Workforce Prescriptions’ Schedule Modeling Tool Using The Tool

1. Workforce Prescriptions’Schedule Modeling ToolUsing The Tool

2. Understanding The Tool • There are 6 main purposes of the “Schedule Modeling Tool”: • To create staffing grids up to a year in advance that are based on historical • volumes, the discreet volume differences between shifts, and the • differences in acuity for different patient types • To provide an understanding of the variance between what your volumes • actually require you to staff to and what budgeted levels dictate • To allow you to perform various “scenario” modeling – so that you can • adjust staffing over short and long term periods based on unexpected • changes in acuity & non-productive load • To give you a snap shot of the variances in monthly volumes • To provide for you a modeled “roster need” that details how many of each • type of position you need to ACTUALLY provide quality care and balanced • coverage • To give you the ability to “balance” a roster for any given day of the week • or week of the year up to 12 months in advance

3. Understanding The Tool This tool DOES NOT take the place of a time & attendance system (such as Kronos) nor does it replace a scheduling administration tool (such as 1staff/ANSOS, API, etc..) The purpose of this tool is to provide you with staffing grids that can be loaded into either or both other systems that are more tightly modeled than what currently exists (see sample below). It also is designed to provide advance warning (based on historical data) of when it is most likely that you will have to flex up or down with volume spikes. GREEN arrows mean – might need to flex down, RED arrows mean – might need to flex up, YELLOW arrows mean – probably won’t need to flex.

4. Getting Started, Logging In Go to the website: http://scheduling.workforcerx.org Click in the field labeled “Enter your account number” and enter your account number. (This number starts with the letters ‘WRX’) Then click on the “Next” button.

5. Getting Started, Logging In (Cont’d) Select your Cost Center/Department/Area name from the drop down box listed next to “Select your Cost Center”. Then type in your unique password (Each cost center gets its own password). Click the “Login” button.

6. Getting Started, First Time Login If this is your first time logging in, you will see the screen shown above and will be required to change your password before you can continue to your Dashboard. To do this simply enter your desired password in the ‘New Password’ field and then enter the same password in the ‘Confirm New Password’ field. Then click ‘Change It’. If you see the message “Update completed” when the page refreshes then Click the “Return to Dashboard” button

7. Your Dashboard Once you have logged-in, you will be taken to your specific department’s dashboard. This dashboard has quick links to your staffing grids (both modeled and based on budget) and well as a “quick view” of how your historical patient volumes break down by month of the year.

8. Your Dashboard – Staffing Grids • Staffing grids are created for each position and take into account all non-productive load & your weighted staff-to-patient ratios. • At the bottom of each modeled grid (you may need to scroll) you will see a comparison of roster need for each position. This “roster need” includes an assessment of : • The proportion of Full-time & Part-time staff you need to effectively balance your schedule • The differences in roster need between what the tool has calculated based on historical data and what your budgeted volume numbers dictate you will need • This roster MAY not match to what was calculated in your budget as it will account for all acuity differences in patients as well as total non-productive load (in many cases only some of which is included in the budgeting process). However, to avoid costly OT, agency and other premium pay, you MUST account for both as you will be staffing around both!

9. Your Dashboard – Staffing Grids Staffing grids are created for each position and take into account all non-productive load & your weighted staff-to-patient ratios. These staffing grids can be entered into a “scheduling management tool” or time & attendance system to allow for automated compliance. There is a grid for each month of the year that takes into account historical volume variances by month-of-the-year and shift-of-the-day Colored arrows illustrate when it is likely you may need to “flex” up or down from this number of staff based on the number of historical outliers and how often the deviation was above or below the mean

10. Your Dashboard – Volume Distribution One of the questions most often discussed during the budgeting cycle is, “When do my volumes occur”? As a result, the tool provides a “quick-view” of how your volumes have historically occurred. This is intended to assist you in knowing more discretely “when” vacation/time-off scheduling should occur and when it would be ill-advised.

11. Navigating The Tool – The “Buttons” • In addition to buttons for staffing grids and a “quick-view” of historical volume breakdown, there are 7 buttons on the left of the screen: • Update Work Volume (Typically Census) • Update Ratios button • Day Coverage Map button • Week Coverage Map button • Logout button • Help – Tutorials button These buttons take you into different parts of the tool. The most frequently used button will be the “Update Work Volume” button which you will use every few days to enter your census/work volume data for each shift. It takes only a moment to enter the 3 daily volume numbers. When entering census/volume data, it is IMPORTANT that you enter the HIGHEST census/volume of each shift. You will most likely need to staff for that volume, so tracking it accurately will make defending your roster needs much easier!

