Staffing Robot - Healthcare Staffing Technology, Design & Marketing Blog

What’s your strategy for that healthcare Vendor Management RFP?

Occasionally, hospitals are unaware of all their options when it comes to Healthcare Vendor Management Services.  When considering their options, they often turn to their suppliers and send out a Request For Proposal (RFP) for Vendor Management services to their supplier list.  When this happens many staffing suppliers decide this to be the time to put together a VMS strategy and respond to the RFP.  The reality is – it's the worst time.  These suppliers quickly find out that, by the time they receive the RFP, it’s too late to put together a VM strategy.

When these RFP's go out I get calls from healthcare staffing suppliers asking about partnering with ShiftWise to provide a VMS technology solution for them so they can respond to the hospital's RFP.  Most of the suppliers calling have several questions because they are considering providing the service for the first time.  When I get these calls the conversations usually go like this:

    Me:  "Have you ever provided VM services to a client before?"

    Supplier: "No"

    Me:  "Have you thought about all you need in order to run a successful         VM program?"

    Supplier: "I’m not sure."

    Me:  "Do you know if you have the capacity to provide VM services?"

    Supplier:  "I think so."

    Me:  "Are you confident your competitors will want to be a subcontractor to you?"

    Supplier:  "No."

    Me:  "Why is it you want to provide VM services to the hospital?"

    Supplier:  "Well, that’s what they want and I don’t want to lose their business."

    Me:  "Do you know what kind of SLAs you can offer?"

    Supplier:  "I was hoping you could give me some guidance there."

During the conversations it's often evident the supplier doesn’t have enough information from the client to properly respond to the RFP.  Often, the supplier doesn’t know how to answer basic VMS questions on things like fill rates, pricing, subcontractor participation, liability, money management, reporting, SLA’s, and application functionality.  Further, more often than not, the supplier informs me that they're competing against one or several large staffing companies that successfully run VM/MSP services throughout the country.

Invariably, the final result of the RFP process is the same – the supplier submits their best response and a few months later receives a letter from their competition stating that they will now be a subcontractor at this client location.

The quick summary is, unless offering Vendor Management Services is part of your company strategy and is something you’ve planned and prepared for, the chances are very slim you will successfully bid on such an opportunity.  Especially if you put your plan together after you get the RFP.

There are many obstacles to overcome in order to implement a successful VMS as a healthcare staffing supplier and it's important to consider them before responding to the RFP, These considerations include:

Compliance.  Hospitals have multiple and complex compliance issues, many of which you’ve dealt with as a staffing supplier.  However, how will you handle the hospitals compliance policies not just for your company and staff but for all the companies and staff that will work with the hospital.  Will you standardize the process?  Automate it?  What kind of best practice advice can you offer?

Liability.  Handling liability for your staff is one thing.  Handling it for you and all your subcontractors is a completely separate issue.  Will you take on this liability or pass it on to the sub-contractors or the hospital?  Will your insurance requirements increase?

Subcontractors.  Your subcontractors are your competitors.  Are they going to be ok sending sensitive information through you, including staff and payment information?  Healthcare staffing suppliers have to deal with multiple VMS/MSP offerings in the market today.  Are they going to be willing to add one more by working through you?  What will you do to earn their support?

Resources.  Do you have enough resources to manage this account as a Vendor Manager?  What are the management requirements – on-site, virtual, automated management only?  Will you have to staff up?  If so, will the cost of doing so outweigh the revenue opportunity?

Automation tool.  Do you have a way to automate this service?  If not, all you will be doing is taking on the hospitals costly and labor intensive manual staffing process.  In addition, creating a tool yourself will be considerably time consuming and costly.  It will also put you in the business of creating software.  Is that the business you’re looking to be in?  (Trust me, if you start down this path - you don't get off).  If not, your best option is to establish a partnership with a Vendor Management technology provider.  It’s best to establish this partnership and have the terms in place, prior to receiving and responding to the RFP.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs).  What are the SLAs the hospital is planning on holding you to in terms of fill rate, time to fill, application up time, etc?  What SLAs can you meet and how will you meet them?

Additional services.  Most hospitals want you to do more than simply place and fill orders for their temporary staff.  VM services can also include time keeping and invoicing, recruiting, orientation and on-boarding services.  In addition, often times hospitals will want assistance with managing staffing for their internal staff which presents a completely separate set of other issues.  Are you experienced and prepared to offer services in these areas?  Have you considered the costs of doing so?

