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Business pressures as well as quality of care pressures continually mount on existing care facilities as resources and staffing constraints decline. In particular, nursing resources are in limited supply and pose a significant problem in both recruiting and retaining skilled nurses. One of the major areas that have significant influence on these factors includes nursing staff rosters. Not only can effective rosters promote good patient care and nurse satisfaction, they can also save hospitals and patient facilities tremendous costs. Electronic rostering systems now facilitate these benefits even further.

The initial demand for better nurse rostering systems came about as a need for efficiency and accurate staffing increased. Shortages in nurses in general and a lower budget for staffing salaries motivated hospitals and care facilities to seek more streamlined solutions. By using electronic systems, nurses with specific skills are more easily identified and can be allocated to the right location at the right time. This is particularly important on night shifts and weekends when options at larger staff pools are restricted. While these software solutions provide a better assessment of the number and skills of available staff, their placement promotes better patient care and quality outcomes.

Additionally, IT solutions in nurse rostering provide immediate benefits in staff satisfaction. Consistency and accuracy of placing skilled personnel in a scheduled roster alleviates concerns about inexperienced or under-supplied staffing. A nurse with neurological assessment expertise can be assigned to a brain injury ward instead of a dialysis unit or regular staff floor when a need arises. By having skills in a database and staff availability, skills and needs are matched correctly. This creates greater staff contentment and also helps recruiting efforts for additional nursing staff later. As a result, the current staff is more likely to be retained and recruitment more successful.

Electronic solutions for staff rostering can also help the bottom line. In a report out of the United Kingdom, implementation of an electronic rostering system yielded an annual saving of 500,000 pounds combined for two British hospitals. A big portion of the savings came from a shift in greater permanent nursing employees as opposed to temporary positions and temporary staff agency use. By being able to define specific staff needs, permanent positions at lower costs were added to meet care demands. These monies were than able to be spent on other patient care areas to improve quality and efficiency further.

Technology offers creative solutions in being able to match the hard rules of hospital policy with the soft demands of employees and patient care. Variations in staff requirements occur as a result of constant fluctuations in patient volume and disease demographics within a particular institution. Having an efficient system that is able to collect and match this information to the available staff enhances the ability to optimally staff a patient ward. Nurses are happier, patients received better care, and facilities reduce extraneous costs. Both the hard rules and soft demands mesh into an effective solution for excellent health care.

From many perspectives information technology can improve many facets of healthcare through effective rostering systems. While many employee areas could benefit from this technology, nurse staffing specifically offers large advantages due to specialized skills among their profession and their reduced supply in relation to demand. By collecting detailed information on staffing skills, staffing availabilities, and patient care demands, electronic rostering provides optimal solutions. In the end, these systems create better quality of care, better staff satisfaction, better staff retention and recruitment, and a significant long term cost savings. Electronic rostering indeed gives a facility the best chance at high level performance.

References:

Burke, Edmund, et al. (2004). The State of the Art of Nurse Rostering. Journal of Scheduling. Vol 7 (6): 441-499.

Cheang, B., et al. (2003). Nurse Rostering Problems - A Bibliographic Summary. European Journal of Operational Research. Vol 151(3): 447-60.

Staff Cost Savings Claimed with E-rostering. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.ehealth-insider.com on June 15th, 2008.