I’ve spent lots of time lately digging into accountable care and how this is going to evolve in our industry, especially when it comes to labor management and scheduling software, a topic near and dear to my heart. I believe the jury is in and there will be no avoiding standardizing the efficiency of staffing across care settings in today’s brave new world of measured quality.You’re probably thinking, hold on, Gene. Isn’t staffing already standardized and regulated? Don’t we have federal and state guidelines around staffing for quality care? Aren’t we monitored and measured during audits? Yes, you absolutely are, but there is a larger goal behind “accountable care” that I’d like to see operators achieve.
Consider the following two questions:
- Are you satisfied with the level of care your facility is providing to your residents?
- Will other providers in the care ecosystem be satisfied with the level of care residents receive at your facility?
The hard and fast reality is that, like it or not, the episodic outcome of a patient will be measured across all the care settings the individual encounters during the process. For example, consider a cardiac patient who is discharged to your skilled facility for treatment for 15 days. Then, they are discharged to home care, only to be readmitted back to the hospital in 10 days due to complications stemming from not following the prescribed care plan. The hospital is unhappy because they are now dealing with a readmission, in less than 30 days post-discharge, that could have been avoided.
If this happens enough for patients discharged for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia, the hospital will be subject to Medicare readmission penalties, as the article in McKnight’s Long Term Care News explains. The hospital is accountable for what is considered in this case an avoidable readmission.
So how can hospitals better control this?
Establish accountability standards with every institution along the continuum of care that will have a hand in caring for their patients. The standards will cover every aspect of providing care, including staffing, with the expectation that the post-acute providers meet those standards or lose out on the referrals. Hospital referrals commonly account for the majority of business for many post-acute care providers. Not meeting the hospital’s goals is not an option.
Just like the hospitals, post-acute care providers must remain aware of the care provided to an individual after discharge. They need to understand how well care plans are being followed and that medication regimens are met. This boils down to the right staffing resources being applied to achieve these goals.
If there was ever a call to action, right now is the time to improve your processes and tools to help you measure quality across your ecosystem, before your partners inform you that you are falling short and impacting your business.
High quality care is dependent upon high quality workers, and this relationship thrives on the presence of happy and qualified employees across all parts of the health care continuum. Do your part by looking at your piece of the puzzle to ensure that your facilities are staffed correctly, with the right number of appropriately trained employees on hand when your residents need them. And, don’t forget to consider your employees’ schedule preferences, which have a big impact to their overall level of satisfaction. Remember, happy staff drives quality care and happy residents, too.
With all of the constant changes to health care, there is no better time to look at how staffing significantly influences the care you provide.
