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by Brittany Kanoza on Mar 28, 2025
Managing labor costs is one of the biggest challenges in healthcare, with overtime and agency nurse reliance driving up hospital expenses significantly. The complexity deepens with large, specialized workforces that require precise staffing across multiple departments and shifts.
Automated staffing tools offer a cost-effective solution by optimizing labor distribution, improving internal communication, and preventing the last-minute staffing gaps that typically lead to these expensive outcomes.
Here are five key strategies with overtime prevention tips to increase organizational efficiency.
1. Improve Shift Communication
One of the primary reasons for excessive overtime is the tedious manual process involved in filling shifts. When nurses or managers have to individually call employees to cover open shifts, the process is time-consuming and often unsuccessful, forcing hospitals to resort to costly overtime or agency nurses. In an ideal situation, open shifts would be efficiently communicated and filled without this labor-intensive intervention.
Andgo eliminates this manual burden through multi-channel communication - using email, SMS and phone to notify the right employees about available shifts quickly. The system handles both incoming changes through IVR Absence Reporting and outgoing requests via Automated Shift Filling. This automation helps hospitals significantly reduce unnecessary overtime costs while freeing nurses and managers from the time-consuming task of making individual calls to fill shifts.
2. Fill Vacant Shifts Quickly
Last-minute shift vacancies are a persistent challenge that drives hospitals to rely on costly overtime. When a nurse calls out unexpectedly, managers often face a time crunch to secure replacements. With limited options and pressing patient care needs, they typically turn to overtime pay for available staff or premium-rate agency nurses—both significantly increasing labor expenses beyond budgeted rates.
Automated shift-filling solutions transform this reactive process by instantly identifying qualified available staff matching them to open shifts in real-time. With intelligent staffing solutions these routine but time-consuming tasks are automated, allowing hospitals to prevent costly staffing gaps while maintaining appropriate patient care ratios.
Many healthcare leaders recognize that staffing automation represents a critical evolution for hospitals facing budget constraints. "In today's healthcare environment, we need accessible tools that help us scale our operations efficiently while reducing unnecessary costs," says Angel Islas, Finance Director, Surgery Department at Motefiore Medical Center.
The impact of automation on staffing processes is substantial. Nursing schedulers typically spend an average of 35 minutes attempting to fill a single shift manually, but solutions like Andgo Automated Shift Filling streamline this to just three minutes through a simplified workflow.
3. Ensure Fully Staffed Floors During Busy Periods
Fluctuations in patient volume can make it challenging to balance workloads, leading to understaffed floors and overworked nurses. Instead of relying on costly overtime, nursing leaders can use data-driven shift-filling tools to anticipate high-demand periods. That’s why automated staffing software is a crucial part of the nursing manager’s toolkit, especially in high-volume, fast-paced settings. Andgo’s staffing platform can support high-volume or complex environments, like union staffing. It is capable of filling hundreds or even thousands of shifts simultaneously.
This strategy will be especially useful when resources are stretched. Zafar Chaudhry, Senior VP and Information Officer of Seattle Children's, is predicting continued labor challenges in 2025. “The first headwind is going to continue to be workforce shortages, especially in the clinical space, with increasing labor costs. There's burnout impacting healthcare organizations and retention issues as well,” he says. By proactively distributing shifts, hospitals can prevent nurse burnout, reduce overtime expenses, and improve the quality of patient care.
4. Gain Real-Time Visibility of Staffing Levels
Without visibility into workforce data, managers may struggle to make informed decisions, leading to excessive labor costs. Effective overtime control strategies depend on real-time insights into staffing levels.
Andgo's automated shift management software transforms workforce visibility by providing dynamic dashboards that display staffing levels across departments, shifts, and skill sets. Managers gain instant access to critical metrics like filled positions, pending vacancies, and staff availability—all updated in real-time as shifts are filled or new absences occur. This continuous visibility enables proactive staffing adjustments before overtime becomes necessary.
By monitoring these workforce metrics, hospitals can prevent last-minute overtime, redistribute shifts effectively, and minimize labor expenses. The system also identifies potential staffing gaps days in advance, allowing for strategic intervention before costs escalate.
Moreover, with automated staffing tools like Andgo, nurses can view and claim open shifts in real-time without requiring immediate supervisor involvement. The system instantly notifies available nurses, allowing them to pick up extra shifts at regular rates instead of costly overtime rates.
5. Use Shift-Filling Software for Urgent Call-Outs
When urgent absences occur, swift action and proactive staffing prevent costly staffing gaps. Andgo's automated shift-filling software transforms how hospitals respond to these unexpected situations, replacing manual phone calls with an intelligent notification system that reaches qualified staff within seconds.
When a nurse calls out unexpectedly, Andgo immediately triggers a targeted cascade of notifications via SMS, email, and phone to available staff with matching qualifications. This multi-channel approach generates faster responses than manual processes, often securing coverage quickly enough to avoid premium pay situations. The system intelligently prioritizes staff who can work at regular rates before offering overtime, helping control costs even in urgent situations.
Hospitals using Andgo for urgent call-outs report significant reductions in overtime expenses while reducing the administrative burden on nurse managers. These efficiencies translate to more predictable labor budgets and improved nurse satisfaction as the stress of last-minute scheduling diminishes.
The system seamlessly integrates with payroll and scheduling platforms like UKG Pro WFM, automatically updating employee schedules and pay codes when shifts are filled. This integration eliminates manual data entry, prevents costly payroll errors, and ensures complete visibility across systems even during high-pressure urgent staffing situations.
How to Use Cost-Effective Staffing Solutions Like Andgo
Controlling overtime expenses is critical for maintaining financial stability in today's challenging healthcare environment. By implementing automated staffing solutions, hospitals transform how they utilize their existing workforce—moving from reactive crisis management to strategic resource optimization.
Andgo seamlessly integrates with UKG to automate the most labor-intensive staffing processes: absence management, shift filling, and shift distribution. This integration eliminates communication gaps and reduces the administrative burden that typically makes staffing challenges so stressful for clinical managers and frontline staff.
The impact extends across the organization. Nursing leaders gain scheduling efficiency and improved staff satisfaction, while financial managers achieve predictable labor costs and reduced premium pay expenses. This dual benefit highlights why investing in staffing automation delivers value beyond immediate cost savings—it creates the foundation for a sustainable, resilient healthcare workforce capable of navigating industry challenges without sacrificing quality care.
