NEWS
St. John’s shifts the way nurses fill its shifts
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February 13, 2008
By Chris Birk
The days of phone calls and paper pushing are over.
Now, from the comfort of her couch, Becky Allen hops online to sort through and pick up extra nursing shifts at St. John's Mercy Medical Center. The hospital recently became the first in the St. Louis area to implement a Web-based work force management system created by San Diego-based firm Bidshift, Inc.
The scheduling program gives the medical center's more than 2,000 nurses greater flexibility in identifying extra shifts and linking the vacancies to their expertise and interests.
"You can do it on your own time, at one in the morning — whatever your preference," said Allen, 31, a nurse who's worked for 10 years in the center's neonatal intensive care unit. "It's a great way to get people to know all these shifts are open."
In the past, individual medical units posted vacancies at their respective stations. Nurses interested in picking up extra work would have to walk by each unit or work the phone to compete for a good fit. Vacancies occur for a number of reasons, from nurses on leaves of absence to sickness and bad weather.
Spurred in part by growing interest throughout the industry, hospital executives sought a more up-to-date method of communicating open nursing shifts and attracting qualified workers.
St. John's officials met with Bidshift representatives last year to examine the technology and evaluate the facility's needs. Dubbed "MShift," the portal rolled out in mid-January.
More than 150 hospitals nationwide have implemented the six-year-old company's scheduling program, said Bidshift chief executive officer Graham Barnes.
Nurses can sort through all available shifts that match their skill set and availability. Allen, for example, is certified to work in the pediatric intensive care unit as well as the NICU. The program also allows unit managers to assess the skills and schedules of applicants before awarding an open shift, all through a secure Internet site.
"The manager can focus on being out on the unit with the patients and co-workers, not sitting in an office making telephone calls," said Bruce Weinberg, executive director of nursing, business operations, at St. John's. "Already, we've seen a tremendous increase in workers working on different units."
More than 1,850 nurses have enrolled in MShift so far, and nursing managers have filled 822 shifts through Feb. 23, said Weinberg.
To encourage the use of MShift, the hospital offers incentives. Nurses earn points for requesting extra shifts as well as for working them. They can then redeem these points for things such as parking spots, meal vouchers and consumer goods through an online catalog. Weinberg said that a nurse recently redeemed her points for an MP3 player.
The Web–based program is quite helpful to Allen, who prefers flexible hours rather than a fixed schedule. She used the program the day after its rollout, bidding on about a half-dozen shifts from her home computer. She received a confirmation or denial in real-time from nursing managers monitoring the site.
For Allen, managing the drop–down bars and navigation buttons presents little challenge. The hospital has also provided informal training for nurses who want it.
"I like that we're online. It's easy to click and drag your shifts, get awarded it and put it on the calendar," Allen said. "I think it's going to be more efficient."
It might also prove cost-effective.
Weinberg hopes that Mshift ultimately lessens the hospital's reliance on temporary agency nurses, whose hiring remains a drain on resources. A temporary agency nurse can cost double or triple the hourly rate of St. John’s nurses.
"We prefer to have our own co-workers taking care of patients here," Weinberg said. "Nothing replaces your own co-worker." Hospital patients also stand to gain because of a more streamlined scheduling process, said Barnes, the Bidshift chief executive.
"Ultimately, we expect to be able to see improvement in patient outcomes for people visiting that hospital," he said.
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