EVALUATION OF ANSOS ONE STAFF

Evaluation of Ansos One Staff



Table of Contents

1: PROJECT OVERVIEW1

A. Background1

B. Purpose of the Study2

C. Problem of the Study3

E. The Significance Of The Goals8

F. Definitions Of The Terms11

2. EVALUATION FRAMEWORK AND A LITERATURE REVIEW12

A. Literature Review13

B. Evaluation Framework26

3. EVALUATION METHODOLOGY41

A. Evaluation Plan41

B. Pilot study41

C. Method42

4. DISSEMINATION PLAN45

A. Relate Results50

B. Limitations58

C. Recommendations59

REFERENCES65

Evaluation of Ansos One Staff

1: Project Overview

A. Background

The hospital that is the focus of this project is part of a multi-hospital system that has a corporate financial department to monitor each hospital's budget and how they are performing. One hospital has been under scrutiny for the last two years because of a large expansion project and low performance. Nursing budgets, in particular, were targeted by the corporate financial department. In the reports maintained by the corporate financial department, nursing was performing consistently over budget. The FTEs(full time equivalents) and the cost of nursing staff related to the census demonstrated low productivity.

The hospital has 26 nursing units, not including outpatient clinics. These units all report to the vice president of nursing. The numbers of nursing staff for these nursing units equate to 2,200 full-time employees (FTEs). The total hospital employee count is 5,500. Because nursing employs close to half of the hospitals total work force, nursing salaries account for a large portion of the total hospital budget.

Nursing budgets are built on the basis of how many nurses, or staff members, are needed to care for the number of patients on a specific unit. Thus, the nurse to patient ratio constitutes the staffing matrix for the unit. If the patient census is low and the nurse staffing is not adjusted (by decreasing nursing staff), the productivity or performance will be over the budget. In the target hospital, the low performance data were, in part, related to a decrease in the patient census from the projected census after the expansion projects were completed.

B. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this project is to conduct a goal-based evaluation of the staffing and scheduling system chosen by one urban hospital in the Southwest. This project involves an upgrade to the current version of the staffing and scheduling system that has been in place for 10 years. The system has not been used to it's full potential, so the decision was made to educate and increase the utilization of the system and add on new modules which include web scheduling for the nursing staff and a productivity dashboard for administration. The application is intended to provide a standard for staffing and scheduling that will be used as the “proof of concept” for the other hospitals within the healthcare system, including standardization of staffing and scheduling processes.

C. Problem of the Study

The hospital was unable to explain why nursing was consistently over budget, other than the fact that the patient census was consistently lower than what was projected in relation to the expansion project. Without the proper tools and processes in place, the nursing department was unable to determine the root cause ...