St. Rose Hospital has partnered with Medely since 2020 to fill open shifts and bridge staffing gaps that could compromise the quality of patient care. Shirley Joseph, CNO, joined St. Rose Hospital a little over a year ago, and in the last 15 months, she’s been able to rely on Medely as a convenient, trustworthy staffing solution when needed. We sat down with her to discuss how she’s used Medely to create a more comprehensive, budget-friendly staffing plan for her hospital.
Introduction to Medely
Shirley started at St. Rose Hospital as the hospital became an affiliate of Alameda Health System. As CNO, most departments report directly to Shirley, making it crucial that she’s able to fully support her employees and ensure they have the necessary staff needed to run day-to-day operations smoothly. As St. Rose Hospital has settled into being an affiliate of AHS, it’s been looking for ways to staff both full-time employees and contingent workers more efficiently.
“We are looking at how we can optimize the core staffing,” Shirley shared. “Medely has been such a great partner to St. Rose. It plays an integral role in the management of our emergency room, especially. I have, honestly, only good things to say about our partnership with Medely.”
With fluctuating needs, a flexible staffing solution is crucial for operational efficiency at St. Rose Hospital, and like most healthcare facilities, St. Rose is looking for more cost-effective ways to meet their staffing needs. Medely’s on-demand staffing tool has allowed them to more effectively manage their budget. With no retainer fees or hidden costs, facilities can use Medely only when a need arises, whether that’s once a month or every single day. As St. Rose works to address high staffing costs, they’re able to use Medely to dive deeper into their staffing needs, figure out what’s working and where to cut back, and how they can utilize a diverse mix of both full-time staff and per diem workers.
Fluctuation in patient volume
One of the pain points St. Rose Hospital continues to work through is varied patient demand. With inconsistency in patient census, meeting staffing demands can prove challenging, often leading to last-minute needs or hard-to-fill positions. But through Medely, Shirley has been able to keep up with those staffing demands and ensure appropriate coverage at all points.
“With the volume fluctuation, I see Medely as a positive approach.”
Due to fluctuation in patient volume and the recent affiliation with AHS, St. Rose Hospital is taking stock of its staffing, both internal and external, to ensure there’s a good mix of both full-time staff and contingent labor. “Our goal is to make it [staffing] a little bit more stable and solid. It’s always a zigzag, and some days we have staff and some days we have all Medely. It’s okay to have Medely regularly, but our core staffing should just match it.”
As they work on a more stable staffing structure, St. Rose Hospital has been very successful with Medely’s on-demand Talent Marketplace. With the average shift filled in 9 minutes, Shirley can rely on Medely to fill shifts efficiently. “Usually, I see that I get an email when it’s posted and when somebody picks it up. I see that it’s very quick,” Shirley shared. Getting shifts filled quickly allows seamless coverage in patient care while also relieving extra administrative burden on the already busy facility managers and administrators.
Favorites feature
When a nurse or health professional completes a shift, facilities have the option to add them to their favorites, which can be helpful for advanced or hard-to-fill roles. “It’s very hard to recruit Cath lab nurses, even as full-time, because they work in different places and they like to work in multiple facilities.” Shirley shared. “Sometimes it’s a skeleton crew, so if somebody calls in sick or something, then we have to go on divert, which we really don’t want.”
When St. Rose Hospital has those gaps, Shirley has a favorited nurse on Medely who can seamlessly transition into the cath lab role. “There is one nurse from Medely, her name is Katie Howard, and she has a cath lab background. So sometimes, I tell my cath lab leader to take her because she’s efficient,” Shirley shared. “I always think she could be an excellent leader. She has a very nice personality. She’s very knowledgeable and even if it’s busy, she doesn’t get frustrated and she’s always positive. Those kinds of people will influence the other ones too, so I really like to have people like that.”
Planning for the future
Now, with Medely, Shirley has focused on creating a more proactive staffing strategy, which is key to reducing budget and allowing a diverse mix of skillsets within the hospital. “I want to be proactive with Medely,” Shirley shared. “I mean, we are going to use them, and we know our schedule is short. Why are we waiting until the last minute? That creates stress everywhere.” In Medely’s nurse sentiment survey, 48.4% of respondents shared that they’re sometimes filling a last-minute need and 29.7% shared that they were filling a last-minute need very often. When shifts are posted last-minute, it adds more pressure to the already high-stress process of filling an open shift, which is why proactive staffing is so important to add to a facility’s staffing strategy.
With Medely’s innovative, tech-focused solution, proactive staffing has never been easier. With Talent Fusion, Medely’s all-in-one workforce management platform, facilities can go beyond reactionary staffing. Talent Fusion offers a variety of tools that facilities can utilize based on their needs, including an integrated scheduling tool. Not only does Medely’s scheduling feature allow facilities to keep track of their internal and external staff in one place, but it also allows for smart scheduling. Matching worker availability and preferences to open shifts reduces the administrative burden of manual scheduling for facility managers.
Alongside smart scheduling, Talent Fusion also offers labor forecasting, which can help facility managers more accurately predict future staffing needs. When callouts happen, qualified professionals are recommended based on the shift requirements and skills needed, allowing facility managers to spend less time scrambling to fill the shift. With tracking metrics, such as shift performance, fill rates, and time tracking, facility managers can easily spot trends in coverage, helping create a more proactive strategy rather than reacting to last-minute openings.
Results with Medely
St. Rose Hospital strengthened its workforce strategy with Medely and will continue leveraging it for shift coverage. Since starting to use Medely in 2020, they’ve achieved an average fill rate of 93%, with the average shift being filled within 9 minutes. In the past 5 years, St. Rose Hospital has favorited 215 nurses and health professionals, and according to Medely’s data, they’ve saved an estimated 14% compared to traditional staffing models. “You guys really are the best thing for a chief nursing officer because staffing is the biggest challenge,” Shirley said. “I will immediately call Medely.”
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