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AtStaff^® Advantage™ Featured in Healthcare IT News
AtStaff^® Advantage™ staff management software is featured in an article in the May 2005 issue of Healthcare IT News, a leading healthcare publication produced in partnership with HIMSS.

The article, "Software Helps Keep Nurses in Sync," reveals how the AtStaff software is clearly differentiated in the marketplace from traditional staff scheduling offerings.

An excerpt of the article follows below and includes key quotes from Beth Pickard, president and chief executive officer of AtStaff, Inc., as well as an AtStaff Advantage hospital customer. The entire article can be viewed at www.healthcareitnews.com

Beth Pickard, president of Durham, N.C.-based AtStaff, added that overtime, agency reliance and staff morale aren't individual problems, but symptoms of a much larger issue: hospitals' inability to accurately predict supply and demand.

"Until you can better predict the variation of supply and demand, you will also have the symptoms of overtime, agency use and staff turnover," she said. "Accurately measuring the number of staff to that workload is the other part of it. Hospitals have not been accurately measuring the staff they need. With the varying peaks of demand, we're hearing more and more that they need to solve those problems."

Rapid City Regional Hospital, a 417-bed medical center in western South Dakota, has "limited staffing resources," admits Rita Haxton, RN, vice president of patient care. Since using AtStaff Advantage, however, the facility now has the capability to optimize its staffing levels, she said.

"To use our resources in the best and most efficient way, we must make decisions centered around actual clinical conditions and not just patient numbers on units," she said. "This event-driven workload methodology helps us use our dollars wisely and safely for our patients and staff."