The Biden administration’s newly proposed nursing homes staffing mandate is a key reason for the release of a capital management company’s new scheduling tool, an official said.
The launch of the tool, part of Empeon’s human capital management platform, comes out of increasing requests from providers for software that helps manage workforces more efficiently, said Peretz Rapoport, Empeon’s vice president of product.
“In the healthcare space, staffing is the heartbeat and the key to success,” Rapoport told McKnight’s on Tuesday. “It’s one of the biggest challenges providers face. And there is demand for a swift, user-friendly and digital solution.”
The new tool is the latest in an onslaught of scheduling software hitting the market at once, many of which are designed to integrate smoothly within a facility’s existing platforms.
Although all of those new products are designed to create efficiencies for managing the various aspects of scheduling — onboarding, payroll, time and attendance — Empeon has designed its system for a personalized experience in which schedulers can choose from multiple viewing options, Rapoport said.
“Some managers like to start with available employees and then place them into open shifts,” Rapoport said. “Some prefer to go ‘door to door’ to see what openings there are.”
More efficient scheduling procedures can help close gaps in staffing even without adding new employees, in part by eliminating some of the chaos around turnover or constant operations, Rapoport said.
“There’s a lot of drama in the industry around missed punches,” Rapoport told McKnight’s. “There’s constant coming and going. They forget to clock in or out. Employees are human.”
Although digital products such as electronic health records have been around for a while, adjusting or even redesigning interfaces has taken place more recently, experts such as UPenn’s Kevin Johnson, MD, have noted. New meta-analyses on how easy, or difficult, software is to use have become more commonplace.
Empeon has been adding new software to its platform, in part to help address proposed new rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That includes an early wage access tool the company announced last month.
CMS’s proposed nursing home staffing mandate has been met with fierce resistance by providers due to already existing staffing shortages. Technologic advances have been tabbed as the most likely way to alleviate stresses on the system.
