The concept of “Lean” was born in manufacturing, yet it can apply to all business environments – especially healthcare. Lean thinking begins with driving out waste so that all work adds value and serves the customer’s needs. By identifying value added and non-value-added steps in every process, an organization can run smoothly, more efficiently and at a lower cost. It’s all about looking at ways to improve business processes and doing more with less.
Healthcare differs from manufacturing in many ways, yet we find there are many similarities when it comes to organizational structure. Both manufacturing and healthcare employees rely on multiple, complex processes to accomplish their task and provide value to their customer/patient. Any waste of money, time, or talent decreases value. When applied rigorously throughout an entire organization, Lean has proven to have a positive impact on productivity, cost, quality of patient care and offers a timely delivery of service for any healthcare organization.
Typically, there are 7 steps organizations take to achieve “Lean” – and all of them are executable through Ringo.
- Focus on customers/patients
- Observe and review processes
- Remove waste (time, inefficiencies, costs)
- Keep score
- Empower people
- Improve systematically
- Compliance
So, where does Ringo Vendor Management System (VMS) fit in?
Ringo’s VMS platform for workforce talent fits a Lean strategy at its core. It changes the process for contingent talent – from requisition to invoice, making it fully transparent. Ringo’s functionality reduces waste, reduces cost, improves efficiency, and allows your organization to provide a higher quality of care to patients. In fact, without Ringo, your contingent labor program may never be truly Lean.
EFFICIENCY – Steps 1 and 2
By utilizing Ringo, the time-to-fill a position is reduced by roughly 53.4%. You enjoy a fully automated program where repetitive processes are eliminated and the administrative burden is removed from staff. All processes are conducted from one central location, from order requisition to fill and all the steps in between and beyond. Full transparency enables leadership to easily identify and eliminate process inefficiencies related to per diem, temporary and other staffing usage. Most importantly, healthcare staff will have far greater time to focus on what is paramount – patient care.
COST – Step 3
It is important to note, there is absolutely no cost to your organization to utilize Ringo. Ringo is 100% vendor funded. However, the far greater fiscal impact is on your bottom line. Over the nearly two decades Ringo has been in operation, Ringo has proven to reduce the cost of our client’s contingent talent programs by at least 22%. This is accomplished by eliminating rouge spend, enforcing the agreed upon price points with your vendors and keeping close eye on maverick overtime. In fact, no actual staff reduction is required and many organizations utilize the savings to increase core staff and improve patient care.
ANALYTICS – Steps 4, 5 and 6
When implementing and utilizing a Lean strategy, analytics are essential. You can’t go Lean without them. Unfortunately, most healthcare organizations lack transparency and an easy way to review essential metrics. Collecting this data is often a cumbersome, time consuming process. By utilizing Ringo, these figures are available to you at the click of a key, in real time – by department, by position, by vendor, reason for usage and any other critical data parameters of your choosing. You have the ability, to make the best decisions, based on the facts, in a timely matter, every time. Full transparency becomes a reality. You are able to easily measure the effectiveness of one staffing vendor over another – keeping score so to speak. Management reports provide the data needed for strategic decision making backed by real data – this empowers people to lead with confidence. The process of contingent talent improves systematically so that your organization can “do more with less.”
COMPLIANCE- Step 7
The healthcare compliance world is complex, and that is putting it mildly. Complex and evolving regulatory reforms, renews of licenses, fines and insurance reimbursement requirements are just some of the outlining issues. Generally, healthcare professionals need to engage in a tedious, paper-based credentialing process. However, this burden can be greatly reduced. Electronic credentialing alerts provided by Ringo for things like out-of-date documents and re-certification needs, offer organizations efficiency, thereby reducing the burden on all stakeholders and positively impacting quality. By delivering alerts prior to a license expiring, Ringo makes it easy to stay compliant, avoiding costly errors, streamlining the entire process.
Lean and Ringo are synonymous with one another. Ringo allows you to use less to do more by streamlining processes and reducing cost. Ringo turns tedious tasks into manageable functions. Remember, inventor Henry Ford’s wise words a century ago, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Make the move to Lean.
GO LEAN, GO RINGO!