Harrison County Community Hospital

Customer

A designated Critical Access Hospital, Harrison County Community Hospital (HCCH) in Bethany Missouri has been providing healthcare services for over 60 years. The district includes a 19-bed critical access hospital, a home health agency, and several primary care medical clinics. HCCH began providing primary care in 2001, when the hospital acquired Bethany Medical Clinic. Primary care services expanded in 2013, with the acquisition of the newly renamed Harrison County Family Health Center, and again in 2014, when they opened North Harrison Medical Clinic.

Challenge

Nurse managers at Harrison County Community Hospital (HCCH) in Bethany, Mo. were using pen and paper to create staff schedules. To ensure the hospital maintained proper staffing levels, managers had to count the number of employees who were scheduled each shift. They also had to manually track nurses' skills, training, and certifications to ensure the appropriate number of qualified nurses were on staff. Employees who were not at the hospital did not have access to their schedules, which were posted in their departments. When changes were made to the schedule, managers had to inform each nurse individually to ensure everyone had the most current schedule information. Time-off and other schedule requests were also done manually. Nurses would write their requests on paper, have them reviewed and approved, then submit them to their managers, who had to keep track of all the requests. This was an inefficient process that often resulted in missed or forgotten requests.

"When we were using a paper schedule, staff members had to physically come to the hospital to see their schedules."  Amy Pickren

Solution

Harrison County Community Hospital replaced its paper scheduling method with ScheduleAnywhere nurse and staff scheduling software. This gives everyone 24/7 access to real-time schedules, and managers can easily make changes, and review staffing needs anytime from any location. ScheduleAnywhere performs staffing calculations, and managers can instantly see whether there are too many or too few employees scheduled for each shift. The software also saves managers time by highlighting specific information on the schedule for easy reference. Managers can assign skills, training, and certifications to each employee, which assures each shift is covered by appropriately qualified nurses. Alerts are sent to managers when certifications are nearing expiration or when employees are due for additional training. Nurses can submit cover, swap, time-off and other schedule requests online. Managers can accept or deny the request, and the schedule is immediately updated to reflect the change. When changes are made to the schedule ScheduleAnywhere automatically notifies all employees whose schedule was affected. Now, managers know that each employee has access to up-to-the-minute schedules, which has reduced scheduling conflicts and understaffed shifts.

The staff loves having their schedules on the mobile app, and the schedule request options are so simple."  Amy Pickren

Key Features & Benefits

• Access real-time schedules anytime, anywhere
• Ensure proper staffing levels
• Track skills and certifications
• Submit and manage requests online

Learn how ScheduleAnywhere is the ideal staff scheduling solution for hospitals, and request your free 30-day trial today.

Image ©WavebreakMediaLtd/123rf.com