Healthcare facilities use per diem (PRN) staffing agencies to help them maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios. Facilities reach out to agencies that employ hundreds of nurses who are ready to pick up shifts. Critical access hospitals and rural facilities tend to partner with multiple agencies because finding staff can be challenging in rural communities. This leads to a long and confusing list of chain emails and wasted time for an already understaffed facility. Cascade Health Services saw this problem and came up with the ultimate solution. Our Client Portal.
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The Problem With Agency Communication
Cascade Health Services has been leading the way for PRN staffing for over 35 years, so believe me when I say we have seen it all. We’ve been sent pictures of needs on napkins, pictures of schedules with 3 different colored highlights, faxes, and really long chain emails with 30 people included. Phone calls and emails can be a great way to communicate your per diem needs with agencies, but when reaching out to multiple agencies at once like this can also add a lot of issues.
Inefficient communication: Inefficient communication can lead to lower-quality services, and makes it harder to know if or when help is coming. It also leads to lots of wasted time trying to decipher what is happening.
Difficulty finding nurses quickly: A healthcare staffing agency’s job is to find quality nurses quickly. When unclear information is sent, it leads to agencies spending more time deciphering what facilities need. Which takes time away from what is important; getting shifts filled.
Inconsistent staff: Some facilities enjoy knowing the people coming to help them and prefer being sent to the same group of people when available. When needs go out to multiple agencies in chain emails, it is hard to have the time to move schedules around if needed.
How Our PRN Scheduling Platform Helps
Seeing all of those issues affect the way agencies staff, we decided it was time to make a PRN scheduling platform that facilities would love. We took the problems we were seeing and created solutions that benefitted the facilities we were working with.
Streamlined communication: Our Client Portal is designed for facilities. We wanted to help you have a way to communicate with everyone you use in one place. It isn’t just a scheduling tool. With the click of a button facilities can share their PRN staff needs with each of their vendors. The best part is that the website is mobile-friendly, so schedulers can send out requests wherever they are.
Know staff is coming faster: Cascades Client Portal updates anytime one of our employees picks up a shift, so you’re never left in the dark wondering if we have someone for you.
Preferred workers: One of the most exciting parts of our portal is giving you the ability to select workers you want to have first choice on a shift. This way, if you have a group of employees you love seeing, you can give them the chance to pick up the shift before anyone else.
Benefits for Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare facilities already using our PRN scheduling platform have seen a dip in no-call no-shows. The Client Portal hasn’t been out for long, and we are already seeing a show-up rate of 98.8%.
We’ve received tons of reviews about how helpful the platform is, and how facilities who aren’t using it are missing out on the easiest way to communicate with agency staff.
The portal is reducing time and effort associated with agency scheduling, and improving the access facilities have with PRN staff. This gives schedulers, Administrators, and Directors of Nursing the time they need to ensure everything else is running smoothly.
At the end of the day, your patient care should be the number one priority. That’s why we integrated this technology into our scheduling platform. We want to empower you to get the help you need as fast as possible. But don’t worry, Cascade will always employ a full team of staffing managers to assist you 24/7/365 because we know some problems can’t be solved with more technology.
