THERE’S STILL A LOT of paper scheduling in hospitals today, according to Jared Peterson, vice president of research operations for KLAS Enterprises. Price point, cultural change and low IT priority are just a few of the reasons why the scheduling and staffing solutions market is still emerging, especially with smaller hospitals. “Hospitals are starting to see efficiencies in maximizing personnel resources,” said Peterson. That’s particularly true in the nursing component, thanks to the current nursing shortage trend.
While some vendors are focusing on the clinical aspect – automating resource scheduling for nurses and other clinicians – other vendors are offering a suite of applications such as time and attendance, staff scheduling, HR and payroll under one umbrella. More vendors in this space are emerging, as providers determine their scheduling needs. Expect to see more activity in this market in the next year or two.
Three Trends to Watch
Jared Peterson, vice president of research operations for KLAS Enterprises, offers three trends in scheduling and staffing:
1. Adoption: Hospitals are starting to take advantage of online scheduling, which allows scheduling remotely.
2. Packaging: Some vendors are moving toward a “workforce management solution” suite of products, providing HR, payroll, time and attendance and staff schuling components.
3. Adaptability: Vendors are developing more clinical components to their solutions, such as enabling hospitals to match the needs of their patient mix with the right level of skilled nurses.
Vendor Showcase
api software, inc.
ActiveStaffer Staffing and Scheduling System
Features: The ActiveStaffer system automates and streamlines complex scheduling processes so healthcare organizations can manage resources more effectively, reduce labor costs and enhance recruitment and retention efforts.
Contact: Jim Klink, vice president of sales, 262.670.2733, sales@apisoftwareinc.com
Atlas Business Solutions
Visual Staff Scheduler Pro
Features: With this easy-to-use, full-featured, perpetual scheduling software, you can now schedule shifts, enter time-off requests, add special annotations for weeks, months or even years in advance, and quickly produce easy-to-read, professional-looking schedules and reports.
Contact: Andy Gagne, sales manager, 800.874.8801 ext. 124, andyg@abs-usa.com
AtStaff, Inc.
ClairVia
Features: ClairVia staff and demand management solutions for the hospital enterprise marketplace improves quality of care, patient safety, patient throughput and staff satisfaction by ensuring that patients receive – from admission to discharge – the clinically appropriate level and amount of staffing care to achieve positive outcomes.
Contact: Kate Nell, vice president, product management, 919.382.8282, ext. 232, knell@atstaff.com
Cerner Corp.
Cerner Workforce Solutions
Features: Cerner Workforce Solutions is a comprehensive suite of solutions that helps healthcare organizations optimize personnel planning and resource allocation, assuring the right number staff with appropriate skills and experience are available to provide care based on current and scheduled patient needs, organizational best practice and budgetary considerations.
Contact: 866.221.8877, www.cerner.com
Chyma Systems
Chyma
Features: Chyma simplifies physician shift scheduling and communications: online trade shifts; automatic rules-based feature creates schedules by clicking a button; saves time locating doctors; more than 4,000 subscribers; no software to install, no hardware to purchase; manage contacts, calendars and discussion forums; stores documents, video-audio files and interactive media; and synchronizes with Outlook or PDAs.
Contact: Damon Goodwin, director, 506.645.8750, 888.514.5858, damon.goodwin@isaix.com or info@chyma.net
Infor
Infor HCM Workforce Management (formerly named Workbrain)
Features: Infor’s workforce management solution addresses all the processes critical to making sure your workforce is a major contributor to the satisfaction of your customers and the success of your enterprise. Workforce Management includes: scheduling, time & attendance, workforce absence, workforce planning and workforce performance.
Contact: Heidi Reis, 917.822.5770, heidi.reis@infor.com
Kronos Incorporated
Kronos for Healthcare
Features: Kronos Incorporated empowers organizations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. Kronos for Healthcare allows organizations to reduce labor costs, increase productivity and improve employee satisfaction. This integrated suite includes solutions for labor productivity, supplemental labor management, scheduling, absence management, time and attendance, human resources, payroll, selection and hiring, and analytics.
Contact: Brian Graves, healthcare global practice leader, 978.947.7736, bgraves@kronos.com
McKesson Provider Technologies
ANSOS One-Staff
Features: ANSOS One-Staff is healthcare’s Number 1 market leading staffing and productivity solution for two years in a row, according to KLAS Top 20 Year End Final Report, 2006 and 20907. Empower your staff with Web-based self scheduling and open shift management. Schedule and staff based on patient acuity and workload. Then monitor productivity with our real-time analytics tools. ANSOS One-Staff provides organizations with the power to perform.
Contact: Carrie Bauman, director of product marketing, workforce management suite, 919.564.2209, carrie.bauman@mckesson.com
Misys Healthcare Systems
Misys MyWay
Features: Misys MyWay delivers a simple, affordable, and complete way for physicians in smaller practices to capitalize on the benefits of electronic medical records, practice management and claims management applications. Available as a hosted solution, Misys MyWay offers an unbeatable value proposition and makes sophisticated healthcare technology easier to access for smaller practices.
Contact: Mike Holsinger, director of communications, 919.329.1771, Mike.Holsinger@MisysHealthcare.com
RES-Q Healthcare Systems
RES-Q Labor Resource Management
Features: Windows-based, client/server enterprise system for hospital staffing and scheduling. It produces clinically sound, skill-matched, financially optimized and productive staffing in efficient schedules. The optional Self-scheduling Module gives staff greater flexibility by allowing them to select shifts from their own PCs, even from home.
Contact: Julie Phillips, 800.572.1911, ext. 202, Julie.Phillips@res-q.com
User Reviews
“Our enterprise-wide implementation of API’s ActiveStaffer Staffing and Scheduling system has helped us achieve several goals, including reduced labor costs and increased efficiency. The automated features of the system reduces, and in many cases, eliminates, the need for department managers to manually input employee schedules, which saves each manager up to six hours per pay period and results in $180,000 in annual savings. In addition, the system’s integration with API’s time and attendance system allows us to compare scheduled hours against those actually worked to determine if overtime hours were authorized.”
Gary Linden, assistant director of MIS, Medina General Hospital, Medina, Ohio
“By integrating clinical documentation and leveraging our investment in clinical information systems, the ClairVia staff, acuity and demand management system continuously measures, tracks and forecasts each patient’s progress toward outcomes.”
Jill Mason, chief nursing officer, Blessing Hospital, Quincy, Ill.
“Chyma can be the scheduler for your entire practice. We have a physician schedule, a specialist’s schedule, a receptionist schedule. It’s quite practical. Chyma lends itself to small clinics but certainly has the flexibility to manage larger clinics with multiple schedules and multiple physicians. “
Ian Cohen, MD, medical director, Upper Village Walk-in Medical Centre, Toronto