Healthcare Staff Scheduling Software Helps Address Understaffing and Deliver Proper Care

Nurse scheduling software ensures proper staffing levels and reduces legal exposure

FARGO, ND - May 20, 2013 - Proper staffing and coverage is becoming more and more important, especially if you're a healthcare facility like a hospital or nursing home. Slowly but surely, government mandates are requiring healthcare facilities to maintain minimum staffing levels to ensure proper patient care. Not doing so can prove quite expensive.

Take California for instance. In 2011, the California Department of Public Health set the minimum nursing hours per patient day in a Skilled Nursing Facility to 3.2 hours. If a facility fails to meet the minimum for 5% to 49% of the audited days, the fine is $15,000. If a facility fails to meet the minimum for more than 49% of the audited days, the fine increases to $30,000.

Just last week in West Virginia, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin ordered an investigation of a state-run veterans nursing facility because of reported staff shortages. The union for the 1,000 hospital workers claims the facility is providing a lower quality of care because of inadequate staffing.  

How can a facility make sure it adheres to state regulations, mandates or just provides quality care? For years, PC-based staff scheduling software has helped nurse managers and schedulers track hours scheduled and perform other necessary staff counts. Today, online scheduling software, like ScheduleAnywhere, offers advanced tools and reporting to help healthcare facilities comply with laws and regulations and avoid understaffing.

"ScheduleAnywhere gives managers and schedulers the tools they need to staff their operations properly," said Jon Forknell, Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions. "ScheduleAnywhere provides on-screen calculations based on requirements and coverage to give users feedback about staffing levels to see if needs are being met and provides reporting in the event of an audit."

What is ScheduleAnywhere?
ScheduleAnywhere is online staff scheduling software from Atlas Business Solutions. This Software as a Service (SaaS) ensures proper shift coverage, eliminates scheduling conflicts, manages shift rotations, tracks time-off and hours scheduled, handles staff availability and time-off requests, tracks skills and certifications, and estimates payroll costs. With real-time access to schedules, ScheduleAnywhere is used by thousands of managers and businesses daily.

About ABS
For over 22 years, Atlas Business Solutions, Inc. (ABS) has been a leading provider of easy-to-learn, easy-to-use, and affordable business software. ABS helps customers directly reduce costs, save time and streamline business processes by providing employee scheduling software, human resource software, appointment scheduling software, and business plan software.