The shift to value-based care is just one of many fundamental changes happening in healthcare today. Healthcare organizations across the continuum are challenged to increase productivity AND reduce costs while maintaining proper staff levels to meet patient needs and compliance requirements. Hours per patient day (HPPD) is a common industry expression used to trend the total number of direct nursing care hours (RNs, LPNs and PCTs), compared to the number of patients as the HPPD ratio. Using a the “nursing hours per patient day” is a way to monitor and improve quality of care and service. And in many states, hospitals, clinics, acute care facilities, long-term care and senior living facilities must report the HPPD data to the Department of Public Health.
New enhancements in OnePoint Workload Manager make it easier for Long Term Care facilities to monitor compliance with HPPD state regulations and align the right level of resources with the proper skill levels needed per shift based on their HPPD ratio.
Using Workload Manager, LTC and healthcare providers can Import their number of patients as the anticipated volume. The Scheduler interprets the HPPD creates the number of shifts required based on day part and volume. In addition, for LTC customers, it can check for compliance by calculating the total number of shift hours for each skill, and dividing that by the expected resident count. Users can view census values, total actual HPPD ratios and total variance from HPPD requirements within the schedule and determine if additional shifts need to be added for HPPD compliance.
By accessing historical business and workforce data, the Workload Manager can be configured to determine the Staffing Ratios based on the HPPD requirement. By utilizing cost center groupings, individual departments and units which might have different patient demands can work off of a different HPPD for scheduling purposes. For example, if one unit/cost center has between 15 and 30 patients then I need 3 RNs (Skill) between 6a-3p with an HPPD requirement of 1.75.
The Staffing Matrix is used to determine the number of RNs, LPNs, etc. needed based on a volume, i.e. between 0 and 50 patients, between 51 and 100 patients, etc. The Staffing Matrix also allows you to enter (it does not calculate) the HPPD. The Workload Manager then creates the needed Shifts in the Advanced Scheduler. The single database architecture takes into account shift preferences, approved leave requests and skills when auto populating schedules
By incorporating HPPD into the Workload Manager calculation, scheduling managers can quickly build a draft schedule, and be altered to open shifts and staffing exceptions right away and make appropriate adjustments. Additional reports that support value based care include:
Contact OnePoint to learn how our workforce management platform and scheduler can deliver Human Resources specific workforce metrics for determining optimized nursing care hours, providing better care for patients while monitoring costs and minimizing payroll inflation. By utilizing the HPPD and Workload Manager feature within the Advanced Scheduler HR can identify staffing shortages in a facility or department, provide insight into the Jobs/Certifications needed per shift, or provide metrics to justify recruitment of Nursing Staff.