Bruce Drake - Pioneer Filling Open Shifts

1. Pioneer Filling Open shifts Bruce Drake Pioneer Manor Partners in Achieving Change Excellence. 282 Lourdes Street, Sudbury, ON P3B 2V6 705-222-8463 > neha.singh@yourpace.ca

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Bruce Drake, Manager of administration at long term care home Pioneer Manor, had experienced an increase in the amount of time the LTCH was not fully staffed, resulting in working short staffed a significant portion of the time. By using Lean productivity tools Bruce was able to outline a clear problem statement which allowed him to determine the root cause of the problem and find informed solutions to this challenge to successfully begin addressing staffing issues. BACKGOUND AND ANALYSIS A Root Cause Analysis was conducted in order to determine opportunities for improvement. Followed by the completion of an A3 assessment on the replacement call process. Furthermore, a GEMBA walk was conducted in order to gather baseline Information. It was determined that an average of 10.75 call ins had been received which required 8.06 hours over a 2-month time frame of April and May 2015 to fill. LAUNCH AND EXPLORE When determining what the problem statement should be, it was found that There were 10-15 sick calls per day which took, on average, 20 phone calls to fill one shift. It was also found that calls were being made to fill shifts on the same day. Staff indicated that if they were notified prior to the day the shift needed to be filled they would be more available. The challenge that Pioneer Manor was faced with may be defined as: the Nursing Care section, Health Care Aides and Registered Practical Nurses of Pioneer Manor often work short staffed and are therefore faced with the challenge of the amount of time it takes to fill open shifts. Figure 1: Root Cause Analysis: Working short

3. Furthermore, when researching the background conditions causing the problem it was discovered that the Scheduler spends 8-10 hours per day making phone calls. This challenge has led to working short staffed more often than is acceptable because it results in putting employees at risk of becoming injured and modified work WSIB claims and as well as lowers staff morale. After developing the necessary information, gathering tools for staffs contact information and communication to staff about the change in process the implementation phase was able to take place. The Automatic contact software Staff Stat contacted all staff simultaneously via voice call, text or email (or all 3) to request that they come in to fill the shift. The scheduler assigned the shift to staff based on who says yes and rotational priority of who should get next shift GOALS As a result of the data collection 2 goals were set (1) to reduce the time spent contacting staff for open shifts by 50 percent and (2) to have 50 percent less shifts go unfilled. RESULTS The number of filled shifts has since improved from roughly 8 shifts per day to 11 per day and time spent filling shifts has reduced by 30% In order to achieve these goals, there was an identified need for an automation system in order to facilitate the calling process and reduce the time spent on calls. Utilizing the PDSA cycle Pioneer Manor is reviewing the current practise to look for continuous improvements to increase the fill percentage and take advantage of the technology advancement which allows for more staff to be contacted in a given time frame. An investigation and analysis of 2 products were conducted. One product came from the current scheduling software provider, Kronos SMS texts, and another product came from a third party company Staff Stat.