Services

Workforce Management

The increasing shortage of nurses and other healthcare staff is placing a growing burden on healthcare providers, who are forced to rely on per-diem employees, overtime and other premium forms of labor. The cost of filling labor needs is rising rapidly, while provider confidence in the quality of that labor is declining. Reductions in staff can lead providers to close beds, which in turn decreases revenue.

With labor costs comprising the majority of healthcare operating expenses, it is vital that healthcare providers find a way to stop this downward spiral. In order to reach the next level of financial performance, providers must have better trained and more cost-effective contract labor.

The Competitive Advantage

Broadlane’s Workforce Management can help you manage the quality and cost of your temporary labor by working with you to reduce total contract labor use, maintain adequate staffing levels, improve productivity, increase physician satisfaction, improve patient care and reduce liability risks.

Broadlane designs custom Workforce Management solutions with three key components:

• Strategic sourcing of contract labor agencies
• Vendor management services
• Vendor management technology

Strategic Sourcing of Contract Labor Agencies

Broadlane partners with you and other providers in your market to identify your labor needs and aggregate your purchasing power, creating a competitive process among agencies to drive down unit price. Broadlane then uses powerful technologies to manage your contract utilization while also verifying invoice accuracy and hours worked. Since you need not have a group purchasing relationship with Broadlane to access Broadlane’s Workforce Management, our solution is open to all providers seeking dramatic, positive results.

Broadlane has delivered savings of up to 6 percent to as much as 13 percent on contract labor costs. Unlike other companies, Broadlane offers a proven, vendor-neutral, provider-centric and analytically rigorous sourcing process.

Vendor Management Services

Broadlane works with your organization to define contract nurse quality standards as well as acceptable agency service-level parameters. We then work with you to identify agencies that can fill multiple needs across various units. After agencies are selected and contracts signed, a dedicated team of experienced Broadlane personnel works with you to help sustain savings and ensure that you are receiving the quality and supply of staff you require. In addition, our team of market managers ensures:

• Ongoing management of contracts and agency relationships
• Ongoing measurement of contract compliance
• Application of contract utilization metrics
• Contract updates as market conditions change

Vendor Management Technology

Broadlane provides a vendor-neutral, Web-based technology that enables you to lock in contracted savings and ensure nurse quality through active monitoring and tracking of staff credentials and performance. This technology was specifically designed as an end-to-end solution for the unique requirements and challenges of the clinical staffing environment.

Broadlane’s labor technology arms staffing professionals with the tools needed to effectively manage all aspects of the nurse contract labor process. The technology facilitates:

• Job requisition creation
• Candidate evaluation and hiring
• License and certification evaluation
• Vendor performance assessment
• Reverse invoicing
• Financial metrics and compliance reporting

Broadlane’s labor technology generates an invoice to be submitted to a staffing agency based on amount of contract staff used and hours worked. It eliminates the traditional, error-prone invoicing process, which is costly and time-consuming.

The technology also provides an easy-to-use dashboard that assigns roles and responsibilities to all users, and allows individuals to view only that part of the staffing process relevant to their job function. For example, a staffing coordinator might be permitted to review, hire and check in a nurse candidate, but not approve the candidate’s time card or create an invoice.

The software functions as a stand-alone application, and can also complement your existing payables and scheduling software applications. The end result is a reduction in operating expenses, a decreased hiring time cycle, and improved quality, compliance and reporting.