Case Study | Workforce Solutions – Mater Health Services

 

 

 

Overview

The multi-national USA based electronic workforce management provider, Kronos, engaging 40,000,000 employees every day, with a leading footprint in the healthcare sector internationally, has now endorsed Mater as one of their world’s best sites for showcasing Health Workforce Management…

Background

As a not-for-profit provider of public and private health services across a network of seven hospitals, a medical research institute and a pathology and pharmacy business, Mater Health Services had previously operated on processes that were severely compromised by legacy systems.

The organisation’s systems and processes had been paper-based, unreliable and incapable of meeting the demands of the then 5,000 strong workforce. Caroline Hudson, Chief Human Resources Officer, recalls the immense pressure applied due to manual processing, wherein the Mater:

“…had to literally taxi in timesheets from our hospitals across the city… Previously we were guaranteed to receive, on average, 650 enquiries every payday.”

Workforce Challenges

A fast growing workforce serviced by out-dated systems was causing ongoing, escalating challenges for Mater. Further, the composition of the workforce was very complex with 85% part-time employees, a mix of public and private employees, some of the most complex award conditions (with over 300 time-based allowances) and a spread of unique skill sets required from nurses and clinicians. As Caroline Hudson identifies:

“Our industry is very unique in that skill sets are not necessarily interchangeable or replaceable due to specialisation… we need to manage the skills down to a micro-level to ensure our patients are receiving quality care. This becomes very complex when we are also trying to satisfy the lifestyle demands of our staff…”

Mater recognised that at any given time, in the absence of adequate workforce management capabilities, it could face up to 800 nursing vacancies, which coupled with a reliance on agencies for staff, could also cause significant cost blow-outs.

 

Solution

In 2007, Mater re-designed a decentralised and “Lean” business operating model for fully automated, real-time rostering and payroll processing. A comprehensive business requirements specification was prepared to facilitate an extensive solutions analysis.

Mater subsequently went to tender, seeking rostering and payroll technology solutions that could help cope with the complexities of its workforce, while meeting the demands of an around- the-clock business.

Subsequent scrutiny of best-of-breed, fit-for-purpose technology options, resulted in the selection of a fully integrated Kronos Rostering and Aurion Payroll ICT solution. The ICT solution was specifically tailored to fully automate the redesigned “Lean” business processes and decentralised model, to support the complex industrial awards for both private and public employees.

A comprehensive change management and organisational development plan was implemented to effectively deploy “Lean” technology enabled business processes in seven facilities and 64 business units, with each implementation building on the one before.

The implementation of the first phase of the rostering solution alone, achieved by late 2008, realised outstanding efficiencies and return on investment. The automation has facilitated for Mater clear visibility of its workforce and it can now manage its vacancies (reduced by a remarkable 99%) and rosters to suit both the business and employees. Payroll resources have seen a further very substantial improvement, with people paid correctly and on-time, with a near zero error rate per cycle. Customer and end-user satisfaction is extremely high.

Continuous Development and Improvement

Since launching, Mater has continually invested in the development of its rostering & payroll system to remain best-in-class. Throughout this time, the rostering solution has proven its flexibility in adapting to continuous changes to awards and legislation.

Most recently, in 2017, Mater undertook substantial business improvements to the Advanced Scheduling component, ‘supercharging’ the benefits it is realising and making a very effective solution considerably better again.

“Nurses now cheering in the corridors…”

This improvement went beyond technology updates, to addressing behaviour change to reduce variation and introduce ‘bundles of technology’. This process introduced guidelines around base rosters (vastly reducing the number of rostering templates), consolidated KPIs with nursing directors and further slashed the hours nurse managers were applying to creating rosters, while further reducing non-trivial nursing agency fees.

Mater’s approach has been novel and pioneering to the extent that no other organisation in Australia is using the Advanced Scheduler tool, like the Mater. The implementation has shown the technology at its very best and has extended how much the Mater can get out of the Kronos product.

All rostering has been enhanced to the extent that efficiencies have rapidly improved and baselines have been re-established. It has produced very sophisticated skills based scheduling, wherein vacant shifts are significantly reduced and instantly measurable and the visibility and operability of the solution has been taken to the next level.

Advanced Scheduler now pushes shifts out to staff that are fully visible on mobile devices, facilitating self-service. Biometrics around timekeeping are also functional. The immense benefits these improvements have generated have been seen in cost savings, in time, in workflow efficiencies and very noticeably, in the satisfaction of nurse managers who are now, according to the Chief of Human Resources, “almost cheering in the corridors…” It is on the basis of the Advanced Scheduling and workforce behavior enhancements, that Kronos (USA) nominated the Mater as one of their “world’s best sites” for Health Workforce Management.

Benefits to Nurses & Clinicians

Fundamentally, the Mater has been able to offer its employees the opportunity to develop and utilise their skills optimally. The reduced administrative burden has shaped a more productive, engaged workforce, better able to focus on safe patient care and doing what they do best.

Buoyed by continual improvement, this positive experience is now tangible and expressed vocally among nurses and clinicians; a compelling point of difference when compared to some of the contrasting experiences reported in other HHSs.

A short-list of benefits include:

• Accurate, timely payments;
• User friendly pay-slips;
• 24/7 real time processing;
• Automated rosters enabling shift bidding and choice;
• Visibility of rosters, leave balances, overtime and timesheets;
• No manual pay sequences;
• Self service capabilities;
• Greater control for staff over their work and personal lives;
• Automatic data collection from multiple sources;
• Biometric Time-clocks;
• Automatic enforcement of rules / policies;
• Easy customisation & management in real-time to avoid errors;
• Very low error rates;
• Excellent time savings;
• Increased flexibility and choice;
• Multi-device usability (e.g. desktop, phone, tablet).

 

Industry Leading Outcomes

The Mater has emerged as the clear leader in electronic workforce management within the healthcare sector. It has realised outstanding improvements in the areas of time, attendance, rostering, scheduling and workforce planning via its solution implementation and development over the last ten years.

In 2012, an Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland Health Payroll System, unequivocally endorsed the effectiveness of the Mater Solution, and recommended its implementation.

A short-list of Mater’s achievements include:

• 98.9% accurate on-time pay delivery;
• 99% reduction in rostering vacancies (down from 800 at any one time);
• Huge reductions in payroll spend and nursing agency fees; • Industry best practice (1:850) exceeded with 1 payroll officer to 1,200 employees;
• Reduction in average payroll enquiries from 650 to less than 12, per pay cycle;
• Complete transparency into workforce;
• Very material productivity improvements;
• A satisfied, engaged workforce, focussed on patient care;
• Vastly refined and streamlined workflows across the organisation;
• Substantial behaviour change;
• A technology platform facilitating continuous improvement;
• A growth in staff numbers of 60% (3,000 people) since deployment (with a reduction in administration staff);
• Ongoing, continuous improvement and benefit realisation;
• Overall very high return on investment.

 

Summary | Healthforce

The Mater’s success has been the catalyst for forming ‘Healthforce Solutions’ – a collaboration between the Mater, its technology supplier, Kronos and its integration partner, BCI Technology – to take its solution to QHealth and offer it to other HHSs, across the State.

This Case Study evidences a proven business and technology solution baseline which could be successfully adapted and implemented, state-wide, with remarkable benefits.

Healthforce Solutions has an interest in ensuring QHealth’s investment dollars are prioritised towards patient care. If deployed, the solution could greatly improve the current state of workforce management and healthcare services across the State, with perpetual economic benefits.