Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies–and their team members–benefit from manual workload reduction
The No. 1 concern of healthcare executives today (and yesterday)?
Labor.
Or, more precisely, the lack thereof.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, as cited in a report by The Hill, “projects that the country will face a shortage of 195,400 nurses by the year 2031,” and a recent survey by the consulting firm McKinsey finds that “nursing turnover continues to be a substantial challenge for healthcare organizations.”
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, foresees a global shortage of some 10 million healthcare workers by 2030.
What’s causing the shortage?
For one thing, advances in medical treatment for chronic conditions mean those who reach retirement age are living longer and, in many cases, requiring more care later in life.
As Baby Boomers leave the workforce, the healthcare industry faces the multi-pronged challenge of replacing retiring providers while also caring for a rapidly aging population.
A report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) says the number of those 65-and-over will increase by 48 percent by 2032. At the same time, the AAMC foresees a shortfall of some 122,000 physicians–in part because they are aging out of the workforce as well.
At the same time, and perhaps even more worrisome, nurses are leaving the profession in droves.
And the reason they cite most often is burnout.
According to a study published in 2023 by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, some 100,000 registered nurses left the workforce over the past two years because of burnout, stress and retirements, with an additional 600,000-plus looking to depart within the next three years.
The healthcare industry, however, cannot afford to allow the ongoing global labor shortage to impact the time-sensitive and life-saving services they provide to their patients each day.
One of the ways in which this issue manifests itself is in the labor-intensive management and administration of vaccine stocks.
The addition of the COVID-19 virus to other perennial public-health threats such as
These have exponentially increased the demand for annual vaccines and, along with it, the demands on the workers handling these vaccines.
Fortunately, the advancement of time-saving technological solutions that help automate and regulate the storage of sensitive materials—and reduce the manual-heavy processes and tasks associated with their management and processing—provides hospitals, clinics, health departments, and pharmacies with critical assistance in optimizing workloads.
The Sonicu temperature and environmental monitoring system, for example, comprises state-of-the-art technology offering a range of benefits, saving employees time and organizations money by reducing manual processes.
Indiana University Health is one of more than 700 customers, including scores of hospitals and other healthcare facilities, that realize significant time and financial savings by adopting the Sonicu monitoring platform.
Many of those customers have conducted time studies to fully appreciate the labor costs associated with manual logging as well as manual regulatory reporting.
The typical Sonicu customer finds they spend about the equivalent of two full-time employees' time for every 100 hospital beds, or about $80,000.
And since the typical pharmacy or hospital fridge contains about $25,000 in perishable assets, Sonicu calculates that IU Health mitigates against the threat of $400,000 in annual losses due to cold storage unit malfunction or human mishap.
These numbers aren't as definitive as reducing an electric bill after adopting LED lighting, but energy-saving lighting also won't send a midnight text if your oncology drugs are at risk of spoilage due to a temperature excursion.
It's simply impossible to measure the value of a healthcare catastrophe averted.
You can learn more about how Sonicu customers trust our monitoring solutions to automate compliance, safeguard essential assets and reduce manual processes:
Hancock Regional Health: Enterprise Monitoring from Sound to Environmental
Problem: Disparate monitoring systems were taxing the staff with many manual processes, leading to inefficiencies and reduced asset protection.
Solution: CEO Steve Long initiated the adoption of a consolidated monitoring program for temperature, environmental, and sound, which automated compliance and reduced manual logging.
Exide Technologies: Advanced Compliance and Monitoring Solutions
Problem: Exide Technologies faced challenges with air quality management, needing to comply with stringent environmental health and safety regulations. Their legacy systems required manual logging and were not capable of providing the necessary real-time data for air pressure and quality monitoring.
Solution: Sonicu provided Exide with a mobile and flexible air pressure differential monitoring system that could be moved easily between locations as project conditions changed. This system offered continuous pressure data, real-time alerts for any deviations, and automated reporting that adhered to regulatory requirements, significantly reducing manual logging and enhancing operational efficiency.
MiraVista Diagnostics: Enhancing Efficiency and Compliance with Sonicu
Problem: MiraVista Diagnostics faced significant challenges with its legacy temperature monitoring system, which was server-based, lacked alert capabilities, and required time-consuming manual processes. This not only cost them resources but also risked their compliance with stringent ISO regulations.
Solution: Sonicu provided a comprehensive solution with 40 wireless temperature probes capable of monitoring freezers, refrigerators, incubators, and ambient room temperatures. The cloud-based platform enabled 24/7 monitoring, real-time alerts, and automated reporting, significantly reducing manual labor and improving operational efficiency.
Sonicu temperature monitoring protects valuable vaccines and drugs, automates and eliminates manual monitoring, logging and reporting, and is fully compliant with all state and federal requirements and recommendations, including those of the CDC and VFC program.
Many industries are subject to strict regulatory requirements regarding temperature and environmental monitoring.
Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and reputational damage. Sonicu's system not only helps organizations maintain compliance but also reduces the administrative burden associated with record-keeping and reporting.
According to a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), real-time monitoring systems have been shown to decrease the time spent on environmental checks by up to 70 percent [Source: NIOSH.gov].
By automating data collection, employees can focus on more critical tasks, enhancing overall productivity.
Smart Internet of Things (IoT) solutions eliminate manual logging, improve compliance readiness, and protect your assets.
Real-time temperature sensing of vaccines by IoT sensors helps ensure vaccine integrity, and IoT-powered environmental monitoring alerts facility managers to become aware of maintenance needs or potential equipment failure.
With a variety of methods to connect sensors to the cloud, Sonicu can capture, alert and report on a diverse range of conditions for healthcare, laboratory, and facility management applications.
Automation and manual data logging are prone to human data input errors, neglect, and fraudulent reporting. By using an automated system, your organization can have:
Temperature sensing solutions provide several ways to relieve the manual burden on healthcare workers and enhance patient care. Among them are:
Continuous Monitoring:Temperature sensing not only automates monitoring processes but also contributes to overall operational efficiency, allowing healthcare workers to prioritize patient care while ensuring the integrity of temperature-sensitive resources.
Benefits of Environmental Monitoring
Similarly, environmental monitoring in healthcare settings offers various benefits from the standpoints of provider workload reduction and patient care, including:
Automated Data Collection:According to research from the University of California, Davis, efficient environmental monitoring solutions can reduce the time spent on regulatory compliance activities by up to 30 percent, allowing organizations to allocate resources more effectively [Source: UCDavis.edu].
That, in turn, means healthcare workers can focus on more value-adding and revenue-generating tasks and less time spent on inefficient processes outside the normal scope of work.
Monitoring, alerting, logging and reporting are all made easier with IoT solutions like those provided by Sonicu.
In a world where healthcare workers are increasingly stressed out and pulled away from their primary function of serving patients, IoT monitoring devices and cloud platforms can provide immense value beyond the bottom line.