Martin Memorial Health Systems
Kronos Solutions Deliver Labor Cost Savings and a Healthy ROI to Martin Memorial Health Systems
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Martin Memorial Health Systems is the largest healthcare system in Martin County, Fla. The organization includes two acute care hospitals, a freestanding emergency center, specialty treatment centers, and physician offices. Staffed by 3,000 employees, Martin Memorial Health Systems is a five-time winner of the nation’s Top 100 Integrated Health Systems award.
Providing exceptional health care, hope, and compassion to every patient at every visit is the mission of Martin Memorial. Aligning nursing staff numbers to patient volume in clinical areas is key to delivering this high level of care. Martin Memorial had been using a partially automated scheduling process for the hospitals’ nursing staff, but staff found it cumbersome and time consuming, and the scheduling system’s codes were very limiting. Schedules were input into one system and timekeeping into another, but information often varied. Clinical staff wanted a single system.
Martin Memorial explored a number of options. Some systems were complicated, and others required extensive maintenance or were thought to be cost-prohibitive, says Katherine Wyman, manager of IT development and support. A longtime Kronos® customer, Martin Memorial had been using the Workforce Timekeeper™ solution and liked its easy integration with the Workforce Scheduler™ application. Choosing the Kronos for Healthcare scheduling solution has increased employee satisfaction and productivity, supported quality care with appropriate staffing ratios, and helped control labor costs. The solution paid for itself within the first year.
Increased employee satisfaction and productivity
Nursing staff in most units at both hospitals and the freestanding emergency center use the user-friendly self-scheduling capability to request open shifts, shift swaps, and time off. “Self-scheduling has been a satisfier for employees because they feel in control,” notes Wyman. “With a paper schedule, only one person could access the schedule at a time. Now multiple people at once can access the system to select shifts.”
Full-time users receive preferential treatment and are notified first when the schedule is opened. About 80 percent of the schedule is built through self-scheduling before the scheduling period closes. Unit directors fill in the remaining open shifts, using per diem staff only as needed. After the central staffing office posts the schedule, staff can see shifts available for overtime, which must be approved by unit directors.
“This system is a time-saver and has increased productivity because directors don’t spend as much time balancing schedules,” says Denise Garcia, staffing analyst coordinator, who oversees scheduling at both hospitals. Workforce Scheduler has also allowed Martin Memorial to move from a four-week to a six-week schedule, another time saver.
Staffing for quality care
Maintaining appropriate staffing levels is important to delivering quality care, as is having the right staff on the floor. Martin Memorial hospital units schedule to support full census and patient acuity. Supervisors make staff adjustments at the change of shifts based on actual census information imported from MEDITECH into Workforce Scheduler four times daily.
“Some shifts have specific skills and certification requirements for the person filling that shift,” says Garcia. “In the system, we can see each employee’s skills and certifications and can quickly determine if staff with the right skill set is on the schedule. And it’s much easier to see who can float from unit to unit to cover shifts.” She claims the biggest impact of Workforce Scheduler has been units working together more closely in sharing information and staff.
Warnings of rule violations are set up in Workforce Scheduler to alert supervisors if an employee’s certifications are about to expire. This allows supervisors to manage by exception and enables them to focus on supporting the staff in delivering quality care. Staff members can also see this information when self-scheduling. Employee skills and certifications are updated daily with imports from MEDITECH and Picis (formerly Medical Systems Management — MSM).
Controlled labor costs and fast ROI
Implementation of Workforce Scheduler at Martin Memorial was achieved early and at half the budgeted amount. In addition, more than $380,000 in agency cost savings were realized during the first year, as use of agency employees — the health system’s highest paid hourly employees — was reduced considerably.
Workforce Scheduler’s exception reporting is used by front-line managers at Martin Memorial to reduce “casual overtime,” says Wyman. Better overtime management based on correct schedules and exception reporting allowed Martin Memorial to net a savings of $600,000 in the first year.
“The price point of Kronos was reasonable, so we were able to realize a pretty good ROI quickly,” she adds. Labor cost savings allowed Martin Memorial to pay for the solution within 12 months.
The Kronos solutions’ ease of use of has been another big benefit for the healthcare system. Wyman notes that Martin Memorial’s IT staff performed its own upgrade of the solution and is able to easily configure it to match the organization’s specific needs. “Kronos is an easy system to maintain,” she continues. “It has been a good fit for us.”