Highlights:
HealthStream buys ShiftWizard, a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based nurse scheduling software engineered to save hospitals’ time and money by offering an innovative scheduling solution and mobile app made by nurses, for nurses.
The ShiftWizard acquisition deal by HealthStream was made for approximately USD 32 million in cash, subject to working capital and other customary purchase price adjustments.
Headquartered in Nashville, US, HealthStream, a company focused on enhancing patient outcomes on October 12, 2020, broke the news of its latest acquisition. The healthcare company acquired ShiftWizard Inc., a Raleigh-based enterprise dedicated to offering a SaaS-based solution that combines primary workforce management capabilities such as productivity, scheduling, and forecasting. The company closed this deal with a whopping USD 32 million in cash.
Way forward
The strategic acquisition will empower HealthStream to add to the developing area of its workforce solutions dedicated to healthcare professionals and their management for effective staff scheduling. This step will also reduce administrative work, save costs, and make productivity data readily available to managers.
Nurse scheduling software developed by nurses for nurses
Handling nurse scheduling can be a tedious task faced by the healthcare industry, right from long-term care facilities to national systems. Today, in the digital era, working with pen and paper can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and result in expensive mistakes.
Simultaneously, many enterprise scheduling software systems fall short of intuitive user interfaces and the capacity to navigate the variations of healthcare companies that make them futile against nurse scheduling challenges.
The difference
As opposed to the outdated nurse scheduling procedures, ShiftWizard is designed to keep the clinician in mind. ShiftWizard’s pioneering function and intuitive interface are developed to improve workforce management.
It integrates EMR and Time and amp; Attendance systems to make cost-effective nurse scheduling decisions based on real-time Worked Hours per Unit of Service (WHPUOS) measures such as HPPD (Hours of care Per Patient Day) and HPPV (Hours of care Per Patient Visit).
Expanding nurses and staff scheduling portfolio
ShiftWizard’s entry into HealthStream broadens its portfolio of solutions directed toward the nurse and staff scheduling that kickstarted during early 2020 with the company taking over NurseGrid.
NurseGrid, the number-one nurse app, helps many nurses to coordinate work schedules and non-work activities. With ShiftWizard in the picture, HealthStream’s solutions offer the company a greater reach on the organizational as well as individual level.
The company believes that the powerful positioning of ShiftWizard and NurseGrid can gain smarter schedule management and improved nurse engagement.
Expert take
Robert A. Frist, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, HealthStream, said, “I would like to extend a warm welcome to ShiftWizard’s customers and employees.” Further, he added, “We are excited to add ShiftWizard’s impressive scheduling application to our workforce solutions. Using ShiftWizard, healthcare organizations can make informed, data-driven staffing decisions to effortlessly maximize resources. These capabilities are particularly important in the current COVID-19 environment with hospitals’ heavy patient loads—where the ability to effectively reallocate staff across the organization is critical in meeting patient-care demands.”
