Meridian Health chooses Avantas' labor management technology and services to manage workforce

Aug 26 2015

Avantas, a leading provider of labor management technology, services, and strategies for the healthcare industry, today announced that Meridian Health, a leading not-for-profit health care organization in New Jersey, selected the company's labor management technology and services.

Meridian Health, named one of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" and the first health system in the country to receive Magnet designation for Nursing, will leverage Avantas' consulting services and labor management technology, Smart Square^®, to optimize labor management processes across its six hospitals. Avantas is an AMN Healthcare company.

Under the terms of this three-year agreement, Meridian Health will adopt Avantas' proven HELM^® methodology (healthcare enterprise labor management), which will help the organization develop an efficient, sustainable and automated approach to managing its workforce. HELM represents a disruptive innovation for the healthcare industry, challenging organizations to rethink what is possible with regard to labor management. The HELM approach is comprehensive and sophisticated – combining the science of workforce planning, demand forecasting, operational best practices, and a complete set of scheduling and staffing tools.

"We knew we needed a partner that offers both an automated labor management solution and the healthcare workforce management expertise to help us implement the strategies we need to achieve our goals," said Maureen Sintich, MSN, MBA, R.N., WHNP-BC, NEA-BC, senior vice president and chief nurse executive. "Prior to selecting Avantas, we looked at a number of labor management solutions, but only Avantas provided a comprehensive, end-to-end methodology that begins with an upfront workforce analysis to help us forecast demand and ensure we have the right types and numbers of resources to serve our community. Avantas will support our goal of establishing more consistent staffing processes and policies between facilities and increase efficiency across our entire system, enabling us to leverage our resources based on accurate predictions of volume rather than budget."

As part of the agreement Meridian signed with Avantas, Meridian will implement Smart Square, including Avantas' patented open-shift management tools. Smart Square is the only healthcare scheduling and productivity software that combines demand forecasting with robust scheduling functionality, enterprise transparency, and business intelligence tools all in one application. This technology will provide Meridian with access to timely, actionable information to identify negative workforce management trends and make adjustments before productivity is affected.

"With our flexible, agile approach and technology, we can meet the diverse needs of a large multi-site system like Meridian," said Chris Fox, President, Avantas. "We are proud that such a highly-regarded organization has embraced our healthcare enterprise labor management methodology and solutions, as it demonstrates Avantas' ability to help organizations of all sizes meet patient demand, drive quality improvements and achieve their financial goals."