Facilities Staffing Requirements for the Veterans Health Administration–Resourcing, Workforce Modeling, and Staffing Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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4 Outsourcing Options and Marketplace Tools
4 Outsourcing Options and Marketplace Tools
Pages 25-34
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From page 25... ...
To calculate workload requirements and assess productivity, Poulos emphasized the importance of the implementation and effective management of an appropriate work order system. He noted that there are many work order systems in existence, most of which can track the metrics necessary for effective workforce planning if properly managed.
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From page 26... ...
However, Poulos acknowledged, the usefulness of a work order system to track these metrics ultimately requires that employees enter information accurately and consistently. To address the issue of adjusting staffing requirements to account for location-specific conditions, Poulos said that gearing ratios -- such as 41,000 square feet per full-time-equivalent staff person (FTE)
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One such initiative is a "center of excellence," consisting of a team of experts in health care, emergency management, sourcing, energy, and sustainability, that creates standards and processes to help facility directors and engineers improve their performance. Another initiative involves implementing an integrated facilities model to begin to standardize operational compliance among independent medical facilities.
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Ricard noted that hospitals share enough similarities with other types of properties, such as class A office buildings and hotels, that it is possible to run hospitals similarly to such other properties. He stated that JLL aims to help the facilities management and clinical functions of hospitals work together, as they do in the hotel industry, for example, "so that everybody knows and understands that the ultimate goal is the patient experience." In order for integration to occur, Ricard stressed, close collaboration between the facilities management team and the clinical team is needed so that the facilities staff can fully understand the needs of the clinicians.
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In response to a related question from Alvarez, Ricard noted that hospital leaders also have to understand that maintaining the environment of a hospital is critical. When hospital leaders do not work collaboratively with facilities management, the hospital environment begins to suffer, which can result in greater infection rates and higher staff turnover.
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Sinclair defined business planning as a bottom-up process in which every department or service in a hospital develops a plan that includes tactical objectives and data-driven resource needs for the coming year. These plans should support the overall goals of the facility.
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Sinclair explained that 4Cast can also assist with the resource side of business planning. The tool contains contracts and fund control points element, which compares historical resource data with projections for the coming year, allowing for justification of any significant differences.
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To conclude, Sinclair stated his belief that the VHA would benefit from a consistent approach to business planning. In Sinclair's words, "The return on investment can be 100 times of what it cost in just one year to put that model in place." MARKETPLACE TOOLS FOR MODELING For this workshop session on the RSMeans costing tool, the committee had asked the speaker to address the following questions, which he touched on throughout the course of his presentation: Are there any reasonable standard models, or model structures, that have seen broad validation and acceptance by customers?
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Plotner replied that the current database "probably will not go into depth in the health care arena. It will cover maybe 80 percent of it, but that missing 20, which is what you really need, we would have to develop in conjunction with you." He provided the example of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for which the RSMeans team developed new data, almost doubling the agency's preventive maintenance database.
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. Marketplace Tools for Modeling Panel.
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