How to Staff to Acuity in Senior Care

With the back to school season upon us, I’m beginning to angst over new schedules that are just days away. This means jostling a couple of tweeners every morning at the crack of dawn--which isn’t going to be easy given how nicely they’ve adjusted  to their “summer schedules”. It also means packing lunches, waiting for buses, memorizing new school schedules, meeting new teachers, playing on new teams, learning new things, helping with homework, and the list goes on (which reminds me – I’ve got to get on that school supply list!)  

To make it run like clockwork, it takes a true team effort. It also takes some planning, precise timing, oh and one more detail – for everything to run the way it is supposed to run. Ha!

As I think of all of the adjustments, course corrections, and extra hands that have to come together to make sure everyone gets what/when/where they need, while staying safe, healthy and with some luck – happy – I’m thinking of how important these things also are to the long-term and post-acute care profession.

It all comes down to high quality patient and resident care, safety, and satisfaction.  And that’s why I’m so excited about today’s announcement from OnShift and MatrixCare.  OnShift’s staff scheduling and labor management software can now be integrated with MatrixCare’s electronic health record (EHR) solution. The new integration helps providers focus on what matters most – quality care – by giving them easy-to-use, automated tools to create staffing plans that consider both patient acuity and census.  It also helps drive efficiencies and control costs, which are especially important in today’s healthcare market.

While the dynamics in a long-term and post-acute care environment are much more extreme than packing lunches or driving to a practice, they are similar in that things change, each and every day. With the new integration, OnShift and MatrixCare work together in offering predictive information so staffing adjustments can be made while considering care needs every step of the way. It helps support your team’s effort in ensuring the right people, are at the right place, at the right time to properly care for residents and patients, even as conditions and clinical needs change throughout the course of the day.

So as I get ready to run to OfficeMax to willfully check something off my list (victory – they have the required scientific calculator T3 model), hopefully you are thinking about how technology and the new OnShift-MatrixCare integration can make your life a little easier and the lives of your patients and residents even better.

Be sure to check out today’s announcement.

Learn more by downloading our whitepaper: