The Official Amistaff Blog

In observance of Independence Day,

Amistaff Healthcare Technology will be

closed on July 3, 2009.

Enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend

and look for responses to questions/inquiries on

eSigTek, BlueSky Medical Staffing Solutions, and NurseTesting.com

when we return, Monday, July 6, 2009!

Would you trust your body to an unlicensed physician – then why trust your competency assessments to a company without clinicians on staff?

Mistakes in both of these departments could have detrimental effects. Staffing the wrong caregiver costs facilities thousands of $$$ in liability exposure and skill deficiency.

Consider these points when choosing a competency assessment provider:

1. Be careful of companies that CLAIM they analyze their assessments using TVAP™ yet have NO formal training on how to use and implement the software




2. Be suspicious of companies that allow their clients to manipulate the assessment’s questions and answers. How could they possibly insure each manipulated item has meaningful reliability and validity? Do the modifications adhere to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures linking to specific job duties and knowledges, skills, and/or abilities identified in a formal job analysis?




3. Be watchful of companies that have NO security on their assessment content.
   - i.e. releasing all questions and answers to the public = meaningless reliablity




4. Be cautious of companies that set arbitrary 80% or 85% pass/fail cutoff scores on ALL of their exams. IF a company truly uses TVAP or other statistical software to analyze assessment data, EACH exam should have its OWN pass/fail cutoff obtained through a thorough test analysis. Arbitrary cutoffs are a HUGE red flag and are INDEFENSIBLE in a court of law.




5. Be leery of companies that offer clinical assessments, yet do NOT have a Nurse or Clinician on staff. How committed could they be to keeping content current?

According to some companies’ marketing material for competency testing, “there are no additional fees.” Remember the old saying, “you get what you pay for.”

NurseTesting.com has been in the competency assessment business for over 6 years and was created by an RN with the mission of providing the best and most current exam material in the industry. NurseTesting.com has 7 full-time clinicians on staff.

In 2007, NurseTesting implemented a new exam validation process to reduce adverse impact and increase the reliability and validity of its assessments. NurseTesting received training from Biddle Consulting Group (BCG) on how to conduct job analysis and item writing workshops as well as utilize BCG’s TVAP™ (Test Validation and Analysis Program) and AutoGOJA™ (Automated Guidelines Oriented Job Analysis).

In accordance with the federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978), NurseTesting began following a formal content validation methodology for the creation of new clinical assessments as well as for updating current assessments. Through the use of over 100 subject matter experts, NurseTesting works diligently to keep its content current by conducting annual reviews to ensure relevant, reliable, and valid content.

NurseTesting has conducted over 30 job analyses/job audits since 2007 and insures consistent monitoring of its assessments for adverse impact, poor reliabilities, or assessment deficiencies.

Choose the provider that lives and breathes testing…
– NurseTesting.com –
…the leader in job knowledge competency assessments for the Healthcare Industry.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday, June 29, 2009, that white firefighters who earned top test results on an exam were the victims of illegal discrimination in New Haven, Ct., officials watch for the domino effect on hiring and promotion policies in all industries.

As David G. Savage from the Los Angeles Times reports, “because the ruling interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it applies to all employers, private as well as public.”

Another analyst, Steven Greenhouse, from The New York Times writes that “employers are (now) expected to work harder to make sure their written tests – indeed their entire selection process – are fair.”

With the generic guidelines implied by the Supreme Court ruling, business owners must take extra precautions in ensuring validated exam content.

Keep NurseTesting.com in mind for your healthcare competency exams. Each exam, tailored towards specific job duties and requirements, follows the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures and complies with the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Without validated exams, you could be subjected to a Title VII action should your selection procedures have Adverse Impact. NurseTesting works diligently to ensure the least amount of Adverse Impact on its clinical assessments.

Adverse Impact – a statistical concept that is generally used to mean there is a “substantially different passing rate” between two groups, such as Caucasians versus minorities on a test or exam. This could lead to litigation by candidates against potential employers, claiming the exams were unfair or biased.

Over 500 staffing agencies and hospitals around the world
trust NurseTesting.com for their testing needs.

Early Pay received enhancements with the recent 2.01 BlueSky update. Let’s highlight the great features now available for use. Many clients have asked:

• What if I haven’t closed out invoicing?
• Or, what if I have moved the pay week forward and recieve a late Early/Daily Pay timesheet?

Before we jump into the answers, let’s first talk about the four basic steps of Early Pay.

1. Go to Payroll —> Employee TimeSheets, and filter to the Correct Payweek.



2. Choose the Caregiver eligible for Early Pay —> Make changes to their Timesheet in BlueSky if needed —> then Check “Include in Early Pay.”



3. Add any additional payments needed for the Caregiver. (Reminder: make sure you check “Include in Early Pay!”




4. Select “Pay Employees” —> Choose “Early Pay” with Correct Date —> and Press “OK.”

Congratulations! You have successfully completed Early Pay – wasn’t that easy?!

