eShift By Flexestaff Cited In California Healthcare Foundation Report: 'Adopting Online Nurse Scheduling And Staffing Systems'
Shift Bidding Systems for Nurse Staffing Regarded as Important New Technology
Chicago - The nursing shortage, along with an aging population and mandated staff-to-patient ratios, have created significant staffing challenges for healthcare organizations throughout the country. The California Healthcare Foundation's September 2005 Report "Adopting Online Nurse Scheduling and Staffing Systems" focuses on how innovative hospitals are overcoming these challenges through adoption of new web-based nurse scheduling and staffing tools. These tools are allowing hospitals to optimize staff resources and satisfaction; provide greater levels of nurse retention; tighten control over staffing costs; as well as help organizations to better comply with regulatory requirements. The report coincided with a wave of media articles regarding the crisis in nurse staffing levels throughout the United States.
The CHCF Report cited Flexestaff's online staffing system, eShift, as one of the technologies which is most effectively addressing the nursing crisis. eShift is a web-based staffing tool developed to help clinical managers meet their fluctuating labor needs in an effective and affordable manner. The bidding software helps hospitals leverage their current staff to reduce the number of unfilled shifts requiring agency use. At the same time, eShift helps providers create a more flexible staffing environment while empowering staff with improved access and control.
This online bidding technology was pioneered in the airline industry to rationalize and make more efficient scheduling for flight attendants. The self scheduling allowed flight attendants and now nurses to schedule online. Unfilled nursing shifts can be reposted as auctions for staff to bid on the hourly rate. This is the most rational and efficient method of scheduling and the impact on organizations is significant.
According to Flexestaff CEO Rod Hart, "Indeed the industry is in a crisis to the extent that many are concerned that patient care is being compromised. That's why the CHCF Report raising awareness of a new and very effective way to address nurse staffing problems is so timely. The CHCF did a very good job of articulating why online nurse staffing systems are important in stabilizing nurse staffing levels in hospitals and why this will become a standard in hospitals across the country. The benefits that they identified are well corroborated by our clients who use shift bidding," he said.
Some of the benefits of online staffing which the report identified include:
- Improved staff satisfaction
- Improved staff recruiting and retention
- Reduced vacancy rates
- Reduced agency usage and dependency
- Increased flexibility to accommodate staff preferences
- Less management time spent solving staffing problems
Hart suggested that, "The bottom line is that it keeps nurses happy, keeps working teams together and limits, if not outright eliminates, the need for expensive agency nurses who are often less efficient and more prone to errors since they are less familiar with the policies and procedures than the hospital's own staff nurses. Patient care and satisfaction really are improved in this environment."
SOURCE: Flexestaff