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CNO Solutions for Staffing Non-Traditional Care Locations

One of most interesting healthcare trends to watch right now is the continued movement of payers into the provider space. As insurers like Aetna and Cigna partner with pharmacies and retailers to deliver care directly to patients – bypassing traditional providers like medical groups – health systems find themselves competing for business with these disruptive new entrants to the healthcare delivery model.

This shift in care delivery is being driven partly by healthcare consumerism. Patients increasingly approach healthcare like any other service or commodity they might purchase, using various tools and resources to evaluate their healthcare options before choosing the one they believe best meets their needs. And one of those big needs tends to be convenience. Today’s healthcare consumer is demanding more convenience from his or her healthcare providers than ever before.

Recognizing this trend, health systems have begun to expand their care delivery footprint outside the hospital or medical group and into the community – setting up access points at retail stores, inside corporations and in locations like fitness centers. And while taking care to the people instead of making the people come to a clinic might benefit patients over the long run, it can make a CNO’s life difficult in one major respect: staffing.

Thinking through the Logistics of Staffing Non-Traditional Care Locations

Contemplating exactly how you will manage employees at multiple small, disparate locations can feel daunting. First comes the question of how to create the appropriate shift lengths to staff the site adequately. You likely will need to coordinate your clinic’s “open hours” with the retail location’s operating hours. If the business is open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., will you create two eight-hour shifts, or one 12 and one four? Next, you may wonder how to schedule and track these employees to maximize labor efficiency. Lastly, you’ll need to evaluate your current scheduling software to make sure it is flexible enough to accommodate the multitude of shift types your organization will require to make retail clinics a viable proposition.

If your current nurse scheduling software can’t handle customized shift lengths, you may find real hurdles to staffing non-traditional locations. Fortunately, ShiftWizard offers fully customizable shift types, self-scheduling features and enterprise-level management tools to maximize labor efficiency at any number of locations, with any number of shift types.

Three Scheduling Software Features to Make Staffing Non-Traditional Locations Simple

Unlike some other, legacy scheduling software programs, ShiftWizard gives you maximum flexibility to design the shift lengths you desire – and you can do it by location. With just a few mouse clicks, you can designate a new clinic in the community, define the shift length and open the schedule for staff to begin choosing shifts. It’s really that simple.

By enabling self-scheduling for your new locations, you empower employees to work when and where it suits them. Staff may value the ability to work nearer their home, for example, to minimize commuting time. Or they may enjoy adding a few shorter shifts at a retail clinic to break up their normal hospital schedule. With ShiftWizard, you can designate which nurses hold the appropriate credentials to work at your retail clinics so they can schedule themselves there routinely – or float there when necessary.

And speaking of floating…ShiftWizard provides you with powerful enterprise-level staffing management tools to maximize labor efficiency by floating nurses from an over-staffed area to an under-staffed one. At any time, you can access the Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) dashboard to quickly view departments that require additional staffing, review which units have a surplus of nurses and then float one of those nurses to the under-staffed area. This ability to create what amounts to an internal float pool can save an organization thousands in agency nurse expenses each year.

Solving the Problem of Staffing Non-Traditional Care Locations

As health systems seek ways to better compete with disruptive entrants to the healthcare delivery model, you need not fear a staffing headache. By adopting modern tools that give you full control of your enterprise staffing needs, you can help your organization take healthcare to the community in multiple locations with ease. Schedule a free demonstration of ShiftWizard today to make your life easier tomorrow.

Healthcare Staff Scheduling. Developed by Nurses for Nurses.

ShiftWizard makes nurse scheduling and communication easy, so you can focus on what really matters—improving patient outcomes.