With the basics out of the way, now we can tackle those FAQs.

• If you haven’t closed out invoiving and another employee needs Early Pay for the same day, re-run Payroll using the steps above.
• And, frustrations from paying for closed out invoices are alleviated with Early Pay. BlueSky allows you to pay a Caregiver for past dates right on Today’s Early Pay Payroll! In this situation, BlueSky prompts a confirmation since you are selecting to pay for old timesheets.

Using the Early Pay/Daily Pay Feature? Let us know what you think! We would love to hear from you!

Motivating decision makers to embrace a new technology can feel like fighting an uphill battle. Although statistics prove a technology’s benefits such as lowering overhead costs and shortening work activity cycles, executives shy from the idea of changing existing processes. But why stick with an archaic system simply because it works, when a newer system corroborates more effective?

Insurance Industry

Recent research highlights electronic signature solutions as one of the top five most valuable technological changes under the increasing financial pressures. Besides economic benefits, the electronic signature process facilitates carriers with meeting the requirements for state insurance department audits such as the Gramm-Leach-Bailey (GLB) Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Healthcare Industry

Data confirms the adoption of Health IT improves efficiency in the Healthcare Industry. The current presidential administration names electronic documentation as a line of attack in reducing waste from the healthcare system. The Congressional Budget Office comments in the research note Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology that:

“The adoption of such systems could provide substantial savings by lowering the cost of providing health care, eliminating unnecessary health care services (such as duplicate diagnostic tests), and improving the quality of care in ways that might reduce costs…”

Staffing Industry

With the slew of required onboarding documentation, leading staffing firms note the exponential financial gains of eliminating mailing, printing, and filing, while improving placement rates for moving candidates through the hiring process. View the testimonials from various staffing firms already utilizing the eSigTek Document Management System.

Financial Industry

The key benefits reported by financial institutions all result in enhancing the customer experience and reducing expenses:

• accelerating turnaround time of account applications
• increasing revenue by having more time available for up/cross selling
• reducing life cycle costs of managing mission critical documents
• providing access to electronic content immediately
• significantly reducing back office costs

Proven ROIs show the positive financial gains when opening new accounts, loan applications, and mortgage processes close at a faster rate with courier costs reduced by 90%.

Articles Making a News Splash

In an effort to provide wood for your fire, eSigTek periodically updates the News Page with articles that stress the advantages for adopting, or the detriments from rejecting, an electronic document management system.

Browse through these articles to feed your case on converting from an antiquated paper system:

The Real Cost of Paper by RCC Consulting
A number of factors must be taken into account to measure the cost of paper and the savings
that can be achieved by instituting a paper reduction program.

Cost of Saving Paper Invoices by AP Optimization
More common than not, an original invoice may be stored 5-10 times over. As the number of
pages increase, so does the time and space required for storing.

Know the Cost of Filing Your Paper Documents by ZyLab
This document serves as a compact reference providing an overview of information compiled
from various literatures on the cost and savings of document management.

To really drive home your point, use this cost of paper calculator to convert your organization’s printing paper into the overhead green paper that executives long to reduce. And please don’t hesitate to Contact our Sales Team for a free tailored plan highlighting the savings for your particular organization!

Does your agency use AHSA (American HealthCare Services Association), AZHHA (Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association), or Bouboards to assist in your recruiting needs? Have you ever thought, “Wow I wish these jobs could easily be imported into BlueSky?”

Well, BlueSky has created a feature making importing jobs as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Click on Imported Job within Scheduling. If you have this feature, you will see a list of jobs being pulled directly from Azteria sorted by date.



2. Map each Facility, Unit, Degree and Speciality to BlueSky by clicking on the World Icon and then selecting the appropriate drop down information.



3. Once all of the Jobs needed for import have been mapped, click on the Import button at the bottom of the page.

 

The jobs pull into BlueSky as shifts needing to be filled – just as easy as 1-2-3.

Importing Jobs can cut out the manual data entry portion of the process. If you need this feature in BlueSky, please check with Chris Redhage, credhage@amistaff.com, for more information.

Do you currently use this feature? Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you!

The Joint Commission requires that a firm evaluates the job performance of all clinical staff based on the firm’s job description and customer feedback. Obtaining ongoing feedback for travel staff can be quite difficult. BlueSky can help simplify this process!

BlueSky’s customizable evaluation templates allow you to create a facility specific evaluation based on degree!

Each evaluation can have a different set of attributes that the clinician should be evaluated on. And, evaluation time periods can be set so you receive a reminder to complete the next evaluation!

Want to make it easier for your facilities to provide feedback on your staff?

With a BlueSky membership, you can give all of your facilities access to your BlueSky system for free! When an evaluation is due, simply send them a reminder and they can complete the evaluation directly within BlueSky!

