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Akron Children's Hospital Selects AtStaff(R) Advantage(TM) To Facilitate Patient-Focused Staffing, And Empower and Involve Employees Through Web-Based Dashboards

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Akron Children's Hospital, a full-service pediatric medical center serving 2.5 million residents of northeastern Ohio, has selected AtStaff(R) Advantage(TM) staff management software to automate and improve patient-focused staffing, and furnish its employees with Web-based self-scheduling and communication.

"While we feel there are numerous advantages to implementing the AtStaff software, the most important is being able to better match staffing resources to patient needs on a unit and house-wide basis," says Lisa Aurilio, Director of Nursing at Akron Children's Hospital. "Our ultimate objective is improving patient care. AtStaff will enable us to quickly and accurately recognize staffing coverage needs and issues... both in real time and prospectively.

"First, the software will give us the daily capability to view, manage and allocate staff based on actual patient census need. Since we have been scheduling staff on a paper basis, this alone will be significant, being able to pinpoint in real time who is working and available on any given day and time in relation to our patients."

In addition, Aurilio says, the AtStaff software will help the nursing staff at Akron Children's better plan and prepare for the future.

"With AtStaff, we'll be able to run projections, and get an advanced look at longer-range staffing and demand patterns, and identify specific issues that may be evolving. We'll be able to implement productivity analysis and generate a range of reports. These steps will move us beyond our day-to-day approach, where it's been much more difficult to initiate timely and effective intervention."

By helping hospitals better plan for and predict patient flow and employee availability, AtStaff software works to prevent unexpected understaffing, and gives clinicians the options needed to pinpoint and assign -- well in advance -- the most appropriate, qualified and competent caregivers for specific patient needs.

Beyond its impact on improving staffing effectiveness and quality care, the AtStaff system is a valuable tool in enhancing employee communication, collaboration and overall scheduling efficiency, Aurilio says.

"We view the employee dashboards as essential components of the software," she explains, "because one of our key objectives is empowering our employees and delivering to them timely information. We're very excited that all employees will have their own dashboard, which they can access to view and request schedules in real time, and from anywhere on the Web.

"Currently, our nurse managers have to make phone calls to lists of staff to notify them of available shifts. But this process is not interactive or participatory. The personalized dashboards give our employees the chance to get more involved, empowered and proactive in defining their work schedules."

Also beneficial, Aurilio says, is that "we'll be able to incorporate our current self-scheduling processes within the automated framework of the AtStaff system. This, and the fact that our employees are very comfortable with automation, leads us to believe that the transition to AtStaff will be a smooth one."

The flexibility of the AtStaff software to accommodate different scheduling methodologies, and all healthcare departments and disciplines is also significant since Akron Children's will be introducing the system beyond nursing.

"An enterprise capable system is essential to us because, in addition to nursing, we will be rolling the software out to our respiratory care departments, and within our maternal fetal medicine outpatient practice," Aurilio says.

Another factor in Akron Children's decision to select the AtStaff product is the strong reputation of AtStaff, Inc., in the marketplace, she adds.

"It's important to us that AtStaff, Inc. is a well-established company with a solid record of staffing systems in place. We appreciated the opportunity to visit on site with other AtStaff customers, as we gained valuable insights and perspective."

About Akron Children's Hospital

Founded in 1890 as a two-room nursery, Akron Children's Hospital today is a full-service pediatric medical center for children, from birth through adolescence, as well as for burn victims of all ages. Akron Children's serves a population of 2.5 million residents of northeastern Ohio, offering 30 areas of specialized medicine and surgery, state-of-the-art facilities, a diverse array of ancillary services, and a comprehensive medical staff of more than 600 professionals.

Children's Hospital houses eight specialized laboratories, including a new $4 million catheterization lab. Key clinical accomplishments at Children's include breakthroughs in pediatric laparoscopic surgery and participation in major national drug studies for pertussis, chickenpox vaccines, cancer treatment and cystic fibrosis.

Physicians, nurses and other staff at Children's Hospital have achieved national recognition in neonatology, burn care, pediatric surgery, ophthalmology, infectious diseases, cystic fibrosis and other genetic diseases, and therapy and education for children with disabilities.

More information is available at www.akronchildrens.org/

About AtStaff, Inc.

AtStaff, Inc., develops staff management software that enables healthcare organizations to improve healthcare quality and patient safety, increase profitability, and enhance staff recruitment and retention.

The latest and most advanced version of the company's software is AtStaff(R) Advantage,(TM) which leverages predictive modeling and event-driven staffing capabilities to meet critical operational, clinical and financial objectives.

Enterprise-wide staff scheduling, nurse scheduling and physician scheduling software systems from AtStaff, Inc., serve more than 1,200 healthcare organizations, medical facilities, nursing departments and group practices.

More information is available at www.atstaff.com.

Source: Business Wire

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