Focus.  Vendor Management services are comprehensive – aka – costly and time consuming.  They require full attention.  Can you afford to concentrate so much attention on one client and risk losing focus on your other clients?  How will you ensure this doesn’t happen?

So, what’s the alternative?  My suggestion is that, instead of spending time filling out an RFP only to lose the bid to a competitor that has more experience with Vendor Management Services, implement a more effective strategy by doing any/all of the following:

Partner.   Establish a partnership with a company that provides Vendor Management services.  Since you’re most likely in a position to handle the services component, partnering with a VMS technology provider makes a lot of sense.  Many VMS technology providers have partnership opportunities and some will even license their technology for you to use in a Managed Services capacity.

Referrals.  Perhaps you simply don't have the capacity to provide Vendor Management Services or simply don’t wan the liability and burden.  If this is the case, establishing a referral agreement with a MSPs or VMS technology provider is another good option.  By referring the services of another company you can often earn additional revenue or other incentives such as discounted fees from this company.  This is a much better option than simply losing the bid and receiving the standard contract from the new VMS provider.

First Tier Relationships.  What many suppliers are really seeking from a VMS opportunity is to access and fill more of a client's business.  Earning a First Tier agreement is a good way to do that without the additional burden and liability of providing full vendor management services.

Hospitals will often award First Tier agreements to staffing suppliers, which means the supplier gets access to the hospitals needs in advance of their competition.  A standard First Tier award for a healthcare staffing supplier typically means the supplier will receive orders in advance of their competition by 2 hours for Per Diem and 48 hours for travel assignments.  Many hospitals will award such an agreement for lower bill rates, guaranteed fill rates, or excellent service and performance.

A First Tier award can more than double your business at an account, keep you from the liability and burden of providing Vendor Management Services, remove you from the competitive battles of dealing with subcontractors, and improve efficiencies for you client.  In addition, most VMS technology providers have functionality that accommodates First Tier agreements, enabling these benefits to be fully automated.

These suggestions aren’t simply a ploy to get you to send more business to VMS technology providers.  These are viable options that will help you achieve your goals and stop wasting time trying to provide a service that is expensive, time consuming and with which your experience is minimal to non-existent.  It’s natural for us all to want to service our clients and provide them with whatever services they request.  However, not every company can provide VM Services and spending time on RFPs to compete against companies that have vast experience providing such services is a waste of time.  

What’s your strategy for the next VMS RFP you receive?  If you don’t know, I’d suggest getting a plan in place now before you get the next one.

Improving the image of healthcare stafffing

During a recent webinar, the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) reported their findings in regard to the perceptions hospitals have of healthcare staffing suppliers.  Of the healthcare staffing clients surveyed, 50% of the respondents stated they would prefer to use fewer temporary healthcare workers.  Of all the major segments in the staffing industry, healthcare clients had a more negative attitude toward contingent labor than any other segment.  The next closest segment was Financial/Accounting at 25%, while the Engineering/Design and Office/Clerical segments surveyed had a positive perception of using contingent labor.

I think it’s fair to say that we all have a lot of work to do in order to change this negative perception held by hospitals.  In an effort toward this goal, I've compiled a list of suggestions that can help healthcare staffing companies improve the image of their companies, as well as the industry as a whole.

Educate.  When I speak with hospitals most of them still view the use of temporary healthcare staff as a "necessary evil."  It's used as a last resort and something they try to avoid all together.  However, there are several positive reasons for using temporary healthcare professionals.  Next time you meet with your hospital clients try to have a discussion around these benefits.  Help educate them on the positive outcomes they can receive from working with contingent labor and see if you can have a positive impact on their opinion.

Become a partner.  Start presenting yourself and your organization as a partner.  Instead of just going through the regular routine of placing staff, sit down with your clients and find out more about their jobs and goals.  What are they trying to achieve?  How are they compensated?  What are their individual and company primary motivations?  Learning these things will enable you to work with your clients in a combined effort toward helping them achieve their goals.  Your clients will begin to see you as more of a partner and not simply a vendor.

Stop speaking negatively about your competition.  I speak with suppliers every week who love to tell me how much better their company is by speaking negatively about their competition.  I know they have similar conversations with their clients because I've been present for it many times.  My message to all of you doing this - just stop. 

