While standard productivity management efforts typically focus on front line staff, it is important to consider management and support resources to ensure a truly holistic approach to identifying cost savings opportunities. With the management of day-to-day operations taking priority, it is easy to lose sight of maintaining an optimized management structure.

Pathstone can work with leadership to assess current span of control ratios to find opportunities to redesign reporting structures to achieve the optimal org chart for current operations.  Additionally, a similar approach can be taken to assess administrative roles to ensure level-loading of resources across your organization.

Hospitals often use contract labor, such as agency nurses or support staff, to fill staffing gaps. However, contract labor can be expensive and lead to inconsistent care. Pathstone can help analyze the use of contract labor and develop a cost-effective strategy. This may include examining staff availability, volume trends, and scheduling practices to find more efficient staffing options.

Pathstone will develop a comprehensive contract labor plan, working with operational stakeholders and contract labor suppliers to establish utilization protocols that utilize the lowest-cost staffing resources, through the creation of float pools and flexible staffing plans. Pathstone will also coordinate with other workforce and non-labor efforts to reduce contract labor costs.

Premium pay is the extra pay that staff receive for working outside of their regular hours, such as shift differentials, on-call or callback pay. Pathstone can help analyze scheduling processes to identify opportunities to reduce premium pay by adjusting staff schedules or implementing flexible staffing models.

Pathstone can work with operational stakeholders to minimize premium pay by optimizing staff schedules to reduce or eliminate shift differentials, reviewing on-call utilization, and focusing on areas with high on-call and low callback in both clinical and non-clinical departments through full elimination or replacement with straight time.

Overtime expenses can be substantial for hospitals, result in burnout and decreased efficiency among staff, and lead to costly increased pay rates. Pathstone can assist in analyzing staffing and scheduling practices to minimize overtime costs. This may include examining staff availability, patient volume, and scheduling practices to find more efficient scheduling options.

Pathstone takes a comprehensive approach to reducing overtime, focusing on reducing unnecessary overtime for maximum savings while improving overall productivity. Our team will collaborate with departmental stakeholders to align staffing needs and adjust schedules to reduce overtime or recommend hiring additional staff if necessary. Pathstone will also work with HR to review current overtime policies and procedures to implement control measures for reducing usage.

Productivity measures the effectiveness of staff in performing their duties. Pathstone can help analyze staffing and scheduling practices to identify opportunities to improve productivity by achieving more output from similar or fewer resources.

Productivity is a crucial factor that can determine the overall success of an organization, and improving productivity can lead to many positive outcomes. When productivity increases, an organization can services more patients with the same or fewer resources. This can result in cost savings and improved profitability. Additionally, an organization with a more productive workforce can sees employee retainment, and often offer more competitive recruiting for new talent.

Pathstone will work with your organization to develop a comprehensive review of current state productivity by department to identify key areas of opportunity for improvement to drive savings through more effective staffing to demand management.  Our approach can be customized to address all unique aspects of your organization through a thorough review of productivity data as well as observational studies to truly understand the nature of real-life operations and develop a bespoke improvement plan that aligns with your organization’s goals and culture.