How to Save Time and Reduce Errors by Integrating Scheduling and Payroll Systems

In August of 2019, a large health system with 180+ hospitals and 2,300+ post-acute sites of care implemented PerfectServe’s Lightning Bolt Scheduling solution within its dedicated intensivist group, which has a mission to improve the quality of care for critically ill ICU patients. However, they still faced significant challenges with the payroll process.

Challenge

Despite having all scheduling data available in Lightning Bolt, this intensive care group was still spending a substantial amount of time transporting all of this data into their payroll system manually. The process took several hours for each administrator, and there were often errors with the data that later affected paycheck accuracy. They wanted to find a way to feed physician hours logged in the scheduling system directly into the payroll software.

Solution

PerfectServe presented the group with a solution that would ensure accurate provider compensation and eliminate manual data entry by seamlessly integrating Lightning Bolt with their Kronos WFC payroll system. With this integration, scheduled shifts that are logged in Lightning Bolt would automatically be exported to Kronos on a daily basis to create a single source of truth for payroll data. The system also supports multiple assignment and employee types allowing the organization to:

• Filter by assignment type and employee type to control payroll export.
• Exclude non-payable assignments from payroll calculations.
• Exclude independently paid employees from the data export.

Implementation

The organization opted to move forward with a full Lightning Bolt and Kronos integration, which took approximately four months from start to finish. Before going live across the system, the implementation was pilot-tested for two pay periods to ensure accuracy and efficiency. After go-live, the organization and PerfectServe collaborated to improve data transmission accuracy, and PerfectServe provided live support to address any new issues. This ongoing partnership and open communication—which includes regular touchpoints with a dedicated consultant from the Lightning Bolt team—has yielded a number of adjustments and updates that continue to improve the process.

Results

When the project began, they had three distinct outcomes in mind for the Kronos integration: reduce the amount of time spent manually entering working hours in the payroll system, minimize the number of errors in paycheck amounts, and create a single source of truth for scheduled shifts. The results are powerful:

• Time Savings: Time spent on payroll has been reduced by an estimated 2,000 hours per year.
• Cost Savings: By leveraging Lightning Bolt’s robust scheduling data to inform payroll, they realized an estimated $84,000 in annual cost savings. This includes elimination of time previously spent verifying payroll accuracy and manually correcting errors.
• Streamlined Workflows: They now have a single platform to reference to find accurate scheduled hours for physicians.
• Added Customization: Going a step deeper, they now also have the ability to customize which schedule data sets are synced to Kronos.

Conclusion

The healthcare industry is littered with examples of manual workflows that take too much time, are prone to error, and add a significant burden to the shoulders of staff who are often already overworked. By finding the right partner in PerfectServe, this intensive care group was able to use Lightning Bolt—technology it had already implemented for its advanced scheduling capabilities—to automate a payroll process that was in desperate need of a revamp.

By reducing the manual effort required by staff to enter hours worked and alleviating the number of paycheck errors, this integration between Lightning Bolt and Kronos has generated significant time and cost savings and gives all parties a single system to check for scheduled shifts. Suffice it to say, this leads to satisfied physicians and happier staff!

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