Overview

The Staffing Improvement Plan is a tool to help you decide whether to change staffing hours. It has 4 sections: Staffing plan, Assumptions, Changes to achieve plan, and Most recent from CMS.

Staffing plan

The Staffing plan has two tables the first one shows the expected stars you’ll try to earn for each of the five star domains. The HPRD & shift plan table shows the HPRD for each labor type and also the number of shifts per day/week/month that hourly number translates to.

The *Staffing plan is editable.

You can adjust the # of stars you think you’ll earn in the Quality and Health 5 star domains.

You can also change the HPRD for RN, LPN, & CNA staffing hours, & the expected Staffing star will change when you do.

As you change the HPRD the Changes to achieve plan will change showing you an estimate of the cost of implementing your changes using the values in the Assumptions section.

To edit the Staffing plan:

  1. Click the Edit button
  2. Enter your estimate for your Health and Quality star for the next quarter. It starts with the values the provider most recently earned.
  3. In the HPRD & shift plan table change the values in the HPRD column to change your staffing star.
  4. Check the Changes to achieve plan section as you change the HPRD values to see an estimate of the costs to
  5. Click Save changes when you’re happy with the outcome.

When you’re editing the Staffing plan there are also three buttons you can click beneath the *HPRD & shift plan** table that help you choose HPRD.

Set From Stars
Clicking this button will open a dialog window. The buttons in the new dialog let you pick your desired staffing star and sets the HPRD in the HPRD & shift plan table automatically. For each star for 1 -4 it sets the HPRD in the middle of the range CMS requires to achieve the star. For the 5th star it sets the HPRD value 10% above the lower limit CMS will accept for 5 star staffing. The dollar amounts are based on the values in the Assumptions section.
Set to Expected Hours
CMS knows the provider’s RUG-IV case mix. From that & their time/labor studies they derive how many hours they expect the provider needs to staff to care for their residents. Clicking this button sets the HPRD values in the *HPRD & shift plan** table to the what CMS has estimated for the provider.
Reset to latest values
Clicking this button resets the HPRD & shift plan table to the values the provider earned in the most recent CMS data release. The same values as in the Most recent from CMS section.

Assumptions

This section shows what assumptions we use to calculate the labor costs for the Staffing Improvement Plan.

You can change the values by clicking the Edit assumptions button. When you’re done reviewing and editing the assumptions click the Save changes button to save your changes.

The *Expected average number of Residents is, by default, set to the value most recently reported by CMS.

The Length of Average Shift (hours) is just 8 hours by default but could be 12. IF you need different lengths for different types of staff please let us know at [email protected]’.

We set the Average total costs per hour wage estimates based on the location of the provider and the current CMS Wage Index for that area.

The Acuity estimate is set from your RUG-IV case mix and affects the expected hours and staffing star calculations. If the provider is attempting to increase the acuity of their patient population so they can increase their reimbursement rate it could help to note that here.

Changes to achieve plan

The Changes to achieve plan is calculated by finding the difference between the most recently reported data by CMS and the new staffing levels you’ve picked in the HPRD & shift plan table.

If there are any changes to be made to your HPRD they will be shown here as well as cost estimates.

For the cost estimates we assume no overtime will be necessary/paid to get to the desired HPRD levels.

Most recent from CMS

This table just shows the most recently released data from CMS. Its helpful to track where you’ve been.

Use with providers

Just choose a provider from the Analyze menu in the top left. Or click their name in the search results page. Then open this report.

Use with groups

This report cannot be used with groups right now.