12. Navigating The Tool – Updating Ratios • After you have set up your initial data (see slide deck, “Entering Data”) you may discover that changes in circumstances require changes in key ratios. • You will need to update your data anytime: • Acuity rises or falls over a period of time • Non-productive load changes • Volumes begin to increase When acuity goes up or goes down, eventually your staffing patterns and grids will need to be changed. These changes also affect the overall roster needs of your department so it is VERY important that you change your staff to patient ratios to account for changes in acuity (See Next Slide) When volume goes up or down, your staffing & roster needs will also change, so updating the “budgeted volume” number in the ratios tab is important. If non-productive load changes (say you hire a bunch of GN’s or have a lot of “meeting time” for a major software implementation), then you will need to update your “non-productive load” so that your grids & rosters reflect such changes. This tool takes your core volumes, divides them by your ratios & then grosses them up for non productive BEFORE creating grids or calculating roster needs! This ensures you have the staff to provide safe effective coverage

13. Navigating The Tool – Updating Ratios • ADJUSTING FOR ACUITY CHANGES WITH STAFFING RATIOS: • When acuity goes up or down (or when a “sitter” is needed), the quickest way to make sure your staffing grids and roster account for it is . . . to update your staffing ratios in the tool. • Notice on the left, initially this department estimated that: • 60% of it’s patients were of an acuity that allowed for a 1 to 4 RN to patient ratio • 20% of it’s patients were of an acuity that required a 1 to 2 RN to patient ratio • 20% of it’s patients were of an acuity that allowed for a 1 to 7 RN to patient ratio • But being a blended acuity department, over time, the proportion of each type of patient shifted. In order to make sure they were still adequately staffed, they adjusted for it using the “Ratio calculator” in the ratio tab. This adjustment MUST be made for all shifts and position types! • This one adjustment required 4.2 more FTE’s of nurses be added to their roster and radically changed their staffing grids. • The “Staff to Patient Ratio Calculator” can be accessed by clicking the small calculator icon next to each of the ratio fields per shift.

14. Navigating The Tool – Updating Ratios • ADJUSTING FOR CHANGES IN NON-PRODUCTIVE LOAD: • If you hire a bunch of GN’s • If meeting attendance requirements go up • If intermittent or regular FMLA use rises • If staff move up to higher vacation/PTO levels • If changes in benefits impact time off . . . • Then you will need to adjust your non-productive load in the “updating ratios” page. A failure to do so will result in you not having enough staff to cover your volumes. • Use the “FMLA” code to account for all planned and un-planned leaves

15. Navigating The Tool – Updating Ratios ADJUSTING FOR CHANGES IN VOLUMES: Volumes either rise or fall over time. Something as little as the addition or loss of a physician to the medical staff/community can make all the difference in the world. When that happens, it is important to make an adjustment to the “Budgeted Volume” block on the “Update Ratios” page. Making changes to this block (as well as to all the other ratios) allows you to provide the kind of in-depth scenario planning that finance and decision support departments love. Being “ahead of the curve” in anticipating changes in volume can give your recruiters the lead time they need to add needed staff before either work-burden rises or premium pay/agency become necessary! REMEMBER: If planning a scenario or simply just changing the ratios, it’s a good idea to PRINT the “Ratios” page first! This way you ensure you can go back to your previous settings if you made a mistake or are finished with the scenario planning.

16. Navigating The Tool – 1 Day Coverage Map A “Day Coverage Map” tool is provided that allows a manager to pick a day in any given month, fill out a roster (by just typing in names, initials, or even ID's) and then see what both their coverage needs and actual coverage are visually. The roster is not saved and has to be reentered for each use. This is a valuable tool for mapping the coverage of Holidays or when multiple people will be out for a planned event. You can toggle between the coverage map & the roster until you achieve a perfect balance!

17. Navigating the tool – Weekly Coverage Map • You can select: • Budgeted or modeled data • Position type • Month of the year A “Weekly Coverage Map” tool is provided that allows you to pick a week of the year, fill out a roster (by just typing in names or initials), assigning schedules to staff and then seeing what both their coverage needs and actual coverage are. This is a fun tool to play with for balancing schedules and converting to “block scheduling”. You can toggle between the coverage map & the roster until you achieve a perfect balance! You can save your roster and apply it to other weeks/schedules. This tool allows for “point-and-click” changing of employee schedules!

18. Navigating The Tool – Weekly Coverage Map (Cont’d) Weekly Coverage Map Roster(does save): Fill in your roster with either names or initials. Staff can be scheduled as “8 Hr. Staff”, “12 Hr. Staff”, or “4 Hr. Staff” depending on how they work. With a single “click” you can select the work schedule for each staff member! If a staff member works both days and eves, they will need to be entered 2 times .(1 time under each category)

19. Navigating the tool – Weekly Coverage Weekly Coverage map (does save): Once you have completed your roster, click the “Continue” button at the bottom of the screen to see how well your schedule is balanced against your modeled needs! When you click “Continue”, your roster and any changes you’ve made to it, are automatically saved. This allows you to easily come back after viewing the results and make changes if needed to “balance your schedule” (see next slide). To Start with a completely NEW roster, click, “delete roster” also at the bottom of the page. REMEMBER: Any staff member that works multiple shifts (IE, days and eves) or that works multiple shift types (IE, 8 hr and 12 hour shifts), will need to be entered 2 times (1 time under each category)

20. Navigating the tool – Weekly Coverage What you will see is a chart that shows both your coverage needs for each day of the week (top graphic) as well as a coverage map (showing what coverage your roster provided). To “balance your schedule, simply click on the “Edit Roster” button below the graphics and change which staff are scheduled on which dates by selecting/unselecting days in their schedule. Then simply click, “Continue” again to save that roster and check your new coverage!

21. Navigating the tool – Logout & Getting Started To log out of the tool, simply click on the “Logout” button • To view any of the tutorials: • “Setting up your account” • “Entering Data” • “Using the tool” • Click on the “Help – Tutorials” button at the bottom of the menu bar to either view or download the appropriate presentation.