Present your company's benefits as a representation of your company and the entire healthcare staffing industry.  Know that every negative thing you say about a competitor is a negative mark against healthcare staffing as a whole.  Every industry has companies that perform poorly and all poor performing companies will eventually go away. Right now it’s critical that hospitals begin to have a positive impression of the industry as a whole.  Help them adopt this perception by removing negative talk about your competition and promoting the industry in a positive manner.

Don’t just talk bill rates.  The entire industry from the clients to the suppliers is constantly focused on bill rates.  Hospitals are always trying to pay less and suppliers and always working toward raising their rates.  Of course price is important.  However, the conversation needs to shift toward discussing the benefits received for these services and away from a focus on the numbers.  Hospitals need help realizing the value they receive for the prices they pay and suppliers should focus on consistently providing more value – not just raising their bill rates every 18 months.

Prepare your staff.  Last week I spoke with a hospital that called a traveler to speak with them about an upcoming assignment.  To their surprise, the traveler wasn't aware the supplier had submitted her for the assignment.  The week before, another hospital was complaining to me that suppliers were sending them candidates that had not completed any of the pre-orientation materials (a requirement the hospital has of all staff) prior to working their first shift.

Most likely, being a temporary worker, your staff will face several obstacles during their first assignment.  The more you can educate and prepare them for the experience, the better that experience will be.  In addition to making things better for your employee, the hospital will appreciate your efforts and have a more favorable attitude toward working with your company.

Offer more services.  What else can you offer that’s of value to your clients?  Can you provide them with referrals to other companies that will help them achieve their goals?  What about additional modalities of staffing?  If you’re primarily focused on Nursing consider assisting your clients with recruiting allied health professionals or even non-clinical specialties. If you're a local per diem company try placing local travelers on contract assignments.  Your clients will see the value of your services increase as you begin to offer them additional services.

Communicate efficiently.  Still faxing documents and sending correspondence in the mail?  These outdated, manual processes are time consuming and costly to both you and your clients.  Do whatever you can to make your interactions with your clients as efficient as possible.  For example:

• Use email as much as possible.
• Work out a contact schedule so you aren’t constantly contacting them or reaching them at times when they are busy or rushed.
• Create a web presence that allows them to interact with you online either through your website, social networking site or micro-site.
• Refer them to a healthcare vendor management company that can fully automate their processes or offer to provide VM services yourself.

Don’t steal staff.  Perhaps the fastest way to anger a hospital client is to steal their staff.  There is a severe shortage of healthcare professionals and recruiting staff is a difficult, time consuming and costly effort.  Recruiting staff directly from a hospital is the fastest way to hurt your company’s reputation and contribute to the overall negative perception hospitals have of healthcare staffing suppliers.

If a healthcare professional from one of your clients seeks you out you have the right to employ them just as the healthcare professional has the right to change employers.  If this situation arises, communicate it with your client as quickly and as openly as possible.  Be sure they understand that you did not proactively recruit their staff so you can stay in good standing.

Stop ghost booking.  Yes – you.  Every healthcare staffing supplier I speak with claims they never ghost book.  Yet every hospital I speak with claims this is one of the primary issues they have with their healthcare staffing suppliers.  Ghost booking is the practice of securing a job requisition by claiming to have a candidate available (typically a specific candidate that has been requested) when in fact that candidate is not available.  Suppliers do this to obtain the requisition so their competition doen't get the request.  The supplier will then call the hospital at the last minute with a different healthcare professional or to cancel altogether if they can't fill it.  Some suppliers will actually even send a different healthcare professional to the assignment without informing the hospital.

This practice seems to occur most often in per diem staffing because of the nature of last minute needs.  The practice is dishonest and can end up costing the hospital a lot of money due to cancellations or the need to put new staff through orientation.  It can also add liability to the hospital if they have not properly screened the healthcare professional or if they end up short staffed.  

Promote the industry.  The SIA survey results reflect an overall negative opinion of the industry.  It’s not as if the respondents said, “I don’t like using temporary healthcare staff…unless it’s with company X.”  Overall the entire industry is looked down upon by hospital clients.  In addition to improving your company's offerings and reputation with your clients, do your best to promote the healthcare staffing industry as a whole.  Respect your competition and work with your clients to help them see the value of using temporary healthcare staff and as an all around positive experience. 

It's critical that the negative impression hospitals have of healthcare staffing suppliers change.  The industry plays a vital role in this country's healthcare system.  Improving the image of the industry will lead to better working relationships, improved staffing processes, more adequate staffing levels and better patient care.

