The Manitoba Story

Manitoba Regional Health Authorities is on track to achieving standardized workforce reporting, policies, and processes across the Province.

Past

Manitoba's health care system has experienced a significant evolution over the past 10 years. In 1997, the Regional Health Authorities Act legislation came into affect which defined the duties and responsibilities of eleven regional health authorities and the Minister of Health.

This new structure was a major change in how health care was planned and delivered to the citizens of Manitoba. In this model, the regional health authorities are responsible within the context of broad provincial policy direction, for assessing and prioritizing needs and health goals, and developing and managing an integrated approach to their own health care system. Manitoba Health oversees the system.

As each health facility started to work together within a unified region, they identified a variety of systems and processes that would need to evolve to facilitate consistency and standardization. As they directed their focus on how to best administer their human capital information, the regions identified this is where an integrated software solution could help.

As part of a due diligence process, the regions also recognized that partnering with a solution provider with expertise in the health care sector was a key priority. After careful consideration, the regions determined the expertise, software and services provided by QHR Software could help them achieve consistent, standardized practices and policies across their regions.

Present

The relationship between QHR, Manitoba Health and the regions continue to strengthen and evolve as QHR has become a vendor of choice within the Province. QHR is either working with or in contract negotiations with every Manitoba region. The majority of the regions are 'live' with Payroll and Staff Scheduling. As the number of QHR Manitoba clients continue to grow, so is the value these organizations are realizing. Use of Quadrant Workforce has proven to deliver measurable savings and process improvements.

As an example, before implementing Quadrant Payroll, the RHA Central Manitoba used a service bureau provider that gave them little control over the payroll process or their reporting options. Since implementing they have experienced a 95% reduction in pay errors and gained full control over their payroll process.

Sheldon Hildebrand, Regional Payroll Coordinator with RHA Central Manitoba says, "We realized a four-year payback with the investment in Quadrant Workforce. This, in addition to all the other benefits we enjoy, really got senior management's attention. We no longer have to pay those expensive processing fees, which never end!"

In addition, the RHA Central Manitoba was able to reallocate funds from administrative savings to hospital care. Sheldon says, "In services support, we are charged with the responsibility of providing value for healthcare management so that more dollars are available on the clinical side. This has a direct impact on improving the quality of patient care. Quadrant Workforce has greatly contributed to this accomplishment."

To learn more about RHA Central Manitoba's success, please read their case study.

Process standardization is a key priority at a Provincial level right through to the regional level. For example, South Eastman Health Authority has successfully standardized their staff scheduling processes and achieved consistency in the application of collective agreements using the Quadrant Staff Scheduling module.

Teri Kindrat, Labour Relations Officer with South Eastman Health says, "Quadrant helped us identify a number of idiosyncrasies in our scheduling process. Now, we have a standardized process that is consistently applied throughout the organization that minimizes workload on the managers."

Teri continues, "We now feel confident that we are applying the collective agreements fairly and consistently which has helped educate employees... and we now feel confident that the scheduler is paying employees properly."

To learn more about South Eastman's success, please read their case study.

System integration was a key priority for each region. Prior to Quadrant Workforce, organizations had multiple systems that included a combination of manual processes, spreadsheets, and disconnected third-party tools requiring imports/exports for data exchange. All of this increased the opportunity for error and data duplication. The overhead and expense associated with this kind of information management is inconsistent with best practices and good fiscal responsibility in healthcare.

With Quadrant Workforce, these organizations benefit from seamless integration of Human Resources, Staff Scheduling and Payroll information. Interfaces with thirdparty systems are minimal and more importantly, data integrity has improved. Ray Koop, CEO of Luther Home, a long term care and assisted living organization in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, says, "We chose Quadrant Workforce because it offered us a comprehensive solution that went well beyond what we envisioned to solve our problems. The benefits of data integration became immediately evident with Quadrant Workforce. When we compared the stand-alone model of separate systems with the integrated Quadrant Workforce model for scheduling, payroll and HR, it became immediately clear the integrated model was the best and most cost effective. In addition, QHR is a proven entity in Manitoba."

To learn more about Luther Home's success, please read their case study.

As the number of Quadrant Workforce users in Manitoba continues to grow, a user community has taken shape. The Provincial HR Council meets weekly. This Council is a complement of senior leaders from each region with a mandate to discuss strategy and standardization. Part of this ongoing conversation includes how to best to use QuadrantWorkforce to administer and deliver the outcomes and measures they identify. As a result of these meetings, the regions have agreed to share reports, information and resources and mutually agree on priorities for future development of Quadrant Workforce.

The regionalization of Manitoba health organizations has been a monumental effort and proves to be an ongoing journey. Continued and impressive results are apparent as the benefits of Quadrant Workforce are realized by all levels including provincial representatives, senior management and front-end users. A by-product of implementing a consistent system across the province of Manitoba has been the recognition by other Canadian health organizations that the Manitoba model is emerging as a proven and successful one that others can emulate.

Future

The beginning of a public-private partnership has developed between Manitoba Health and QHR Software for an HRIS Standardization initiative.

Read more about the future of Manitoba Health and QHR Software by downloading the entire case study in PDF Format.

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