The check-in kiosk is only the beginning.
In 2023, senior housing operators continue to have one challenge higher than all others: staffing. Operators are working hard to attract and retain the best staff, often engaging staffing agencies to fill shifts.
That brings additional challenges of both cost — including agency price gouging — and maintaining quality of care despite an ever-changing workforce. To solve both, operators are increasingly turning to a new solution: data and reporting insights. Collecting data and using it to make timely and informed decisions enables providers with the ability to solve workforce obstacles and drive quality care delivery.
One major problem operators find when getting started is knowing what data to collect and how to collect it. Providers are already armed with staff timekeeping systems, but agency and third-party caregivers are not. Operators need to find a way to capture all health care worker time and attendance in one centralized tool that both tracks when an individual arrives to fill a shift or provide care and logs the type of care being provided with the third-party caregiver agency details.
Turning your check-in/check-out process from a manual log to a digital kiosk is the missing piece.
“We know we can’t create nurses, and we know we can’t solve the staffing crisis with the flip of a switch,” says TK King, VP of Healthcare Strategy of Accushield, a hardware and software solution company focused on enabling compliance and workforce efficiencies through automation and innovation. “But what we can do is enable data capture workflows designed to not only solve workflow and compliance needs, but to also identify opportunities using data.”
Through its focus on solving staffing obstacles, Accushield is bringing innovative staff tracking data to senior living communities, giving them the key to a brighter and more stable 2023.
“It’s tough to pay an agency three to four times what you pay your own clinicians, but you have to,” King says. “The data our customers collect through our kiosks and mobile app allows them to compare agency invoices against actual time in and out, saving valuable dollars every month. For providers focused on changing how they solve workforce shortages, including creating their own agency, the data becomes even more valuable as they identify key markets to pilot a new workforce solution.
3 steps for operators to launch their own staffing agencies
Accushield’s front-desk kiosks are giving senior living providers a wealth of new data around who is in their buildings at any given time. That data is a starting point for a range of other benefits, including:
- Reputation management
- Staff retention
- Infection prevention and control
- Engagement and care coordination
- Other key operational and compliance efficiencies
Now, it is also the starting point for taking control of agency spend and staffing opportunities, in three steps.
- Identify the need
As King notes, if the only source tracking shifts from a staffing agency is the staffing agency’s invoice, there is always the chance that the senior living operator is getting overbilled, has no accurate read on staffing needs, or both.
“They might know they’re using an agency, but unless they have a really good system in place to track agency hours in real time, they’re just depending on the invoice,” King says. “They know how much they’re spending, and that’s it. By leveraging the Accushield kiosk, they can identify the exact sign-in and sign-out times and compare their data to the agency invoice. In some cases, they can even identify over-billing.”
- Identify the facts
Once an operator has the data, it’s important to know how to use that data to make informed decisions. Accushield’s staffing solution turns data collected at the kiosk and mobile app into dashboards and easy-to-use reports, arming providers with tools designed to advance how the industry responds to workforce needs.
“Aside from monitoring agency hours to reduce spend, operators can use the same data to pinpoint opportunities, such as creating their own staffing agency,” King says. “In today’s environment, no idea should be overlooked, especially if it solves a workforce issue while creating a revenue stream.”
- Know what to monitor
Once the operator has collected the data and identified a solution to implement, they must know how to monitor the solution’s impact. “It’s key to ensure you know what the solution is going to impact and identify the data you’re going to use to monitor it,” King says. “That’s why the Accushield kiosk is so vital to the bigger picture. It’s become the centerpiece of the front desk, where time clocks are located, because of the amount of data it can collect.”
4 benefits of collecting and monitoring health care worker data
In 2023, flexibility is king. For operators that use the Accushield kiosk to capture staffing data, four benefits are on the way. Operators can:
- Identify overspending
- Create new revenue streams with outside-the-box solutions
- Drive quality care
- Build an improved culture
While the first three are obvious, it’s the fourth one that holds the hidden, soft value.
“When a company creates something to solve a problem, they’re creating a culture,” King says. “They’re showing their staff that they recognize there is a crisis or burden and they’re attempting to solve it to improve their culture.”
Therefore, using staffing, agency and third-party caregiver data delivers a downstream impact that cannot be overlooked.
“We read about it every single day: posts from nurses who are burned out and just need help,” King says. “There is so much value in data, especially as it relates to trying to solve the staffing crisis. The sooner we solve it, the sooner those burned-out clinicians can be relieved, and care quality can be improved.”
This article is sponsored by Accushield. To learn more about how Accushield can help your community, visit Accushield.com.
