Detroit Free Press: New Ideas Keep Nurses Working

Programs Offers More Flexibility

February 11, 2007

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT

FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

Detroit-area health systems are solving nursing shortages with a new computer system that quickly identifies daily staffing gaps and a flexible-hour program designed to lure back nurses from contract agencies.

The measures save money, reduce paperwork and help recruit and retain nurses, two Detroit-area health systems say.

For patients, better retention of nurses means better care.

St. John Health System started FlexChoice on Nov. 1, offering flexible hours to part-time registered nurses.

The program already is responsible for the hiring of 100 nurses, said Mary Naber, senior vice president. She heads St. John's Worklife Services Program, the new name for human resources.

The name of Naber's job underscores changes in the way St. John is addressing issues that drive nurses from the workforce.

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth estimates the state will need 7,000 more nurses by 2010 and 18,000 more by 2015. Nearly one in four Michigan nurses are 55 and older, and nearly 60% are 45 and older.

Because of nursing shortages, hospitals increasingly have relied on outside agencies to fill their ranks. Many nurses working for these agencies are former full-time hospital nurses who left for more flexible hours because of family commitments or a preference to work fewer hours.

Hospitals pay a premium to agencies for contract nurses, often much more than they pay staff nurses. The new programs cut out some of those agencies, letting hospitals choose the agencies that provide better service and giving back to their workers some of the savings.

On Jan. 10, St. John began ShiftWise, a computer software program designed by an Oregon firm that catalogs daily RN needs at the system's eight hospitals. St. John hired Critical Resource of Brighton, which specializes in contingent workforce management issues, to help start the new programs. It created incentives such as higher pay rates for contingent nurses willing to work weekends or who would not mind working at any of the health system's hospitals, said consultant Peter Rubando.

The initiatives are expected to save $1 million this year for the St. John system, Naber said.

ShiftWise is similar to programs used by other professions, such as substitute teachers and lawyers, said Jason Lander, who founded ShiftWise in 2002. It serves 350 customers in 18 states.

The system is free to hospitals. Contingency agencies that use it to supply nurses to hospitals pay the fees.

Users have private log-ins, as well as programs tailored to specialties within nursing, to find out what jobs and shifts are needed each day or week.

In the past, hospitals relied on cumbersome, time-consuming systems of calling or e-mailing all their RNs, then outside agencies.

"If you have 500 nurses, imagine how long it would take to call them all," Lander said.

Oakwood Healthcare System, with four hospitals and 38 outpatient centers, claims to have saved $1.2 million from the ShiftWise program during the past 18 months. It was the first Michigan health system to use the program.

"I feel I'm more in control of where I'm working and where I'd like to work," said Lori Balogh, an Oakwood RN who uses the ShiftWise program.

She typically works 36 to 48 hours a week, picking up extra money to pay her mortgage and help support her family of four.

"I have a lot more freedom and flexibility," she said.

With the program, Oakwood has been able to cut back from 34 to 17 the number of contract agencies it was working with to fill nursing needs, said Barb Medvec, Oakwood's senior vice president and chief nursing officer.

Oakwood also started PRN Registry, offering part-time, or so-called contingent, registered nurses flexible hours and health insurance typically not offered part-timers.

As a result, annual turnover among Oakwood's RN contingents has been reduced from as much as 10% to less than 1%, Medvec said.

"We don't want nurses to leave our hospitals," she said. "There are other alternatives. This has really helped us."

Contact PATRICIA ANSTETT at 313-222-5021 or panstett@freepress.com.

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