For Patient Care Decision Making

To manage effectively, you need good data, and you need it on a timely basis. Looking at months old data on a quarterly basis doesn't help you tightly manage your patient care units and departments on a day-to-day and shift-to-shift basis. You need to know how close your actual hours were to required hours and whether the skill mix matched patient needs today. The Labor Resource Management System (LRMS) puts that data and more at your fingertips as often as you desire. 

With the LRMS created by Applied Management Systems, Inc. you can get shift, daily, weekly and monthly reports, or look at any timeframe you desire to help you quickly understand the operational status of your various nursing areas. Designed to run on an IBM compatible personal computer, LRMS provides concise, meaningful management reports at the department and division levels. It takes data that is typically captured and organizes it into relevant information sets that help you see at-a-glance how each unit, department or division is performing. This easy-to-use tool provides essential information to support your decision making as well as your reports to management. 

Patient care managers need reports that combine relevant indicators of workload and calculate required hours for comparison to actual hours. This tool is highly flexible, enabling you to adapt the forms and reports to the unique needs of any area within your organization - inpatient, outpatient, surgical suite and so on. More importantly, it gives you accurate, timely information that can help you manage to budget, adjust actual to required staffing levels, adjust staffing mix and assess productivity. An affordable tool that's designed to run on the hardware and software typically found in health care organizations, LRMS is an essential tool for patient care managers. 

More information about LRMS can be found below:

• Data Capture
• Standard Reports
• LRMS Specifications

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Data Capture

Data elements captured at the unit level are organized on a Shift Report designed specifically for each unit and generated automatically by the system. Information is organized into a standardized format, structured to address the complex and varied service patterns in a patient care delivery organization. There are several data elements within the Shift Report. 

1. Identification Information

All forms are identified by a preprinted health care facility name, unit description and unit mnemonic. The name of the individual responsible for completing the form, the data date and the shift are also displayed.

2. Actual Staff

Actual staff hours worked on the unit, including any orientation, teaching/inservice and administrative leave hours, are counted and reported in up to six skill categories. The skill categories typically include RN, LPN, patient care technician / certified nurse aide, unit clerk, and sitters. However, these can be modified to match the skills on each individual unit.

3. Workload Requirements Data Elements

Care Requirements - Patient Types

Each unit can list and report volumes for up to 12 patient types associated with base care hour requirements. Points and patient counts generated by factor point-based acuity systems could also be recorded here. For ambulatory, procedural, and outpatient unit type services, volumes of visits or cases are recorded.

Statistics

Up to 12 unit specific activity statistics are tracked each shift. Examples include admissions, discharges, major procedures, minor procedures, endoscopies, transfers out of unit, transfers into unit, and surgical pre-op patients. Each statistic can have a time factor assigned to it and be used to calculate required hours and/or can be used strictly to track volume and trend activity. Inpatient units typically use statistics to track patient turnover and procedural activities while ambulatory, procedural and outpatient units track visits or cases by level and/or case minutes.

Time Reports

This section allows for the documentation of blocks of required time not associated with the patient types or statistics. These blocks of time commonly relate to administrative and educational demands on the unit which take time away from direct patient care.

4. Fixed Staff

Fixed hours are specified by unit, by shift and by weekday/weekend for up to two different staff skill codes. This enables you to add required hours that are not dependent on daily reported data. Examples of fixed staff include monitor techs, unit based educators, or other staff who do not vary with patient care requirements.

5. Minimum Hours

LRMS accommodates minimum staffing levels. These default staffing levels are used when required staffing levels fall below a specified minimum level for each unit and shift. Minimum staffing levels are typically set at two staff per shift but could be more or less depending upon the size and layout of the unit, its proximity to other units, and the type of patients.

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Standard Reports

Unit Mnemonic Listings - allows you to print a summary of all the units in your database. The summary lists the unit mnemonics, unit descriptions, and specific skills working on each unit. This report can be posted where convenient as a general database summary.

Unit Formula Report - displays a summary of the unit setup information for each unit. Numbers that are entered in the slope, intercept, statistic times, and fixed hours columns are used to generate total required hours. Shift distribution percentages are used to generate the required hours for each specific shift. Report options document each unit's statistic type (either patient day, case, visit or delivery), how each unit's classification hours are calculated (classification), and whether the unit required hours are based on volumes/counts or points.

Summary Unit Report - provides an at-a-glance summary analysis of shifts reported, average statistic volumes, productivity ratios comparing patient workload required and actual staff, and the required and actual hours per statistic. This report may be sorted and grouped in a variety of ways as determined by the system user, and run for any reporting period (shift, day, week, month, etc.).

Detailed Unit Report - displays a unit-based analysis by unit for any time-period. The detailed unit summary shows the statistic volume reported, productivity ratio, required versus actual staff and the actual staff working by shift and day. Selected period and daily summaries and period average summaries are included in this brochure.

Unit Analysis Report - shows a full analysis of the Shift Report data entered by specific patient type, statistics, time reports, fixed hours, minimum hours, and actual staff. Volumes and hours listed by shift and averages and totals for all shifts combined are in the middle of the report. Summary columns also display hours per statistic and the required hours percent distributions in the far right column. Required versus actual hours, staff, and productivity ratios are summarized on the bottom of the report.

Shift Report - used to collect information by shift to document actual staff, patient volumes, and comparative required hours. Specific elements and data sets captured on this report are described above in the Data Capture Section.

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LRMS SPECIFICATIONS

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