More from the Top 100 survey
Based on the recent Solucient survey, the nation’s top hospitals deliver higher quality care at lower cost to more and sicker patients.
The study showed they use 35% less contract labor, pay 14% less overtime, pay their people better, and provide $3,000 more in salary and benefits per employee compared with the average hospital.
The study also showed the ratio of registered nurses involved in direct patient care is higher, their case mix and patient volumes are both higher, but they have a lower cost per discharge and a shorter length of stay.
Extrapolating the data showed that if all hospitals were able to duplicate the statistics of the top performers, the U.S. healthcare system would save more than $7.25 billion a year in labor costs which would be an average of almost $2.68 million per hospital.
The data used for the study came from Medicare and analyzed by Solucient. The firm analyzed data looking at metrics such as total paid hours, hours worked per patient day, hours worked and wages paid per adjusted discharge, and wages and benefits per full-time employee and then compared these benchmark numbers with the average performance of the 2,834 hospitals in its database
The surveyors who crunched the numbers said it all starts at the top with the top hospital CEOs thinking about quality and efficiency simultaneously and making it a priority.
Janice Bultema, vice president of human resources at 466-bed University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison said “An employee whose heart is captured is an employee that’s productive.”
Their hospital does regular employee engagement surveys and has its managers address issues directly with the employees they supervise. They focus on how employees feel about their work environment and ask if they understand how their job is tied to the organization’s mission? They want to know if the employees feel that someone’s investing in their development, and if they feel recognized, trusted, involved.
Surveys from our hospital have consistently shown problems in each of these areas.
Top hospitals also were shown to pay top dollar when they are in a competitive environment rather than shooting for the mean which has been the philosophy here at home. Other top performing hospitals pay premiums for jobs and shifts that are an inconvenience to the employee’s lifestyle and they found both nurses and technicians often undertake the off-hours because of the extra money while those who move to a weekday-only schedule take a pay cut.
All of these strategies seem to work, but as stated earlier, this philosophical change has to begin at the top and therein lays the problem.
The study showed they use 35% less contract labor, pay 14% less overtime, pay their people better, and provide $3,000 more in salary and benefits per employee compared with the average hospital.
The study also showed the ratio of registered nurses involved in direct patient care is higher, their case mix and patient volumes are both higher, but they have a lower cost per discharge and a shorter length of stay.
Extrapolating the data showed that if all hospitals were able to duplicate the statistics of the top performers, the U.S. healthcare system would save more than $7.25 billion a year in labor costs which would be an average of almost $2.68 million per hospital.
The data used for the study came from Medicare and analyzed by Solucient. The firm analyzed data looking at metrics such as total paid hours, hours worked per patient day, hours worked and wages paid per adjusted discharge, and wages and benefits per full-time employee and then compared these benchmark numbers with the average performance of the 2,834 hospitals in its database
The surveyors who crunched the numbers said it all starts at the top with the top hospital CEOs thinking about quality and efficiency simultaneously and making it a priority.
Janice Bultema, vice president of human resources at 466-bed University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison said “An employee whose heart is captured is an employee that’s productive.”
Their hospital does regular employee engagement surveys and has its managers address issues directly with the employees they supervise. They focus on how employees feel about their work environment and ask if they understand how their job is tied to the organization’s mission? They want to know if the employees feel that someone’s investing in their development, and if they feel recognized, trusted, involved.
Surveys from our hospital have consistently shown problems in each of these areas.
Top hospitals also were shown to pay top dollar when they are in a competitive environment rather than shooting for the mean which has been the philosophy here at home. Other top performing hospitals pay premiums for jobs and shifts that are an inconvenience to the employee’s lifestyle and they found both nurses and technicians often undertake the off-hours because of the extra money while those who move to a weekday-only schedule take a pay cut.
All of these strategies seem to work, but as stated earlier, this philosophical change has to begin at the top and therein lays the problem.
posted by Anonymous at 5:55 AM
6 Comments:
Regarding the salary differences--did they take into account the differences in cost of living in these respective locations? A hospital in Manhattan or L.A. might pay twice as much as Floyd, but that doesn't mean the nurses would net more at the end of the month...
I would love the know the patient to nurse ratio???
The study did take into account geographical differences and the better performing hospitals nurse to patient ratio was near the 6:1 standard that progressive hospitals are trying to meet.
6:1 ratio....wouldn't that be nice. It sure beats the 12:1 or 9:1 that Floyd has had for the last several years. This I know for a fact. They talk about nursing care and at times with the mere numbers that present itself makes it oh so difficult.
Some departments at Floyd needs to look at their ratio!!
Do you mean the # of supervisor to employee ratios????????
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