Oakwood Healthcare System Maximizes Workforce Efficiencies with Per-Se's One-Staff Process Automation Solution.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2002

Like many healthcare systems seeking innovative ways to enhance patient care and workforce productivity, Oakwood Healthcare System in Dearborn, Mich., has turned to information technology from Per-Se Technologies.

In the face of a growing national nursing shortage, Oakwood selected Per-Se's One-Staff(R) enterprise-wide staff and productivity management software solution to manage staffing challenges across its healthcare enterprise. Per-Se (Nasdaq: PSTI) is a leading provider of integrated business management outsourcing services, application software and Internet-enabled connectivity for the healthcare industry.

"One-Staff's Windows(R)-based platform easily automates our staffing practices, resulting in a more efficient organization. The system helps us improve workforce utilization, allows us to offer flexible schedules and helps keep staffing costs down," said Nini Coury, R.N., clinical staffing and resource manager at Oakwood Healthcare System. "While we're below the national average for nursing vacancies, the nursing shortage is a serious issue that we are being proactive about with information technology. One-Staff's highly advanced scheduling features improve Oakwood's labor resource management, particularly at the unit level, so that specialty-trained nurses are allocated to the right places for the right reasons."

Mounting industry research indicates that an investment like Oakwood's in staff management technology can mitigate the effects of the nursing shortage on patient care. According to the American Nurses Association's (ANA) State Legislative Agenda on Nurse Staffing, dated March 31, 2001, nurses want hospitals to use better tools, such as reliable staffing systems, to calculate the appropriate level and mix (R.N., L.P.N., unlicensed assistants) of nursing staff required to deliver safe, quality care. New England Journal of Medicine published a study this May, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Abt Associates, showing that a higher proportion of hours of nursing care correlates with better patient care in hospitals.

Oakwood Healthcare System comprises four acute care hospitals, 1,337 beds and 45 primary care and specialty delivery care sites. The integrated delivery system serves 35 communities populated by 1.2 million people. Currently, 30 units with a total of 3,000 inpatient nurses -- including 2,000 R.N.s -- access One-Staff at all four facilities. The system will soon expand staff scheduling to approximately 20 additional inpatient nursing units.

According to Coury, the decision to purchase One-Staff was the result of a return-on-investment study proving that scheduling software increases nursing productivity, particularly for full-time nurses. Another deciding factor was that different manual staffing practices at each of Oakwood's four hospitals had created problems in managing a central resource pool of nurses to fill vacancies across the enterprise.

"The inability to allocate appropriate staffing to address care needs and stay on top of fluctuations in workload census caused costly staffing errors, unnecessary overtime and work duplication," Coury said. "We implemented One-Staff to help us address these issues."

"Hospitals are balancing two major challenges in the midst of a national nursing shortage -- they need to control rising costs and compensate for workforce deficiencies while maintaining high quality care," said Karen L. Panoc, product director of Resource1(TM) staff management solutions, Per-Se's Application Software division. "Per-Se's One-Staff solution is a consistent, proven information technology tool that helps administrators balance their budgets and, at the same time, improve working conditions to help retain the most experienced, most dedicated nursing employees at the bedside."

"Oakwood Healthcare System and many other organizations realize the impact that process automation with tools like Per-Se's One-Staff can make in improving staff scheduling efficiencies," said Karen B. Andrews, president of Per-Se's Application Software division. "One-Staff is an industry-leading solution that helps organizations effectively enhance staffing-patient ratios to address today's care concerns."

About Oakwood Healthcare System

Oakwood Healthcare System, in Dearborn, Mich., comprises four acute care hospitals, 1,337 beds and 45 primary care/specialty care sites. Approved by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the integrated delivery network serves 35 communities populated by 1.2 million people. More information is available at www.oakwood.org.

About Per-Se Technologies

Per-Se Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSTI) delivers comprehensive business management outsourcing services, financial and clinical software solutions, and Internet-enabled connectivity with business intelligence to the healthcare industry. Atlanta-based Per-Se enables integrated delivery systems and physician practices to optimize the quality of care delivered and profitability of business operations simultaneously. The leading provider of business management outsourcing services to physicians, Per-Se supports 47,000 physicians and 2,000 healthcare organizations. Per-Se processes more than 240 million medical transactions annually, and its solutions manage 26 million patient lives online. Additional information is available at www.per-se.com.

Editor's Note: Per-Se Technologies is a registered trademark of Per-Se Technologies, Inc., One-Staff is a registered trademark and Resource1 is a trademark of PST Products, Inc., d/b/a Per-Se Technologies.