Census Tracking
For many healthcare facilities, census tracking is required in order to monitor daily patient headcount. This helps facilities determine the appropriate staffing levels needed to provide adequate care for their patients. Within Empeon's Advanced Scheduling feature, Shift budgets can be linked to the "Census", allowing the system to automatically calculate the Shift's budget each day based on the daily patient count entered.
While census tracking simply involves entering the patient headcount for each day, it’s important to understand how the census is linked to the budgets set up for each Shift. To view and maintain the Census, navigate to the Scheduling section within the Actions tab and select: Census.
The Census section consists of a calendar, where double clicking on a specific day allows for the entry of the census for that day.
The census can be tracked across the entire facility or by Floor or Unit if this is something that is linked to the Shifts that have been set up. If the census is tracked by Floor or Unit, select Census by floor and specify the Floors in which there is patient head count. There is a "+ Floor/Unit" button to add as many Floors or Units as needed.
Please note that the Auto Calculate Census setting within Scheduling Rules allows the system to automatically carry forward the most recently entered census value to future dates. Instead of needing to manually input census figures each day, this setting pre-fills upcoming days with the last recorded number. While census counts often fluctuate, this feature helps to reduce the need for daily entry when the census remains the same over multiple days.
If a change to the census is needed, a new amount can be entered for the appropriate day and this will again update the remaining days with the new census amount. Dates on the calendar showing as green are referring to dates in which the census was updated whereas dates showing as yellow indicate that the census for that day was automatically populated from the previous day.
Census Tracking & Shift Budgets
A Shift can be set up with one of two budget types, both of which use the Census to calculate the required budget.
- HPPD - An HPPD budget is establishing the number of staff hours required per patient. Based on the amount entered here, the system will then reference the Census and calculate the amount of staff needed in order to support the patient headcount. For example, if the HPPD Budget is 2 hours (the number of staff hours required per patient), and the Census for the day is 40 patients, the system will calculate 80 hours of coverage is required. For a Shift that is 8 hours, the system will calculate the budget to be 10 employees for that day (80 total hours divided by an 8 hour shift).
- Budget - This budget type is establishing the total number of hours needed to cover the shift. This budget type will only reference the Census if there are multiple budgets that have been set up with a Max Census.
Example:
Tier 1: Budget Hours: 24, Max Census: 48
Tier 2: Budget Hours: 32, Max Census: 64
Tier 3: Budget Hours: 40, Max Census: 80
Tier 4: Budget Hours: 48, No Max Census
With these budget tiers set up, if the daily census is 48 patients or fewer, Tier 1 will be applied as the budget. If the daily census is between 49 and 64 patients, Tier 2 will be applied. If the daily census is between 65 and 80 patients, Tier 3 will be applied, and if the census is 81 or more patients, Tier 4 will be applied.
Please note that if only one budget tier is set up with no Max Census, the system will not need to reference the Census because this is telling the system that regardless of the census, the budget established is what should be applied.