I'm sure there are several other things we can all do to help promote the industry and help hospitals change their overall negative impression of the industry.  If you have any additional insights, please post them here.

Your business shouldn't be a scam

I travel quite frequently for work.  For the many others that have the same unfortunate privilege I’m sure you would agree that traveling can be quite draining.  Coordinating the plane, hotel and car rental alone can be a frustrating and time consuming experience. 

Typically when I travel I am hurried and become very focused on getting my tasks accomplished, and getting to my destinations.  What I don’t need is to be hassled or scammed along the way.

Two weeks ago I booked a rental car through Avis for my trip to Dallas.  I was impressed with how quick and easy it was to navigate the site and secure a reservation.  I ended up with a basic car for a rate of $67.98/day.  After taxes and other fees, for a 2 day rental my “Approximate Total” came to $107.63.

 

When I arrived in Dallas (hurried and running late) all I wanted was to sign for my car, get the keys and head out.  Instead, I had to have the rep reprint my contract 3 times.  The first time she put on the prepaid gas option without asking me.  When I told her I didn’t want that I had to argue with her to remove it.  The second time she gave me the full insurance option without my request.  Again, I had to argue with her to remove it.  Frustrated and feeling hassled, I finally managed to get my car.

When I returned two days later I was shocked when I got my final bill for $466.  Quite a stretch from the original $107 “approximation.”  When I asked about the charge I was told that I was upgraded and new fees were added on.  I argued with the Avis representative and the manager for several minutes.  After insisting that there be some kind of resolution they reduced the charge to $354.30.  This was still far higher than the $107.63 “Approximation” I received.

IMHO this is a scam.  I can assure you, if when I reserved this car from Avis online I was told the bill would be $466 or even $354 I would have kept looking for a better deal.  I’m sure this business practice does wonders for Avis’s revenue.  However, I can guarantee it also costs them revenue due to lost customers.  Me for one.

What does this have to do with healthcare staffing?  Nothing really, other than identifying what Avis is doing as being a terrible business practice that shouldn’t be duplicated by anyone in any industry.  Further, for all of you that travel, when looking for a rental car, I’d encourage you to look somewhere other than Avis.

How to describe your business using only buzzwords; Or, how to lose sales and turn away potential partners.

Two weeks ago at the NAHCR conference I stopped by the exhibit hall to check out the participating companies.  There were several exhibitors I had never heard of and I was interested in learning more about them.  I approached the representatives of these companies and simply asked “what does your company do?”

Apparently, this is a tougher question to answer than one would think.  Most of the reps answered the question with a fire hose of buzzwords.  I remember standing there listening to each of them speak for quite sometime.  However, at the end of almost every conversation I still wasn’t sure what their company did.  In fact, I’m not sure some of them actually knew what they did.  At first I thought maybe I just didn’t have enough coffee and wasn’t paying attention.  So I sat back and watched these same reps give the same responses to others that approached.  The puzzled looks on the prospects faces, as well as the quick exits from the engagements, told me I was NOT on my own private island of confusion.

When people approach you at a trade show most of them simply want to know what your company does, preferably in less than 2 minutes.  If the prospective client or partner doesn’t even understand the basic premise of your offerings, everything else you say will be lost on them.  The responses from many of these companies were so consistently bad I feel compelled to offer some suggestions on how to answer the question “what does your company do?” at a trade show.

Most likely what you offer is not as revolutionary as you think.  Odds are that the person you’re speaking with has heard of the product or service you offer or something similar.  In fact, there are probably multiple companies at the show that offer the same or similar product or service.  So please don’t start with how new and amazing you’re product is or how it’s “going to change healthcare.”  Even if it is as new and amazing as you say it doesn’t mean the prospect is interested.  It still has to fall within their budget, get prioritized within their other projects, and demonstrate real and immediate value to them.  Therefore, tone down the  “new and amazing” hype and focus on explaining what you do.

Only you think about your product or service everyday.  In fact, most people don't even know what it is – that’s why they asked you the question.  If you start explaining “why” or “how” before you’ve answered “what” – your prospect is going to be lost. 

Compare your service with one that is more commonly known.  You’re not going to devalue your service by comparing it to another.  If you’re really worried about it, compare your company to one that is completely unrelated.  By making a comparison to a more popular company, even if the comparison is in a completely separate industry, you help people familiarize themselves with the concept in their own way.

