Reduce Nursing Staff Turnover by 22% With PointClickCare

Throughout this series, we’ve looked at the 418% ROI over three years reported by our skilled nursing customers in The Total Economic Impact™ of our Skilled Nursing Solution, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of PointClickCare. We also revealed other findings from the study, including how our solution saves each nursing staff member 260 hours per year, and how it significantly cuts Medicare penalties. 

Before we wrap up, we want to talk about one more perk skilled nursing organizations can leverage from using our solution: a lower turnover rate among nursing staff. Employee departures in any business are costly, and especially so when healthcare professionals are involved. However, Forrester found that by implementing PointClickCare, skilled nursing facilities see less burnout among nursing staff – and more stable workforces as a result. It’s worth exploring why nursing staff leave, and how these skilled nursing facilities have made retention a no-brainer.

Frustration Often Takes Nursing Staff to the Breaking Point

Nursing isn’t really a job – it’s a calling. Nursing staff aren’t in it for money, prestige or accolades. More than anything else, nursing staff want to provide. But the Coronavirus pandemic, working conditions, and regulations have gotten in the way of nursing staff doing what they do best. Many senior care nursing staff are also up against:  

• Inefficient workflows
• Time-consuming manual charting
• Endless searches for information
• Increased resident acuity
• Changing state and federal guidelines
• Technology that’s difficult to learn and use
• Unclear roles, tasks and expectations
• Lack of oversight and mentoring
• Risk of human error

It’s no mystery why nursing staff burn out when they have to contend with a combination of these factors day in and day out, and the current pandemic has added an even bigger strain. If nursing staff think they can find less stressful working conditions somewhere else, they may gladly take those opportunities.

Cost of Turnover Hits Your Bottom Line Hard

Nursing staff aren’t the only ones affected when they decide to change jobs. Forrester calculated that you can spend up to 120 hours finding and preparing one new nursing staff member to work in your facility. An administrator interviewed for the Forrester study put it bluntly, “Turnover in this industry is very expensive. I would say that when onboarding someone, including recruiting, training and orientation, you’re looking at several thousand dollars per new hire. That’s a lot of money.”

So how do you make it compelling for nursing staff to want to work – and stay – at your facility? They may have been attracted to your SNF because you get high marks from residents and families, offer competitive salaries and benefits, or provide programs that they might also find in a hospital. But if you’re not enabling them to spend a majority of their time delivering quality care to your residents, you won’t be able to retain them for the long term. 

Technology Can Make Your Nursing Staff Better – and Keep Them on Board

With the PointClickCare solution in place, our skilled nursing customers interviewed by Forrester have an integrated workflow and streamlined access to data, that empowers them to make informed care decisions and enables them to spend more time with residents. With the information they need at their fingertips, nursing staff are making better decisions – and fewer mistakes. There are no more time-consuming searches, or hours spent generating reports. Nursing staff are doing more of what they were trained to do, thanks to a greatly reduced administrative load.

The management teams included in the Forrester study also say they’re more in touch with what’s happening on the resident floors, so they can give nursing staff clearer directions and prepare better strategic plans for their facilities. One director says, “With PointClickCare, we’re able to differentiate roles and duties. The nursing staff have specific roles, and they know what they are and the tasks that go with them. So, if they’re working as the admissions nursing staff that day, they know what tasks they have to complete in PointClickCare.” Believe it or not, these skilled nursing facilities reduced their nursing staff turnover by 22 percent after implementing our solution. If sustained, that can mean at least a $50,000 savings each year.

Our skilled nursing customers told Forrester that auditing a nursing staff used to take many hours, so audits were done only once in a while and never on a regular schedule. Using PointClickCare, all the information they need about their nursing staff now is available instantly. This allows facilities use the platform to step up monitoring and coaching of their nursing staffs – a win/win for both.

4 Big Takeaways for Skilled Nursing Facilities

These skilled nursing facilites resolved a number of fundamental clinical and operational issues by adopting our skilled nursing EHR solution, and are finding new ways to improve their overall performance every day. To recap, here are the quantifiable results compiled by Forrester:

• A 418% return on their investment over three years, nearly $900K
• 260 extra hours for each nursing staff member per year
• $132K+/year savings in Medicare PDPM penalties
• 22% reduction in nursing staff turnover

There were also benefits to quality, such as better evidence-based care plans; improved privacy, security and compliance; and greater flexibility. One administrator summed it up nicely, “We’re looking at metrics that we have not seen before, allowing us to identify areas that need adjustment.” If you think your facility could move to the next level by saving time and money, take a look at our skilled nursing solution. Thousands of skilled nursing facilities have already partnered with us. Will you be next?