Team Builder

As a Health System Engineer and former health care leader, I have been in the position to oversee labor and patient flow at large hospital systems. I know that hospital's are often spending large amounts of energy in the wrong areas of staffing and patient flow. For hospitals and the healthcare system as a whole to improve, long term planning is the low hanging fruit of labor management.  I developed the theory behind 'Team Builder's' proprietary algorithm to build autonomy in clinical leaders to create a staffing plan which would save their organization millions.  If every health care system had this simple tool, it would revolutionize healthcare cost, quality, and the satisfaction of patients.

Health Care Organizations historically struggle with analyzing and predicting future demands on their system. This results in being incorrectly staffed and not being adequately resourced. Short term fixes by hospitals to increase the labor pool during influxes include staffing high cost agency personnel, or asking current staff to work above their means.

Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery, the appropriate planning is necessary for clinical workforce recruitment. With long term staffing in place, clinical systems will have:

1. Lower costs associated with labor
2. Improved quality having the appropriate number of staff
3. Improved staff satisfaction and lower turnover
4. Higher customer and patient satisfaction 

Haystack Consulting's 'Team Builder' software uses historical data to create a tool for healthcare leaders which uses simulates future hospital situations and staffing needs.

The ‘Team Builder’ Tool is a methodology not just for healthcare, but for any company to plan its future resource needs. In this methodology, historical information for a department is first collected regarding that company’s past service needs, including worked hours per unit of service (WHPUOS) goals, paid time off (PTO) patterns, sick time, non-direct time, and turnover/churn
rates. This historical information is used in conjunction with estimated growth rates to establish a tool for that department which analyzes the impact of future staffing and hiring decisions. The output of the tool is an immediate projected annual cost of being over/under hired.

In analyzing this tool to date, hospitals have always been under hired in all areas. New iterations and manipulations of the tool will bring about a new cost estimate and new hiring plans for the future. The tool’s goal, proven in a health care setting, is to provide managers with a better, evidence-based, resource for the estimating the impact of a future hiring plan.

Besides the goal of improving Healthcare as a whole, my solution would specifically improve the lives of two groups:

1. Healthcare workers

The 'Team Builder' tool has led to a significant increase in hospital hiring, whether it's for physicians, nurses, nurse assistants, front desk staff, or cleaning staff.  The implementation of this tool would mean more jobs for folks who need it.  The tool has also led to a higher satisfaction for existing staff at hospitals.  When comparing the survey's of the entire nursing division pre and post implementation of my tool, the question of the department being adequately staffing improved the most.

2. Patients

When patients have appointments and are admitted to the hospital, they expect that organization to be adequately staffed.  What good is having an ICU bed when there aren't enough staff around to take care of your needs.  My tool has led to an improvement in patient satisfaction, not to mention an improvement in quality of care outcomes.

My software solution, 'Team Builder', protects healthcare workers through ensuring that there are enough of them, at the right place and the right time, to adequately address a potential influx of patients.  When hospital's are unprepared for patient surges, it means that the existing staff has to dangerously work extra shifts and have temp staff next to them without adequate training.  Planning ahead makes all the difference.

The solution also improves the affordability of healthcare by significantly decreasing hospital labor spending.  Our pilot hospital saved $3 million annually after implementation.

As a Health System Engineer and former health care leader, I have been in the position to oversee labor and patient flow at a large hospital system. I know that hospital's are often spending large amounts of energy in the wrong areas of staffing and patient flow. For hospitals and the healthcare system as a whole to improve, long term planning is the low hanging fruit of labor management.

I developed the theory that goes into 'Team Builder's' proprietary algorithm after having oversight of the hospitals' IT systems. There are a lot of systems out there that address short term day-to-day labor management, but not one that simulates long term needs through the creation of a staffing and hiring plan.  My tool is unique to the market, simple to use, and I believe more impactful than anything out there.

Predictive modeling is used in the system's proprietary algorithm to simulate scenarios for different staff and different departments over the next 2 years. 

Historical metrics and future goals are integrated into the simulation to create the most accurate prediction.

