor,” says McDaniel about the Kronos solution. Managers are encouraged to view employee time records daily to determine where they need to adjust staffing. Bay Area Hospital estimates savings of more than $1 million by increasing productivity just 2.3 percent.

Minimized compliance risk and reduced labor costs

Handling complex wage and labor law requirements is far easier now with Workforce Absence Manager. In addition to tracking FMLA leave time, Bay Area Hospital HR staff must track leave for the Oregon Family Leave Act, which has different eligibility requirements and balances. Using its Kronos solution, the hospital can track both leave types concurrently and be confident all employee leave is handled consistently.

Typically, 10 percent of Bay Area Hospital employees are on leave at any time. Accurate manual leave tracking was difficult, causing the hospital to sometimes grant more leave time than required by law. Using the automated Kronos solution, the hospital estimates a $70,000 annual savings through accurate and consistent leave management. The Kronos for Healthcare solution is helping Bay Area Hospital deliver quality care to patients, every hour of the day.

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