Connecting the staffing dots for quality care

A recent article in McKnight's reported a significant improvement in the reduction and treatment of pressure ulcers, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology. This progress was directly attributed to the good care being rendered by employees who have the distinct opportunity to manage their own work schedules (or, at the very least, have input in their schedules). How could this be and what is the correlation? Talk about connecting the dots!

Well, apparently employees who can work their schedules to their liking or advantage, and know that they will get the hours that they need to live, are much more content, happier, and seemingly more productive. It goes to the old adage that if you have a happy staff, you have happy residents. I would also have to assume that with this comes the opportunity for our skilled facilities to be more adequately and consistently staffed across all three shifts so that things like keeping the residents/patients dry, getting them up and around and staying active, as well as having staff that can provide much needed wound care, are all automatic. What a novel idea!

Now the article did not specifically discuss what systems or processes are being used to more effectively allow employees to work their own schedules, but my thoughts are that providers who are savvy enough to use scheduling software and technology are able to get ahead.  

As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, I experienced great success after partnering with OnShift to bring efficiency to our scheduling processes. There are other software products but when you speak of employees having the ability to control much of how they will be scheduled, OnShift is it. To make it even more credible, employees now can use a mobile app to facilitate this no matter where they are located.

I also have professed that if you can connect the dots between quality care and consistent clinical outcomes with increased census and revenues, we will see that the real connector is consistent clinical staffing 24/7. We very often do not realize how having the right level of nursing hours per patient day and the right amount of professional nurses and caregivers, both on a consistent basis, yields improved productivity. And what really sends it over the top is what this ultimately means to your employees and how they feel about coming to work each day. Skilled nursing centers today are not capital intensive; they are labor intensive, i.e. people taking care of people. And now, patients and residents are more acutely ill and will require much more skilled care and higher NHPPD. Those employees who are happy at work, satisfied, and engaged through access to their own schedules will be able to provide better care for residents and patients.

If you understand how all these little operational “dots” connect, then you will appreciate how consistently staffing your skilled, post-acute service areas, and even your long-term care areas, will yield the quality outcomes you are looking for over time, and you will be that much further ahead of your competition.

In our business today, it will be about being able to perform on a consistent, predictable basis with the best outcomes that can be attained. Consistent performance over time is directly related to consistent staffing over time. For me, it is very easy to “connect the dots!”