Using Scheduling Data to Build Safer Behavioral Health Environments

About 3-4% of nurses enter the field of behavioral health, ¹ and some leave within the first year due to lack of mentorship and experienced leadership. So, how do you create visibility into staffing practices across hundreds of hospitals when you can't staff them individually?

"When staffing isn't right, it impacts everything," explains Michelle Spurlock, System Chief Nursing Officer at Acadia Healthcare, which operates over 250 locations. Acadia's Mission Zero initiative uses scheduling data to bridge the gap between finance and clinical departments. By feeding census data and staffing grids into their workforce management system, they created a productivity score that both teams agree upon – eliminating disagreements about staffing ratios, enabling effective flexing, and helping leaders manage more efficiently.

Get Michelle's perspective on why representing data visually will transform how nursing leaders staff.