Mercy Selected for Successful Efforts to Increase User Adoption of Avantas’ Solutions; System Admins Received Advanced Training, Gave Feedback on Avantas’ Future Development Plans at Event
<0> Avantas Recognizes Mercy with Change Maker Award at its Annual System Admin Retreat </0>
<0> For AvantasJessica Cohen, 617-332-9999 x203 </0>
Avantas, a leading provider of strategic labor management technology, services, and strategies for the healthcare industry, announced today that the company presented its “Change Maker Award” to Mercy, the sixth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S., at its Annual System Admin Retreat held at Avantas’ corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Mercy, headquartered in St. Louis with locations across Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma, was selected for this award because of its effort to promote best practice processes and incorporate Avantas’ labor management software, Smart Square®, to achieve its organizational goals, including a high employee satisfaction rate and considerable cost savings.
One area where increased utilization of specific Smart Square functionality has resulted in savings for the 32-hospital system is incidental worked time. Smart Square’s Variance Dashboard provides exceptions between shifts punched within a Time and Attendance system and scheduled within Smart Square. It is used to correct punches in a timelier manner and monitor unexpected hours. Mercy increased use of this tool by 68.5%, resulting in a 31.1% reduction in costs associated with incidental worked time.
Along with focusing on increased use of Smart Square, Mercy has developed an ongoing labor management program that specifically reinforces core strategies and organizational goals. This program supports users with regularly scheduled training sessions, customized guidance materials, and one-on-one visits to gain understanding of any challenges and stay on top of feedback in order to process changes. For example, Mercy’s efforts to incorporate a proactive incentive methodology have been enhanced by education and promoting awareness of the positive financial impacts of faithfully executing this strategy.
“We are always excited to gather our System Admins together at this annual event to provide advanced training sessions, facilitate meaningful discussion of current challenges provider organizations are facing in managing their labor force, and also have the opportunity to tap this group for feedback on new functionality we’re planning to develop over the coming year,” said Jackie Larson, SVP, Avantas. “The work Mercy has been doing to engage their staff in using our solutions and strategies has resulted in real change for their organization, both culturally and financially, so we were eager to recognize them this year with our Change Maker Award.”
The System Admin Retreat included sessions that provided advanced training on Smart Square functionality as well as breakout sessions covering Resource Management Center (RMC) metrics, warning signs to monitor to uncover underlying operational issues, as well as change management topics. Attendees also received new release training on Avantas’ Daily Assignment tool, which is designed to support the unique operations within medical group practices and other ancillary departments.
“There were some great takeaways from this year’s retreat, specifically the RMC warning signs guidance that was provided,” said Bruce Weinberg, Executive Director, Resource Management, Mercy. “I walked away with actual steps to take to address the issue. I appreciate receiving prescriptive actions to take that will not only identify a problem, but help to remedy it and result in improved outcomes.”
Avantas’ SaaS-based solution, Smart Square, is the only healthcare scheduling and productivity software that combines demand forecasting with robust scheduling functionality, enterprise transparency, and business intelligence tools all in one application. The flexible platform can interface with third party IT systems including a client’s existing HRIS, EMR, Time & Attendance and Payroll systems, providing users timely access to actionable data they can leverage to drive significant improvements to clinical, operational, and financial outcomes.
Developers of the HELMmethodology (healthcare enterprise labor management), Avantas is devoted to serving the healthcare industry. Its proprietary approach to managing labor consists of consulting services and a scheduling and productivity solution, Smart Square®. This comprehensive approach provides its clients with tailored best practice labor management strategies designed to drive substantial and sustaining cost and quality improvements across the enterprise through automation. For more information, please visit the Avantas website at .