I-Corps: Clinical Workforce Schedule Optimization Technology

As hospitals continue to face financial uncertainty, many seek to increase profitability by reducing direct patient care staffing costs, which consume nearly 50% of an average hospital’s operating revenues. However, these cost cutting initiatives introduce significant risk exposure, with studies showing that staffing a unit below the target level is associated with increased mortality and other adverse patient events. Hospital clinical workforce staffing must be optimized in order to ensure quality patient care and clinical outcomes, while also delivering better financial performance. Optimal workforce staffing has proved difficult for hospitals to achieve since schedules are generated six to eight weeks in advance, at which time the patient demand for a particular unit is not accurately known.