The pivotal plan: a 3-step approach to decrease staffing costs and improve quality.

This article reviews how the nurse leaders of a 136-bed medical/surgical service developed and implemented a methodical plan to fill RN vacancies, decrease labor costs, and improve quality. This simple, straight-forward approach was designed to rapidly fill core staff positions while minimizing the impact of the vacancies and ultimately eliminate the use of temporary nursing staff. The detailed components of the plan provided a way to assess vacancy data, time temporary replacements, and structure beneficial hospital partnerships, all of which were instrumental in the success of the plan. The plan was implemented throughout the facility because of proven success in the medical/surgical service. The leaders' focus on decreasing labor costs resulted in hiring a stable core staff that was able to attain established quality initiatives. The financial and quality outcomes of the service demonstrate the ability to sustain excellent results over time.