MediServe Releases Acuity-Based Nurse Staffing Tool for Inpatient Rehabilitation Units and Hospitals

CHANDLER, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MediServe, the leading provider of software solutions for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), announced today the debut of the MediLinks Inpatient RNS (Rehab Nurse Staffer) Module. Designed specifically for IRFs, this MediServe solution enables nurse managers to determine proper nurse staffing levels based on individual patient acuity.

“Having an automated, repeatable process for nurse staffing is a ‘must-have’ for nursing leadership and nursing executives. Using a tool such as this will position the executive team to manage resources, make sound decisions and use data to minimize adverse events in the patient care setting.”

Today, ensuring that patients receive the appropriate amount and type of nursing care based on their individual medical and functional impairment is a significant challenge for IRFs. The data needed to understand individual patient nursing need has not been available. With the release of the RNS Module, inpatient rehab nurse managers now have the data and automated tools needed to determine both individual patient acuity and the amount of nursing time needed to properly address that acuity.

Proper nurse staffing has been shown to minimize the occurrence and cost of nursing-related sentinel events. Because MediServe’s RNS Module determines proper nurse staffing, nurse managers now have the ability to minimize the occurrence and significant financial impact of sentinel events. According to Ginger Cohen, Chief Nursing Executive at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, “Having an automated, repeatable process for nurse staffing is a ‘must-have’ for nursing leadership and nursing executives. Using a tool such as this will position the executive team to manage resources, make sound decisions and use data to minimize adverse events in the patient care setting.” St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute has been field testing the RNS Module during the past year of the product’s development.

The RNS Module is also designed to tightly control overall nursing expense and optimize bed utilization. “As a patient’s functional status improves during their stay in the IRF, they need less nursing time each day, which means their nursing cost should decrease,” said Bill Vallance, MediServe RNS Product Manager. The product enables nurse managers to easily determine when to reduce patient nursing time as a patient’s functional status improves. Since the RNS Module calculates each patient’s shift-by-shift nursing need, nurse managers and other members of the care team are able to see each patient’s progress toward discharge goals. “Because the care team can monitor each patient’s daily progress, appropriate discharge can be determined more accurately than using the ALOS. This means IRFs can optimize the utilization of each of their beds to improve revenue, reduce per-patient cost and maximize profitability. This happens because the RNS Module removes caregiver subjectivity from the process of FIM^® scoring,” said Vallance.

Minimizing overtime and reducing or eliminating agency use are also benefits that can be realized through the use of the RNS Module, depending upon how the IRF is staffing its nursing function. The Module determines nurse staffing based upon patient need and not on a staffing grid or other fixed patient-to-FTE ratio. Nurse managers may actually be able to increase the number of nurse FTEs, pay for that increase through the reduction or elimination of both overtime and agency use, and reduce overall nursing expense. A significant benefit of this FTE alignment is an improvement in patient safety and satisfaction, patient outcomes and staff satisfaction.

For additional information contact MediServe at www.mediserve.com or 1-800-279-8456.

About MediServe

MediServe delivers software solutions and services to the rehabilitation and respiratory care communities. MediServe works with clients to bring quality and performance improvement to the clinical and business workflow, while actively addressing regulatory compliance and revenue cycle improvement. Founded in 1985, MediServe is a privately held company headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. For more information, visit www.mediserve.com.

FIM® is a trademark of Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation, a division of UB Foundation Activities, Inc.