Kronos Services Deliver Continuous Value to Wexford Health Sources
During the past 20 years, Wexford Health Sources has provided health care services to more than 260 correctional facilities across the U.S. Currently, approximately 1,500 contract medical staff and 200 per diem staff delivers a full range of medical, behavioral health, dental, vision, and pharmaceutical care services to about 91,000 inmates and other residents at more than 100 institutions. In addition, another 80 employees work at the organization’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, providing the support needed for quality, cost-effective delivery of inmate health services.
Wexford Health manages its workforce, including one large contingent of union members, using Kronos scheduling, timekeeping, HR and payroll solutions. A person at each site is responsible for overseeing employee time, which is processed by a centralized payroll group at headquarters. “We run lean and mean and take on multiple tasks as needed,” says Tina McGahey, director of HRIS Payroll and Compensation. “We aren’t top heavy, so it’s essential that we outsource as much as possible.”
When it came time to implement and later upgrade its Kronos solution, the organization decided to hire Kronos to host and maintain the system. With only four IT staff, Wexford Health felt that leveraging Kronos knowledge was the best solution. “We weren’t willing to bring it in house because something of that magnitude requires a different level of expertise across different types of people,” she explains. “For the number of people that we pay and how we use the system, Kronos hosting delivers economies of scale and makes more sense financially.”
Hosted solution with managed services creates time and labor savings
Utilizing a Kronos-hosted solution has allowed Wexford Health to focus on its core business. McGahey says the organization is constantly in the mode of reporting information back to clients, making it a “huge challenge” to install service packs because her staff has no down time, giving them time only to test. “We don’t have time to support anything else,” she adds. “It works better that we function as the user of the Kronos package and not the support of it behind the scenes.” The Kronos continuous level of service frees up Wexford staff time for business-related tasks and complements its resources.
McGahey suggests that finding new staff with HR, payroll, and timekeeping domain expertise would be difficult, but with Kronos she doesn’t have to worry about finding and retaining people with these skills. The labor savings from not having to add these additional staff she estimates at upwards of $275,000 per year.
Support provides ready answers and peace of mind
“One of the strongest things that Kronos brings is the support team,” adds McGahey. “The technical staff that Kronos has is one of the best that I’ve ever dealt with in solving issues, both technically and functionally.” The network of talent available has enabled Wexford Health to get fast answers to questions and resolve situations more easily. “That’s something that we couldn’t put a price tag on, that we couldn’t get in house. Things that take Kronos 5 to 10 minutes or even a day to turn around I suspect would take a single person weeks to turn around here, which is a luxury we can’t afford.”
One of Wexford Health’s challenges is its use of modems to capture employee time. Because of security at the correctional facilities, capturing time through the Web — and risking inmate access — is not an option. Testing the modems was difficult, but McGahey says the Kronos support team was with them every step of the way. “It was a joint effort and if we had handled it solely in house, I’m not sure it would have been handled as well,” she shares.
Easy access to support and information streamlines operations
Ongoing communication and education are valuable features of Kronos Services. Wexford Health has performed immense customization with interfaces and has found Kronos very responsive in making and explaining any changes that need to be made, says McGahey.
She also finds eCase, the Kronos software solution that logs and tracks customer issues and questions, very helpful. In one instance she received a response to a question that she posed but was not yet ready to act on, but referred to the response six months later. “I pulled up the case number, followed the instructions and never had to call anyone because it documented so well how to manage what I wanted to manage,” she explains.
When requesting guidance about a situation that is similar to something that has happened earlier, on a number of occasions she has referred to a prior case when making a new inquiry. “The eCase tracking system, the online mechanism to log, update and review cases is very helpful,” she notes.
In looking ahead, McGahey says she looks forward to Wexford Health utilizing additional capabilities of its Kronos solution, feeling confident that Kronos Services will be with her staff every step of the way.
Wexford Health Sources Summary
PROJECT BENEFITS
• Solution hosting and managed services save cost of maintaining highly skilled in-house team and optimizes staff time
• Support services provide fast answers and access to an extensive Kronos knowledge base to maximize use of the solution’s capabilities
• Ongoing support gives staff confidence to focus mainly on core business issues
“For the number of people that we pay and how we use the system, Kronos hosting delivers economies of scale and makes more sense financially.” - Tina McGahey, Director, HRIS, Payroll and Compensation
Industry: Correctional healthcare
Employees: 1,800
Products: Workforce Timekeeper™; Workforce Scheduler™; Workforce HR™; Workforce Payroll™
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