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Case Study: Cost Containment Through Workforce Optimization
VISTA recently embarked on an engagement with a large multi-specialty medical and healthcare management group to discuss the challenges they were facing. These challenges included the following major areas: cost containment, transparency, compliance, and how to reduce the dependency on locum tenens.
As a major healthcare provider that employs over 25,000 physicians and advanced practice providers throughout more than 1,800 clinical departments located across 45 states, they have struggled to find qualified providers and have chosen to turn to locum services. Without proper processes and infrastructure to strategically leverage contingent staffing, these services have driven up labor costs and have made their services cost-prohibitive.
The group requested that VISTA perform their complementary Workforce Optimization Review to understand the key problems, and which solutions were most suitable. While conducting the review, VISTA identified five key issues:
- Overspending on locum staff
- Lack of locum hiring optimization
- Absence of cost transparency
- Lack of oversight, accountability, and regular reporting via Quarterly Business Reviews
- Lack of consolidated software technology
Once the key issues were identified, the goal became clear: find ways to implement standardization, increase operational efficiency, and gain cost containment. Through a deeper dive into the group, VISTA’s team of experts also uncovered additional areas for improvement and took action. The team:
- Identified challenges related to workforce optimization, overspending, and lack of standardization
- Reviewed reporting related to invoices, contracts, hiring statistics, and overall financial data
- Interviewed staff to identify gaps in the locum hiring process and prioritize needs
The VISTA team of experts identified several opportunities to improve processes, implement a staffing technology platform, and clearly define a road map to cost containment. The team analyzed the funds allocated for staffing reassignment, seasonal employment, and technology uncovering opportunities to make a change.
The VISTA’s Workforce Optimization Review uncovered costs that the group’s executive team wasn’t aware of. Once informed they were able to make the necessary changes to reduce unnecessary spending.
To learn more about what those results are, click here.
