Staffing Regulations on The Horizon — Is Your Healthcare Facility Prepared?

Identifying and maintaining the appropriate number of nursing staff for every shift is crucial to the efficiency of your healthcare facility and quality of patient care. Proper nurse-to-patient staffing ratios result in more proficient patient care, a safer work environment and better clinical outcomes.

A 2011 University of California, Los Angeles, study reported that nurse staffing below target levels was linked to increased patient mortality. Another study, conducted by Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, at Penn, found that for every additional patient a nurse cared for, patients were at a 7% greater risk of dying within 30 days of admission, and there also was a greater risk of failure to rescue.  It is data such as this that’s driving the push for more government mandates requiring healthcare facilities to maintain minimum staffing levels.

Stay ahead of the game

Most healthcare providers recognize the direct impact nurse staffing levels have on the overall safety and performance of their facility and have taken steps to ensure the appropriate number of nurses are scheduled at the correct time and place. Others are anticipating the move toward more regulation and are looking for ways to ensure compliance with impending State or Federal staffing laws.   

Nurse managers are responsible for employee shift management and ensuring proper staff levels, often for multiple departments. Manually creating and overseeing schedules is a time-consuming process and leaves the facility vulnerable to schedule errors and improper staffing numbers. To address this issue, many healthcare facilities are implementing online employee scheduling software.

The right tool for the job

Healthcare facilities operate around the clock, so employee scheduling software that is designed for 24/7 facilities that schedule for shifts is essential. The software must also allow nurse managers to create schedules for multiple locations and departments. Software that allows visibility of multiple schedules across an entire organization ensures there are no scheduling conflicts or double booking of an employee who works in multiple departments or locations. This ability to share resources not only improves staffing accuracy, it also reduces unnecessary overtime by providing the total hours scheduled across the entire organization. 

Are they qualified?

Tracking employee skill levels, certifications, and credentials is necessary for maintaining compliance, and leaves no room for errors. Healthcare scheduling software that allows managers to assign these qualifications to each employee not only assures proper shift coverage, it also saves managers time by highlighting specific information on the schedule for easy reference. This ensures the proper number of qualified staff members are scheduled in the appropriate departments. ScheduleAnywhere goes even further; sending alerts, so managers know when certifications are nearing expiration or when employees are due for additional training.

A sound investment

Learn how investing in ScheduleAnywhere healthcare scheduling software now will not only ensure compliance with impending State or Federal staffing laws, it will also cut time spent on scheduling by up to 75 percent. The increased productivity of nurse managers, combined with fewer scheduling errors, saves healthcare facilities time and money. When you factor in the savings associated with non-compliance, it’s clear that online employee scheduling software pays dividends.

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