MAPS Health Suite

Managing Complex Nurse Shift Schedules

With healthcare labor costs at 50 to 70% of the average hospital’s operating budget, effective and efficient scheduling of that scarce, but critical resource is a necessary operational requirement to ensure high quality and satisfactory patient outcomes. But, the current shortage of qualified registered nurses has made healthcare workforce management one of the more critical operational needs facing healthcare organizations. Automated workforce management solutions that offer advanced scheduling functionality help healthcare organizations lower labor costs, improve nurse retention, and increase patient satisfaction.

With the alliance between Interbit Data and Allocate Software (formerly Manpower Software), healthcare organizations can now integrate an advanced workforce scheduling solution into their daily operational environment. The MAPS Health Suite enables organizations to replace inefficient, manual labor scheduling processes with powerful tools for more effective use of your workforce.

The MAPS Health Suite has been developed as a unique approach to clinical scheduling, designed to improve the effectiveness of nursing and other clinical staff to better meet patient demand. Not content with just turning a paper process into an electronic one, MAPS Health Suite streamlines the entire process – from modeling the demand, through to scheduling and payroll – to make it more effective. The process includes:

• Organization & Demand – models the organization as it is today and planning changes in the future in terms of structure, budgets and positions. Staff demand is modeled for each schedule, including the specific skills required. Demand can be compared to the budgets to ensure they are aligned.
• Staffing & Unavailability – understands all the necessary information about your staff, including skills and working restrictions, and managing all absence from vacation time to sickness.
• Schedule Management – creates a schedule using either self scheduling, manager scheduling, or rotating patterns. Based around a framework for self scheduling and requests, it includes simple, intuitive manual scheduling or optimizing auto scheduling.
• Open Shift Management – manages open shifts for float/locum pool and agency requests. The process is completely integrated to scheduling, resulting in streamlined processes and union rules being tracked.
• Timesheets – auto generates pay differentials and other enhanced work rates. The system produces enhancements, such as holiday, overtime or on call rates, from the schedule, or using a feed from an external time and attendance system.

MAPS Health Suite helps optimize clinical resources, identifying and remedying the cause and impact of staffing issues.

Ensuring that patients receive the best possible care is the primary concern to everybody involved in healthcare. But making sure the supply of staff is in place to meet the patient demand is not as simple as merely assigning staff to a shift, but a complex problem involving many elements and all areas of the organization. The challenges facing many healthcare organizations include:

• Improving patient care – getting the rights skills on the unit at the right time has a direct impact on the quality of care provided.
• Making better use of staff – staff hours need to be utilized more effectively, ensuring they are only scheduled where they are required.
• Managing staffing costs – by utilizing existing staff better, costs can be reduced and kept within budget.

Built in conjunction with Healthcare organizations, MAPS Health Suite provides the foundation to improve the use of nursing and clinical staff, which in turn, helps improved the quality of patient care.

Contact us to find out how our workforce scheduling solutions can ensure your healthcare facility will easily implement a complex schedule and efficiently manage your temporary staff.