Dec 17 2009
A new software program developed by CareRise will reduce the time it takes for inpatient healthcare facilities to calculate their staffing needs as it relates to the patient population. 24/7 Staffing Census allows inpatient healthcare facilities to calculate their mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing needs, comply with their state's patient-per-day (PPD) ratios and receive a daily report as to how it affects their bottom line.
CareRise, a leader in risk management in the healthcare industry, has been allowed a United States patent on its 24/7 Staffing Census software program to obtain real-time synchronization of staffing needs to comply with mandatory PPD ratios. At the same time, it compares those figures against the facility's budget and issues a daily report.
Tim Goux, CareRise founder and developer of the revolutionary software program, developed the system in 2002, which has been in use in healthcare facilities in Louisiana while the patent was pending.
"24/7 Staffing Census helps inpatient facilities meet or exceed state regulations for staffing as it relates to 24-hour census requirements on a daily basis," Goux said. "The software allows a healthcare facility to input its nursing staff data by category to calculate its PPD mandatory census requirement. Then, it provides a financial translation of the facility's PPD staffing-census relationship by calculating whether the ratio is over or under budget. For the average skilled healthcare facility, this is a three to four million dollar issue, annually."
The clinical staffing component plays a major role in the new federal, CMS five-star rating system and 24/7 Staffing Census will prove to be a useful tool. Each day, 24/7 Staffing Census issues a report outlining the facility's PPD and total hours divided by the census, offering valuable financial information. Additionally, it stores the data and provides a summation of statistics via email every day.
While other methods predict future patient loads using historical averages, Goux said, they do not base staffing upon current patient levels like 24/7 does. "This gives the financial translation of that relationship - synchronizing clinical staffing to the patient census by acuity level in real-time, which can amount to a tremendous saving for the facility."
This is CareRise's second U.S. patent - the company patented a unique method of involving insurers in the risk management process by providing independent, real-time information to insurers so they can better assess a facility's insurability and premiums.
SOURCE CareRise
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