Health systems face numerous challenges in the pursuit of delivering high-quality patient care while maintaining operational efficiency. To address these challenges, many healthcare organizations are leveraging more data for deeper insights into operations, particularly when it comes to business intelligence for locums staffing.
Good business intelligence allows healthcare administrators to make more evidence-based strategic staffing decisions. This is particularly important when it comes to making decisions about locum tenens, which can be costly when not billed for and managed correctly. On the other hand, the strategic usage of locums providers will not only relieve pressure on staff but drive revenue for the organization.
Data-driven locum tenens strategy
For healthcare organizations that utilize locum tenens providers as part of their staffing strategy, business intelligence can be especially critical for operational efficiency and human resource management.
“The most important part of business intelligence for locums staffing is visibility,” says Sara Viola, manager of key accounts at Locumsmart. “A lot of facilities don’t know what their locum spend is and they don’t know what they’re capturing in terms of payor enrollment.”
“If you just look at an invoice from a locum, you can easily come to the ‘conclusion’ that locums is a cost,” she continues. “But by utilizing analytics and having visibility into your locums activity and utilization, you’re able to draw some lines to understand locums as a revenue-generating stream versus a cost center.”
Locums specialty utilization
Tracking the utilization rates of physician specialties within the facility helps health systems allocate staff resources efficiently. By analyzing specialty-specific patient demand, facilities can ensure adequate staffing levels, prevent overburdened departments, minimize patient wait times, and efficiently engage locums providers.
“As a healthcare organization utilizing locums, understanding your specialty utilization is critical. Are you supporting your highest-generating service lines with coverage? And, conversely, are you perhaps spending money on service lines that are not revenue generating?” says Resa Konkright, director of healthcare organization management at Locumsmart.
“In many organizations, it can be challenging to see,” Konkright continues. “Business intelligence gives total visibility into what’s happening operationally and may support scheduling decisions to help organizations generate revenue most efficiently.”
Locum tenens vendor performance
Health systems rely on numerous vendors to meet their staffing needs. Monitoring and evaluating vendor performance metrics can help healthcare organizations ensure the availability of essential staffing resources without disruption.
“By evaluating vendor performance, you can see your speed to bid, your days to fill a job, and which vendors are performing well,” says Konkright. “This data also serves as a rate comparison to understand each vendor’s offering better.”
Healthcare market trends
To stay competitive, health systems should stay abreast of evolving market trends to adapt their services and staffing strategies accordingly. Analyzing data on patient demographics, treatment preferences, and regional healthcare demands enables facilities to anticipate changes and align their staffing patterns with emerging needs.
“Analyzing market trends is key to projecting demand and forecasting spend,” says Konkright. “By evaluating data such as spend per state or top specialties nationally, you can better understand and prepare for specialties where locum tenens rates are increasing due to demand.”
Business intelligence can power better decisions
Health systems can’t manage what they can’t see. Locum tenens data that’s tied up in multiple spreadsheets or siloed in different departments can limit an organization’s ability to see the whole picture and make informed decisions.
“It can be challenging to even know the right questions to ask of your data,” says Matthew Patterson, CTO of Locumsmart. “At Locumsmart, we see the entire market, not just one area. We see the challenges multiple organizations are facing and hear the questions multiple people are asking. We see the macro view and can help organizations understand their piece of it.”
One of the advantages of working with Locumsmart is that it can provide visibility into your entire locum tenens usage and spending. Whether you work with just a few vendors or a dozen to fill your needs, Locumsmart’s business intelligence tools can give you visibility across all your vendors.
The integration of business intelligence and data analytics has become a necessity for health systems. Regarding staffing, optimizing the clinical workforce can contribute to cost containment and financial sustainability, ensuring health systems can continue to provide quality care in the long term.
Having access to business intelligence data can help you run your healthcare facility more efficiently — and even increase revenue. Locumsmart’s technology can help you do this by providing customized data and analytics. To learn more, email us at support@locumsmart.net.