Your staffing costs might be keeping you up at night, but here is one simple tip that can save you significant money: Change the schedule of your pay period from Monday through Friday to Tuesday through Monday.
Pediatric Surgery Centers in Odessa, FL, made this change and has gone from overtime being a commonplace occurrence every pay period to it being an “extremely rare event,” says Carol Trokanski, RN, BSN, LHRM, CASC, quality manager.
The reason for the savings at the two centers is that Mondays traditionally are slow days for outpatient surgery, but Fridays often end up being long days. On the previous pay schedule, staff worked full days on Mondays, although there were few cases, and some staff members were being paid overtime by Friday. Now, staff pull the cases on Monday and go home. They know Monday will be a short day, and they schedule personal appointments.
“We told people, within our framework, unless we’re busy every day of the week, it’s an unacceptable fiscal practice” to keep paying overtime, Trokanski says. The managers explained that if the centers are spending money on overtime, there is less money available for quarterly incentive bonuses.
With the change, “people watch their time,” Trokanski says. When members of the staff realize they are about to be working overtime, the centers will change their assignments and let salaried staff members take their places.
“It worked for us, and it probably would work for lot of places,” Trokanski says. “It’s made us more fiscally sound.