'Team Builder' uses a modern Java script-based stack powered by a Node application server.

After 'Team Builder's' initial pilot, the results were published in the Journal of Nursing Economics.

The key metrics associated with success of the software arise from the healthcare Quadruple Aim. Specifically, these are the metrics we saw impacted at our pilot hospital due to implementation of the tool's theories:
•Identified Annual Savings: $3 million
•Reduced the variance between available staff and staffing needs (statistically significant)
•Increased employee engagement (statistically significant)
•Reduced turnover
•Improved quality outcomes
•Improved efficiency of position review and approval processes
•Improved the synergy between Clinical Operations, HR, and Finance
•Increased autonomy of Clinical Managers

In my experience, change within healthcare organizations can be challenging.  My tool and system works because from the very start we partner with the clinical area who will be using the tool.  We walk them, step-by-step in making sure the data inputs are correct from their perspective.  Once they believe that data is correct, and they understand how the algorithm works, they are bought in to what the results of the tool say.

Because it is a 'tool' for the leaders, they can also build plans according to what works best for them.  The tool may say that hiring 15 nurses in any given month is best, but the leader knows that they can only hire 7 from a realistic standpoint.

By implementing the tool hand-in-hand with the leaders, success and buy-in are more likely.

Currently serve: 10,000

Number serving in one year: 15,000

Serving in five years: 500,000

My goal within the next year is to successfully implement our new software at one flagship hospital system customer.  We currently have a few lined up who would like a solution to help their current labor management situations.

Within five years I envision the largest hospital systems in the US using the tool to shift labor to the right place at the right time. National recruiters will be partnering with the hospitals so that labor is ready to be deployed and recruited when it is needed.  Healthcare costs will have greatly reduced because of the large hospital systems managing their workforce more effectively.

Financially, I need help hiring a developer to finish the first version of my tool.  Honestly, that is the biggest hurdle for my company and I have all the plans created to move forward from there to achieve my five year vision.

If a grant doesn't come through for company funding, I plan to attempt to fund the developer myself through potentially taking out a HELOC mortgage.  Another option would be to sell equity in the company to an investor.

Currently, I am the only person at the company.

As the leader of this software company, I have already worked in healthcare organizations for 15 years, most recently as a Clinical and Business Operations Director.  I can speak the language of hospitals and understand their challenges.  As a Health Systems Engineer I am strong at finding new creative and flexible solutions for problems.

Children's Hospital Colorado was my most recent employer where I implemented the first theories of my tool.  Bozeman Health is another current partner who is interested in having 'Team Builder' implemented.

The key high level customers at healthcare organizations start with the COO, CNO, CFO, and CHRO.  These roles have been critical to the success of the system so far.  Department managers and directors then need to have buy-in from a detailed perspective because they will be both the main users of the tool and will be providing the inputs.

Clinical leaders, especially, require the tool because often their backgrounds do not support the type of data analysis that goes hand-in-hand with labor management analysis.  The higher leader hospital executives will be driven by the potential cost savings, quality improvement opportunity, and reduction in turnover.

Our software will be licensed as a service to organizations.  Those annual licenses will fund the expansion of the Haystack team and further software development.

We are seeking funding help for the development of our 'Team Builder' software.  Rapid development is critical to assist healthcare organizations with their Covid-19 planning.

While the primary goal is for funding assistance, to date the primary marketing that we've done is through the hospital contacts that I already have established.  Learning about the appropriate plan for a business of my type would be exceptional.  

Healthcare organizations could potentially partner with us.  If they could provide development resources, we could give a discount on use of the system.  Those type of arrangements would be ideal.

Our solution utilizes vast amounts of historical data to simulate the future for healthcare organizations.  As new data is uploaded and inputted each month, the system will adapt its solutions accordingly.  The more the system is used, the better it's accuracy with predictions.

Our dynamic and easy to use solution has the ability to transform healthcare, but reducing costs, improving quality outcomes, improving staff and patient satisfaction.  It is rare that a solution impacts all 4 aspects of the Healthcare Quadruple Aim.