Medical software may be a retention tool

Hartford, Wis. - Hartford-based api Software, Inc. has entered into agreements to provide its labor resource management software to four hospitals and health systems, for whom it may become a key retention tool.

Founded 1982, api designed the bundled system so that parts of the bundle play a role in staff recruitment and retention, a key objective in an era of severe nursing shortages.

Shift bidding, for example, has become a buzzword in the nursing industry, but it's also a key feature of the api system. Staffing agency workers, often used to supplement nurses, are provided at a premium cost to hospitals. By having a shift-bidding module, nurses indicate whether they would be willing to work a given shift for a dollar amount that is somewhere in between their normal shift pay and the higher pay rate of an agency.

"The hospital is able to determine how high they will go and how low they will pay, and then nurses can bid for shifts," said api's Samantha Hagen. "All of this plays into recruitment and retention because it's giving employees more control over their schedule."

The company, which has more than 500 installations in the United States, has developed the suite of labor resource products in consultation with healthcare clients. The applications can be implemented individually or bundled together for customers, which range in size from 500 employees to more than 30,000 employees. The entire bundle, which combines api's Payrollmation, ActiveStaffer, and EdTrack applications, is marketed as a way to control labor costs, track staff development and education, and make facilities more attractive to labor.

UW Hospitals and Clinics currently uses the Payrollmation time and attendance system, and the 5,000-employee organization recently signed a contract to also implement ActiveStaffer. In addition to UW Hospitals and Clinics, api's new customers include Denver Health (Denver, Colo.), 4,300 employees; Genesis HealthCare System of Zanesville, Ohio, 1,400 employees; and Scottsdale Healthcare Hospitals in Scottsdale, Ariz., a 5,700-employee, two-hospital system.