Managed Service for Nursing
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Even prior to the start of the pandemic, nursing shift requests had reached unsustainable levels, exceeding the current number of equivalent nursing vacancies. The Trust urgently needed more nurses, along with better rota control and planning, and new more stringent processes for scrutinizing bookings and rates.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, this became especially important, with demand, rates and costs for critical care and ICU nurses rising exponentially. To increase fill to meet demand, while keeping costs at sustainable levels, the Trust needed much more visibility over what was happening, so they could rapidly build in more efficient and resilient booking methods.
Despite the pressures of the ongoing pandemic, fill was effectively doubled and savings targets were exceeded by 38%.
Key steps to achieve the required change included:
The result is a significant reduction in rates and over all temporary nursing staffing costs, averaging over £70,000 in savings per month. Over the last 12 months fill has also effectively doubled. The total up lift in fill is the equivalent of employing 30 fulltime nurses.