Web-based Shift Bidding
Critical Staffer ™ is Decision Critical's response to the call for employee autonomy, particularly from the emerging workforce. We know that flexible scheduling is one way to attract and retain today's nursing professionals.
Critical Staffer is based on the idea that you need individuals with particular qualifications to fill specific shift assignments. On-line shift bidding not only eliminates the administrative headache of trying to run a cumbersome, paper-based nurse staffing system, but also costs organizations substantially less than filling open assignments with outside agencies or overseas nurses (see "Rio Grande Return on Investment" below).
NOTE: Critical Staffer was previously sold under the product name StaffBid.
CASE STUDY: Northwest Texas Health System
Across the nation, nursing shortages and increased labor costs are forcing provider organizations to re-evaluate staffing practices. In 2005, Amarillo, Texas-based Northwest Texas Healthcare System (NWTHS) was using an internally-developed, manual system to schedule nursing resources. Staffing costs continued to increase as they struggled with filling their most critical shifts.
NWTHS executives determined that a more flexible, automated staff bidding solution would allow them to not only fill their critical, premium pay shifts, but also improve nurse recruiting and retention through improved morale and access to advanced technology, reduce stipend pay costs, make management’s staffing job less cumbersome – all while continuing to deliver superior patient care.
In November 2005, NWTHS successfully implemented Critical Staffer and applied this automated staff bidding approach to their environment with many positive results including decreased stipend pay cost of $139,000 in year-to-year spend.
To read about the specific benefits being recognized at Northwest Texas Health System, you can request the full case study here. Please indicate NWTHS Case Study in your request.
NOTE: Critical Staffer was previously sold under the product name StaffBid.
Case Study: Rio Grande Regional Hospital
In early 2004, Rio Grande Regional Hospital (Rio Grande), a 320-bed facility in fast-growing McAllen, Texas, was feeling the pinch of the nationwide nursing shortage. Despite aggressive national recruiting efforts and generous signing bonuses, the hospital’s nurse vacancy rate was hovering around 20 percent, contract labor costs exploded to $800,000 in the first quarter of 2004, and morale among the hospital’s 500-plus full-time nurses was near an all-time low.
Rio Grande rolled out Critical Staffer, a shift-bidding platform developed by Austin, Texas-based Decision Critical, Inc., in August 2004. A year later, the nursing landscape at Rio Grande has changed dramatically, thanks to Critical Staffer and the hospital is recognizing many benefits as a result of implementing Critical Staffer including a $400,000 labor cost savings over an 11 month period.
To read about the specific benefits being recognized at Rio Grande, you can request the full case study here. Please indicate Rio Grande Case Study iin your request.
NOTE: Critical Staffer was previously sold under the product name StaffBid.
