University Hospital Leverages Kronos for Healthcare to Improve Productivity and Control Agency Labor Costs
As the Intermountain West's only academic healthcare system, University of Utah Health Care combines excellence in patient care with the latest in medical research and teaching. A provider of leading-edge medicine in a range of specialties, it is consistently ranked among the country's best hospitals by US News & World Report. The organization's 6,000 employees are spread across three hospitals, a number of specialty centers, and 10 community clinics.
At University Hospital, managers used a mix of scheduling tools to schedule the medical facility's employees. Managers wanted actual hours reflected in the schedule, but the scheduling systems made this impossible. Consequently, schedulers spent a significant amount of time manually entering actual hours and maintaining two disparate systems.
Tired of this time-consuming process that provided little workforce management information, University of Utah Health Care wanted a scheduling solution that would be integrated with its Kronos® time and attendance system. Selection criteria included accurately tracking all nursing activities both at and away from the bedside, such as one-on-one time, orientation, and committee work. A grassroots committee of end users chose the Kronos for Healthcare solution, and University of Utah Health Care is now benefiting from high-quality care, enhanced productivity, and better control of labor costs.
Easy-to-learn solution creates time for care
"Patient care is our priority, and nursing is under constant pressure to be at the bedside to meet the needs of our patients," says Suzette Reid, senior application analyst. Time spent learning the Kronos solution needs to be time well spent.
Working with Kronos Education Services, the hospital has developed brief computer-based lessons that employees can work into their day and take any number of times. They quickly get up to speed on self-service scheduling and viewing timecard information, allowing them to focus their time on providing quality patient care.
Integrated scheduling and time and attendance improve productivity
Clinical staff is enjoying the autonomy they have gained using the self-scheduling tool in the Workforce Scheduler solution. "We tell our nurses that our goal is to give them 80 to 90 percent of the shifts they request," explains Kiera Roberts, office support coordinator. "They often get 95 to 99 percent of what they request and we just have to tweak a shift here and there. This is a huge staff satisfier."
With nurses' self-scheduling information automatically integrated with actual time gathered in Workforce Timekeeper, schedulers are now freed up for more important tasks. This integration of workforce data is also giving managers real-time information that Roberts says has made them more proactive in managing staff. Before, they might not notice patterns of time and attendance abuse for months. "Kronos catches patterns of abuse — sick calls, tardies — quickly," she adds. "Now it's easy for managers to know exactly what staff are doing and hold each of them accountable."
An added benefit has been a notable increase in employees arriving on time for their shifts, allowing the outgoing shifts to go home on time. Roberts claims the Kronos solution has "changed the behavior of staff in a very positive way," including staff being more productive throughout a shift, instead of leaving tasks until the end.
Efficient internal staffing controls agency labor costs
University Hospital also uses Kronos for Healthcare to more efficiently use its internal staffing pool and greatly reduce agency hours. Before, resource staff members called in the day they wanted to work. Now, they must self-schedule at least 10 days in advance and some schedule a month ahead. "This has stopped us from having to fill those constant gaps with agency labor," explains Saraessa Bangert, program manager of the clinical scheduling system.
The hospital has a better handle on agency time and costs too. Agency staff must swipe in and out, and Workforce Timekeeper accurately tracks time, which have reduced agency time reporting errors and misstatements. University Hospital sends agency time information to the agency each week, streamlining agency payments and eliminating unexpected agency bills arriving months later. With actual time automatically tallied in the system, agency disputes have greatly decreased, says Bangert. Within the first month, University Hospital saw an immediate 25 percent drop in agency costs. Within three months, the hospital had saved 80 percent in agency costs, compared to the same time period a year earlier.
"We would rather utilize our staff and not use agency staff whenever possible," she adds. "Allowing holes in the schedule to be shown online any time, day and night, has increased my staff wanting to pick up more hours, improved staff satisfaction, and further reduced agency use."
Expanding performance analysis
As University Hospital looks ahead, managers plan to expand their analysis of workforce data using the Kronos Workforce Analytics solution to examine outcomes and quality data relative to staffing and productivity.
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