Vendor alliance to help hospitals assess nursing performance

Kronos, Press Ganey plan to develop best practices for nurse units, says Susan Reese.


Human capital and workforce management vendor Kronos and performance analytics and advisory firm Press Ganey are teaming up to help hospitals assess their nursing staffs.

Kronos sells software to manage schedules, track time and attendance, administer absence and leave policies, and measure productivity, among other metrics. Press Ganey helps hospitals assess the safety, quality, turnover rate and patient outcomes of their nursing staffs, as well as measuring patient experiences under the care of staff.

Both companies have a large footprint in healthcare, with around 3,500 hospital clients each, says Susan Reese, director of the healthcare practice group and chief nurse executive at Kronos.

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The initiative has begun with a pilot project in an unnamed hospital by collecting data on how units are staffed, the types of personnel, their experiences and their skill sets, then analyze the data to see which factors have an effect on how well a patient does while being cared in the unit. The goal is to assess what can be done differently to make a better experience for the patient.

Participating hospitals will submit quality data to Press Ganey for analysis and receive a benchmarking report to aid in comparing their performance against peers. Press Ganey has created a process for automated uploading of hospital-supplied data into the Press Ganey databases.

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Developing best practices also is part of the Kronos-Press Ganey service, Reese says. For instance, hospitals may find that patient outcomes are better in units that have a nurse with at least five years of experience because other nurses do better when working with at least one veteran nurse.

The intent of Kronos and Press Ganey is two-fold. The companies say they want to help hospitals improve the patient experience by better understanding best nursing practices and sharing findings with the industry by educating clients and publishing research. Secondly, as customer hospitals find the answers they are looking for, they also may find they need additional technology, such as a new scheduling system, or additional advisory services.

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