University Hospitals of Ohio Achieves Staffing Credential Compliance and Improves Audit Performance with ShiftWise

PORTLAND, Ore., April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- University Hospitals, an 11-hospital system in Ohio, has achieved clinical compliance and significantly improved audit performance by implementing ShiftWise Vendor Management System (VMS).

By implementing ShiftWise VMS, University Hospitals accomplished two key goals:

1. Provide a faster, more accurate and standardized credential verification process across a complex 11-hospital organization.
2. Simplify the process of validating compliance during audits with Joint Commission and other regulatory bodies.

Both were achieved with ShiftWise VMS, which provides an easy online review and approval process when verifying temporary and contract employee credentials and documents. A case study that details how University Hospitals achieved these compelling results is available for immediate download.

The case study details UH and its need to improve vetting of temporary staff across the entire organization. According to Erin Slay, Director of Hospital Operations and Patient Relations Officer for University Hospitals, "Our credentialing system required constant manual updating of hundreds of separate file folders for workers with documentation for all their background checks, certifications, immunizations and a number of other requirements." Through its partnership with OHA Solutions, a subsidiary of the Ohio Hospital Association, Slay says, "We turned to ShiftWise to help us create a more efficient and sustainable process for credentialing.

"The credentialing capabilities of ShiftWise provide us with a huge safety net to ensure that we're not bringing in workers that we don't want to have in our facilities," says Slay. "Nobody can come in to work in our system without a check mark in the system proving that they meet our requirements. ShiftWise is the tool that we use for gate-keeping to provide safety to our patients."

UH's successful outcome using ShiftWise is a perfect example of what can be accomplished by focusing part of an organization's HIT initiatives on the staffing side of the business.

"Much of the HIT focus within healthcare is patient-centric, but there are critical needs that have to be met operationally as well," said Jason Drucker, Chief Operating Officer, ShiftWise Group.  "Ensuring Joint Commission compliance is certainly one of them and I think this case study will show hospitals just how a solution like ShiftWise accomplishes that goal.  It's extremely gratifying when we see clients achieve desired outcomes such as lower costs, higher quality of staff and better overall compliance after integrating ShiftWise into their business practices."

"ShiftWise is really standardizing our credentialing processes to make them system-wide," said Slay. "When we clear someone to work a shift, we can now vet them for our whole organization, so it's not just one hospital, and then the other ten have to do it too. That has definitely increased efficiency by eliminating work that was being repeated previously." 

Based in Portland, Oregon, ShiftWise's broad client base includes some of the most clinically advanced healthcare systems in the U.S. and covers services including inpatient hospitals, primary, urgent and sub acute care, outpatient medical and therapy clinics, surgery centers, retail clinics, medical research centers, assisted living, home health/hospice and long-term care. For more information call 866-399-2220 or visit www.shiftwise.com.

Contact:
ShiftWise
Jason Drucker
[email protected]
(503) 548-2057

SOURCE ShiftWise