When I first started ShiftWise very few hospitals understood the concept of healthcare vendor management.  One of the quickest ways we could get them to understand it was to make a comparison to more well known company.  We started every conversation with something similar to “…it’s kind of like Travelocity for nurses.  Instead of picking up the phone and calling all of your healthcare staffing suppliers when you need additional staff, simply go online, place your order and select the best matching candidate for every assignment, based on the criteria most important to you – price, experience, skill set, etc.”  Invariably, the prospect would understand the concept and we could begin having a conversation about how we could help them.

Please stop using buzzwords.  Please.  No one really believes your company is a “best in class thought leader enabling professionals to collaborate and optimize their daily transactions by leveraging state of the art technology for validating __________ and taking __________ to the next level.”  I don’t even know what that means.  Do you?  (Yes, this is almost word for word how one company described its services to me).

Just keep it short and simple.  If you can’t summarize what your company does in a way people can understand in less than 3 sentences I would suggest you keep working on it until you can.

In the world of information overload, the attention span of most people is very short these days.  It’s in your interest to clearly and concisely describe your business with real words – not clichéd buzzwords.  If your prospect doesn’t even understand the concept of your business it will be impossible for you to sell them on it.

Does the staffing industry need its own YouTube?

This week I stumbled upon a new site called Staffing Industry Tube.  Staffing Industry Tube is a site that allows professionals in the staffing industry to post videos from funny to helpful, offering tips, advice, presentations, talks, commercials – and even some nonsense.  Basically, it’s like YouTube for the staffing industry.

My question - Does the staffing industry need a YouTube? 

A quick pass of the site will quickly let you see it’s a new service still trying to figure itself out.  The site describes itself as:

"Staffing Industry Tube is the only collection of solely Staffing Industry related training and topical videos on the web that is categorized for you. Find what you want, when you want it- From training to current news and economic insight. Every category/topic is industry specific!

So far, there seems to be a decent amount of activity and some useful information in the uploaded videos.  Aside from useful, there are also some videos for entertainment.  This one that gives a grim picture of the current state of the job market, called - "The Job" - had me laughing…and thinking. 

The site is user friendly (it feels like YouTube) and has several nice functions for rating videos and watching those that have been most played.  You can even create your own channels, customize your page with HTML/CSS and embed videos from other sites.

I’ve joined the site and created my own channel for Staffing Robot.  I imported a couple of videos on how hospitals and healthcare staffing companies can use Twitter for their business and recruiting efforts from my previous staffing robot blog post on the same topic.  There is a lot of potential with this site and I hope to see others join and contribute.  In general, I love seeing big sites like YouTube get segmented by specific niches.  Video is a great communication medium and it will be interesting to see if others in the industry pick up on it.

So, again, does the staffing industry need a YouTube?  I guess we’ll see.

Hospital staffing automation can help you meet budget goals.

Last week I spoke at the NACHR Conference in Seattle on the benefits of automating your hospital staffing process.  Here are the notes from that talk.

Almost everyone I speak with thinks healthcare is immune to economic downturns.  Any of us working in the healthcare staffing industry know otherwise.  Like almost every other sector of the economy, healthcare too is suffering from the financial crisis.  The down economy has forced hospitals and health systems to tighten their budgets and there are few, if any, signs indicating near term improvement.

Some of the major factors impacting hospital budgets include bad debt, increased costs for providing care, state budget cuts, lower reimbursements and treating an increasing amount of uninsured consumers.  These factors have many hospitals across the country cutting their budgets, some hospitals are cutting their budgets by tens of millions of dollars in order to meet their fiscal goals. 

One of the main areas at which hospitals are looking to make most of their cuts is in labor costs.  Typically accounting for 60-70% of a hospital budget, labor costs can increase dramatically and without warning due to overtime, shift bonuses, on-call and other incentive pay.   However, making labor cuts is difficult because hospital workloads have not decreased.  On July 6, the American Nurses Association (ANA) published results of a recently completed survey where 70% of the 14,000 plus respondents stated that current hospital staffing is insufficient.  The combination of all these factors is creating a nightmare scenario for many hospitals and their employees.

But there is hope.  Several solutions exist to help hospitals navigate these negative financial waters.  Perhaps the best way for hospitals to better manage their budgets, improve efficiencies and increase the productivity of their staff is by automating their staffing processes.

