WellStar Health System Expands Contract With Avantas For Healthcare Enterprise Labor Management Solutions

Five-Hospital System and Associated Medical Group to Extend Avantas’ Consulting Services and Technology to an Additional 400 Departments to Further Optimize Labor Management Savings

Avantas, a leading provider of strategic labor management technology, services and strategies for the healthcare industry, recently announced that WellStar Health System (WellStar), a five-hospital system and associated medical group based in Atlanta, GA, has extended its contract so that an additional 400 departments will be leveraging Avantas’ consulting services and scheduling technology across its ancillary, ambulatory and support services groups.

In July 2013, WellStar began implementing Avantas’ labor optimization services and Smart Square technology to automate planning, scheduling, staffing, deployment and reporting across 124 nursing units. The extension enables WellStar to further integrate Avantas’ proven HELM (healthcare enterprise labor management) methodology and also includes WellStar’s subscription to Avantas’ services for quarterly workforce and resource analytics reports.

“WellStar saw the vision and now are seeing the true value of utilizing our strategies and tools across the enterprise,” said Jackie Larson, Senior Vice President of Avantas. “As more organizations seek strategies to achieve financial savings and increase staff retention, WellStar is a shining example of how healthcare systems can achieve incredible efficiencies while also boosting nurse satisfaction by optimizing its workforce.”

Since labor comprises the largest portion of a hospital or health system's operating budget, optimization of staff can drive savings and improvements to quality across an entire organization. Avantas’ solutions and services save its clients millions of dollars annually.

“Over the last 18 months we’ve been able to optimize and automate our work strategies to provide a single, enterprise-wide view of labor resources,” said David Anderson, Executive VP at WellStar Health System. “Due to the initiative’s success, we’re excited to take our enterprise labor management strategy to the next level.”

HELM represents a disruptive innovation for the healthcare industry, challenging organizations to rethink what is possible with regard to labor management in all departments. The approach is comprehensive and sophisticated – combining the science of workforce planning, demand forecasting, operational best practices, and a complete set of scheduling and staffing tools. Avantas has leveraged unique client experiences across provider organizations of all sizes to detail effective methodologies that help organizations rise above departmental silos and implement a consistent and effective way to integrate labor across the enterprise.

About WellStar Health System
Recognized as the fifth most integrated healthcare delivery system in the country, WellStar Health System is the largest not-for-profit health system in Georgia and serves a population of more than 1.4 million residents in five counties. The vision of WellStar is to deliver world-class healthcare. A national leader in the transformation of healthcare delivery, WellStar launched the Center for Health Transformation and the Georgia Health Collaborative that will have far-reaching effects on healthcare both locally and nationally. WellStar includes WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center (anchored by WellStar Kennestone Hospital) and WellStar Cobb, Douglas, Paulding and Windy Hill hospitals; the WellStar Medical Group; Urgent Care Centers; Health Parks; Pediatric Center; Health Place; Homecare; Hospice; Atherton Place; Paulding Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; and the WellStar Foundation. For more information, visit wellstar.org.

About Avantas
Developers of the HELM methodology (healthcare enterprise labor management), Avantas is devoted to serving the healthcare industry. Its proprietary approach to managing labor consists of workforce planning services and a scheduling and productivity solution, Smart Square. This comprehensive approach provides its clients with tailored best practice labor management strategies designed to drive substantial and sustaining cost and quality improvements across the enterprise through automation. For more information, visit www.Avantas.com.