Norton Healthcare Leads Charge for Consumer Transparency With Help from Kronos®
Healthcare organization also reaps $5.5 million savings in first year on Kronos
LAS VEGAS, June 23, 2008 — Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Healthcare is answering the nationwide call for healthcare providers to engage in consumer transparency by publishing quality-related scores and indicators. Consumer transparency is a broad-scale initiative enabling patients to compare the quality and price of healthcare services so they can make informed choices among doctors and hospitals. With that in mind, by utilizing a labor productivity and workforce analytics tool from Kronos® Incorporated, Norton is publicly reporting its nurse staffing ratios to illustrate its labor hours per patient day, compared to national statistics. The organization's public quality report is available online at http://www.NortonHealthcare.com/quality.
Steps to transparency
Through the debut of its online Norton Quality Report in 2005, Norton Healthcare set the regional and national industry standard by openly reporting on more than 400 nationally recognized quality indicators. Norton has been recognized in the country as the industry leader in measuring and openly reporting on the quality and safety of patient care. Nearly 600 indicators now are available on the report. In addition, Norton is gathering information from Kronos' labor productivity application to develop quality indicators such as nursing care's total direct patient care hours per patient day, by unit, and registered nurse's direct patient hours per patient day. These vital statistics are being derived from the Kronos solution and posted on www.NortonHealthcare.com for consumers to review and compare with other organizations.
"Accountability is paramount to the success of our healthcare organization," said Tracy Williams, RN, senior vice president and system chief nursing officer, Norton Healthcare. "The healthcare environment requires sound decisions that are based on solid statistics and detailed cost analyses. By using Kronos as a tool to help us monitor labor costs we can more easily be held accountable for time spent in clinical and support services settings. Once we determine how our time is spent, we can analyze where improvements can be made and prepare for future service enhancements for our patients."
Monitoring productivity is not enough
Norton is also looking for ways to improve productivity and allocation of resources. By using Kronos software as a tool to not only monitor labor costs, but also analyze where improvements can be made, Norton's management teams were able to realize over $5.5 million in labor cost savings in the first year alone.
"We applaud Norton Healthcare for setting the standard for the quality and depth of information it is making available to its consumers," said Brian Graves, global practice leader of healthcare at Kronos. "This will help guarantee a fair and accurate view of the quality of care delivered by individual providers, as well as offer consistent measures for quality. Kronos is proud to provide a piece of technology that empowers the organization to raise the bar for consumer transparency."
Kronos made this announcement from the Healthcare Financial Management's Annual National Institute (ANI) event being held in Las Vegas from June 23-26. Kronos is exhibiting in booth #718.
About Norton Healthcare
For more than a century Norton Healthcare's faith heritage has guided its mission to provide quality health care to all those served. Today, Norton Healthcare is the Louisville area's leading hospital and health care system (44 percent market share) and third largest private employer. The not-for-profit system - the largest in Kentucky and rated one of the top 100 integrated health care delivery systems in the country - includes four large hospitals in Louisville and one under construction, 10 Norton Immediate Care Centers, 9,700 employees, 280 employed medical providers at some 50 locations, and nearly 2,000 total physicians on its medical staff. Norton Healthcare serves the Louisville metro area, including Southern Indiana and patients throughout Kentucky.
About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos Incorporated empowers organizations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. At Kronos, we are experts who are solely focused on delivering software and services that enable organizations to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide. Kronos serves customers in more than 60 countries through its network of offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. Widely recognized as a market and thought leader in managing the workforce, Kronos has unrivaled reach with more than 30 million people using a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos at www.kronos.com.
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