Today’s Staffing Challenges:
Hospitals constantly face new challenges when it comes to staffing, especially if they have a manual staffing process. Today, many hospitals are dealing with:

• A multi-generational workforce with a wide variance in motivators and objectives in their career, as well as different attitudes in their approach to their daily work routines.
• Increased overtime costs as they deal with staff shortages and hiring freezes, requiring their existing staff to work more and suffer from burn out. 
• Tighter budgets due to cost cutting measures, lower census and reimbursements, caring for uninsured patients, state budget cuts and higher costs related to patient care.
• Unpredictable variances in staffing levels and patient acuity.
• Ineffective ways of properly utilizing temporary healthcare staff.  Many hospitals still view working with healthcare staffing suppliers as a last minute, necessary evil instead of approaching it as a partnership that can produce many benefits. Partnering with the right healthcare staffing suppliers and implementing an effective healthcare vendor management strategy can ensure you are adequately staffed and save you money. 
• Compliance. Compliance. Compliance.  Compliance – has and always will be a daunting task for hospitals to keep up with.  Doing so adequately can be time consuming and costly.

Meet the challenge:
The best way to meet these challenges is to automate your staffing process and implement software applications that will make your life much easier.  By automating your staffing process you can face and overcome all of these challenges while increasing the productivity of your existing staff.  Effective staffing automation tools can help you:

• Create a flexible, open scheduling environment that affords your staff more freedom when it comes to their schedule.  This helps improve morale and cut down on the amount of time it takes to create multiple staff schedules.
• Match your most qualified, cost effective caregiver to every assignment.  Automation tools enable you to ensure your staff are properly credentialed for each assignment.  In addition, they help you review pay differentials and identify any outliers, such as employees making disproportionally more by working extra shifts or too much overtime, as well as bonuses offerings that may be outdated.
• Eliminate unnecessary overtime and rationalize it when it's cost effective.  For example, there are times when it may make sense to approve overtime in clinical areas that typically generate revenue for your hospital by keeping beds filled.  Additionally, automation tools enable you to easily build rules that will alert you when a scheduling decision would put someone into overtime or even disallow it without authorized pre-approval. 
• Meet your safe staffing goals by ensuring adequate staffing levels and better staff to patient ratios by quickly reviewing reports or dashboard data summaries. 
• Successfully manage multiple staff pools as easy as managing one.  Automation tools give you a complete view into all available core and contingent staff.  Such oversight helps ensure your internal resource pool staff is put to its highest and best use - supporting areas of high demand rather than filling routine shifts that core staff can work.  In addition, creating an effective strategy for using healthcare agency staff ensures you get the best return on investment for all of your staffing decisions. 
• Receive real time data, alerts and visual triggers to assist you in your fast pace daily routines.  Being alerted instantly for overtime, cancellations or approvals can save you money by enabling you to quickly take action or avoiding mistakes.
• Achieve budgetary goals.  Automation allows you to track expenses. By tracking things like pay codes, you might find that scheduling additional staff, even temporary staff, can actually save you money over putting multiple people on call or pushing core staff into overtime. 
• Guarantee compliance.  Automation tools help reduce the human error factor inherent in a manual process.  People get busy and when they do they tend to get sloppy.  Reading through piles of paper and faxes, and combing through spreadsheets for hours will inevitably produce errors.  Staffing rules that disallow scheduling for lack of proper documentation, active credentials, scheduling conflicts and overtime can easily be created to ensure you stay compliant.
• Better understand your staffing needs and staffing levels.  Your staffing data will help you recognize your total staffing needs and enable you to staff strategically instead of reactively. 
• Measure employee performance and identify areas that need improvement as well as those that are working.
• Integrate data sources for seamless work flows. If you can’t track it – you can’t manage it.  Most applications now have API's that will allow you to import/export data to/from other systems.  The more your data is integrated the easier it is to track and improve your processes.

Conclusion
Most hospitals today are facing similar situations and have the same goals.  With the state of the current economy it’s difficult to cover your costs and manage your workloads.  It makes sense to look at your labor costs first.  However, making labor cuts without first attempting to optimize the productivity of your current workforce could end up being unnecessary and much more costly in the long run.  The demand for healthcare professionals will return and cutting staff without proper analysis could hurt you in more ways than one.  By automating your staffing process you will see an instant return on investment that will continue paying off long after this economic crisis is over.