Completed evaluations become part of the clinician’s record, and can be pulled into profiles to be submitted for future needs!

Already using this feature? Leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you!

Check back in next Monday for the new Weekly Spotlight – focused on saving the time and energy used discovering features alone!

One of our very own is celebrating her 18th wedding anniversary today!

Congratulations Tina & Billy!

You two are a fabulous couple and are a blessing to your three beautiful children.

Enjoy each other’s company this weekend and cheers to the next 18 going so well!

Once considered a recession proof industry, Healthcare now shows signs of a downturn. Since the Health system comprises 1/5th of the nation’s economy, law makers look to the new administration to create money saving opportunities in this sector.

The abundance of news coverage seemed overwhelming on this topic so I started ignoring the articles all together. Then I thought – others might have turned their ears and eyes as I did, so why not comprise the most recent information in a condensed format. Thus explains this blog post.

As you read this information, please note that it was my personal goal to keep bias out of the responses and simply present facts.

Let me start by highlighting that the goals of covering the uninsured while improving quality of care do not bode well to money saving opportunities. Both of these objectives point towards increased expenditures for the government.

So what options do the Obama administration have to broaden coverage and enrich quality of care while showing savings opportunities from the current plan?

Covering the Uninsured

1. Individual or Employer Mandate – Obama agrees only if small businesses receive exemption from mandate by a “hardship waiver”
2. Medicare and Medicaid Expansion – Allow individuals below poverty level and between 55-64 to receive benefits
3. Public Plan Implementation – Government-run program that competes with private insurers
4. Health Insurance Exchange – Central approved body of insurance options for individuals and small companies to purchase coverage
5. Tax Credits to Insured – Encourages buying of insurance via tax credits

Of the five listed above, the most controversial option is the implementation of a Public Plan. While advocates of the plan say added competition would lower prices and improve quality, opponents say the disadvantages to the private sector would cause them to pull out leaving a government-run monopoly.

Enriching Quality of Care

1. Reducing Medical Errors – Embrace new technologies and standardize checklists
2. Research Effectiveness of Comparables – Pertains to drugs, devices, and procedures to ultimately reduce costs
3. Pay for Performance – Reimbursement tied to health outcome in place of the current numbers game encouraging speed of procedures

Currently the Congressional Budget Office, under the leadership of Douglas W. Elmendorf, is evaluating the potential costs associated with the health overhaul. Can the changes mentioned above remove some of the waste from the system projected to consume $2.3 trillion this year?

The article “What Would A Health Overhaul Cost? All Eyes on the CBO” published by Lori Montgomery from the Washington Post commented that, “the CBO has proven unwilling to assume big savings from popular reforms, such as computerizing medical records and studying the comparative effectiveness of various treatments.” The CBO projected savings from electronic documentation as only $34 billion over the next decade – only a drop in the $1 trillion bucket reserved for the reform.

Elmendorf stated that the evaluation of projected savings for new technologies is difficult to pinpoint as the CBO must evaluate by estimations.

“It would be wrong for us to be conservative, in the sense of tilting toward zero, because we don’t know” how much money an idea might save, Elmendorf said. “On the other hand, we need to not get swept up in the enthusiasm for some new idea, because not every new idea works.”

What’s next on the CBO’s agenda?

Lawmakers requested the CBO to report on the reforms potential to remove deficits from the federal health programs Medicare and Medicaid early next week. With the unofficial mascot of a skunk – the CBO will not shy away from delivering a less than promising view on the subject. As the motto runs, the CBO aims to dispense truth, even when it is as welcome as a skunk at a picnic.

Want more information on our nation’s history of health expenditures? Check out the interactive guide provided by the Washington Post on June 9, 2009!

Following our promise of continuous product enhancements, we launched Get Satisfaction on all eSigTek accounts as a 24/7 solution for support needs! The questions submitted by users like yourself, range in topic from how to manage corporate documents to where to find us on Twitter and Facebook!

So what does this mean for you?

When queries arise regarding your eSigTek account, the option now exists for instantly searching for solutions. In our fast-paced world, waiting time equals wasted time. You now have immediate access to hundreds of answers previously provided for clients like yourself!

And where do you find Get Satisfaction?

1. Once logged in to your eSigTek account, select the Help tab. The popular topics previously viewed will populate on the page.

 

2. If your question isn’t listed, visit Feedback lining the right-hand side of your screen, select “Question,” and type away!



3. After selecting Continue, Get Satisfaction offers a few tailored topic suggestions and you might just find your answer!

What if my question isn’t there?

Get Satisfaction seamlessly leads you through adding a new question. You currently will set up a free registration for your question to be delivered, but we are working towards removing this step to make the process even easier!

While in Get Satisfaction, feel free to look around. You control the reins on your experience in the site. Share your knowledge with others, personalize your account with a picture, or comment on previously asked questions.

We look forward to Get Satisfaction driving eSigTek Customer Service to the ultimate level!