Thinking strategically about contingent labor usage saves time and money while improving quality and efficiency. Weiss Memorial has experienced this first hand. We recently conducted a Q&A with nursing resource coordinator Ian Quinn about what it means to think strategically about staffing and how ShiftWise helps.
SW: Set the stage for us. What was life like before using ShiftWise?
Ian: Managing our contingent labor was a mess. There was a lot of paper and pen, email, phone calls all the time all throughout the day. We had nurses showing up who we didn’t know were coming and nurses not showing up who we thought were coming, just because it wasn’t as concrete.
SW: And what has been the result after using ShiftWise?
Ian: “Our vendor relationships are much better since ShiftWise. It’s a lot more concrete. You’re able to open up a web browser in a matter of seconds and see who’s going to be coming the next day, what shifts you have open, where you’re going to need help and where you have help.”
We’re definitely safer from an audit perspective when it comes to Joint Commission. There’s a couple different spots where I’m saving time and money. For example, invoices used to sit in my office for weeks, sometimes months. Now, invoices get done on a weekly basis.
SW: Why is ShiftWise such an easy decision to sell internally from a financial perspective?
Ian: ShiftWise manages our documents, saves me time, it’s very transparent and it’s free – that was the biggest thing. Right now, we’re looking at bringing in a bed management system that creates transparency when you’re trying to place beds in staffing. It’s an amazing system. It reminds me of ShiftWise, but it costs about a quarter of a million dollars. I know that’s going to be a lot harder to sell than ShiftWise was to sell my senior exec team. When they ask you how much it is and you say free, they’re gonna say ok, absolutely, let’s try it.
When they ask you how much it is and you say free, they’re gonna say ok, absolutely, let’s try it.
SW: How does your CFO view ShiftWise? Obviously, it’s a much different job function but are there specific benefits that he views with ShiftWise?
Ian: Labor is our number one cost center so he’s always going to be concerned with any aspect of labor. The reporting feature is huge in ShiftWise. We have a meeting every Thursday with our CFO and our director of HR where we go through and look at our open positions. We match it to our ShiftWise reports to make sure that those vacancies are real vacancies and we can see, hey, we’re using a lot of hours in a certain department. Do we have enough positions posted in that department?
It’s going to save you time and money. ShiftWise is actually part of our strategic plan for finance this last calendar year and they’re really happy with the results from the senior leadership team.
SW: How has it specifically saved you money? Do you have an example?
Ian: The biggest thing for me about ShiftWise is it’s really decreased our rates from a contract point of view. We were paying $74.95 an hour for some weekend, tele nights. Now we don’t pay more than $66 an hour on a weekend tele night. There were also morning med/surg shifts that we were paying $69.21 an hour when I started. Now we don’t pay more than $57 an hour for med/surg morning shifts. It’s decreased our hourly rate for contract labor by between 3 and 5 dollars an hour.
It’s decreased our hourly rate for contract labor by between 3 and 5 dollars an hour.
SW: Overall, what has been the impact of using ShiftWise?
Ian: It’s like before I had a smart phone, I had a cell phone. It would make calls, it was great and I didn’t think, hey, why do you need these extra features on a smart phone? But once you get a smart phone, you can never go back. I’d feel lost if I didn’t have my iPhone on me. It’s like ShiftWise. If ShiftWise went away tomorrow, I wouldn’t do vendor relationships. I wouldn’t use any agency because I wouldn’t know how. It’d be too hard.
If ShiftWise went away tomorrow, I wouldn’t do vendor relationships. I wouldn’t use any agency because I wouldn’t know how. It’d be too hard.