Using the Workload Indicator of Staffing Need (WISN) – Method to Assess HR Requirements and Optimize Processes in Healthcare: Example of a Neurology Team of Therapists

Description

Changing market conditions and increasingly scarce human resources require health care providers to analyze, review and constantly adjust their processes within their healthcare facilities. A personnel requirement assessment based on the WISN method has proven to be a useful instrument for personnel planning, but also for identifying potential for improvement and process optimization. The aim of this research is by using the WISN personnel requirements assessment to analyze the status quo processes of a team of neurologists in a hospital and to identify possible weaknesses in the therapists' areas of activity as well as finding concrete measures for optimization.. A mixed method approach of a systematic literature analysis, determination of HR requirements based on the WISN method and a subsequent focus group discussion with experts are used to calculate HR requirements and to identify potential areas of process optimization. . The results of the analysis show, that it is possible to calculate the required personal resources using the WISN-Method. Additionally, three support activities (daily documentation, weekly documentation and scheduling) which, at 5.5 hours/week per therapist, tie up considerable working time, could be identified. After implementing the optimization measures, a maximum of 1.42 full-time equivalents (FTE) therapists out of a team of 9.51 FTEs therapists could be saved or used for value-adding health activities.. It can be concluded that WISN is a good way to analyze the tasks and HR requirements of Healthcare Workers, especially therapists. This might help to identify potential task-shifting activities, avoiding duplicate working processes, increase the utilization of scarce resources and help to improve efficiency in health care institutions.

Period	29 Mar 2023
Event title	RSU Research week 2023: Society. Health. Welfare
Event type	Conference
Conference number	9
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Riga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International