How PACS facilities cut overtime by 47% and saved $11M in meal break penalties.

With rising labor costs, strict meal break compliance requirements, and ongoing legal risks in California, PACS facilities needed a solution to improve scheduling efficiency, reduce penalties, and ensure proper staff coverage.

Challenges

Core challenges PACS facilities faced included:

Overtime costs: High levels of unscheduled overtime were driving up labor expenses.
Meal break compliance: Regulations required PACS to pay penalties for missed meal breaks, resulting in millions in additional costs.
Legal risk: Lawsuits related to missed meal breaks added financial and operational strain.
Inefficient scheduling: A lack of centralized scheduling made it difficult to fill shifts and track staffing trends.

Solution

To address these challenges, PACS implemented Covr’s workforce management platform to streamline scheduling, incentivize meal break compliance, and reduce unnecessary labor costs.

Staffing Insights

The platform allowed administrators to track and adjust overtime in real time, leading to a 47% reduction in overtime hours.

“Covr’s reporting gives me clear insights into who is riding the clock and who isn’t taking their lunches, which helps us maintain efficiency and accountability,” said Kennedy Naquin, Administrator at Amberwood Post Acute, a PACS affiliate.

Scot Russell, administrator at Pikes Peak Post Acute, a PACS affiliate, also appreciated the convenience of the reports.

“I like that I can pull overtime, missed lunches, and missed punches easily," said Scott. "The reports help me hold department heads accountable with simple, clear data.”

Meal-break tool

Covr’s meal break compliance tool helped PACS reduce costly penalties by ensuring employees properly logged their breaks and adhered to compliance requirements.

To drive adherence, the tool included an incentive program where employees who consistently took full meal breaks were entered into a gift card drawing.

Administrators could quickly pull reports to identify employees without perfect meal break records and take corrective action. Employees who missed a break could be prompted to update their timesheet or submit a waiver confirming the break was voluntarily skipped, reducing penalty payments.

Results

Since implementing Covr, PACS facilities have seen measurable improvements in key metrics. PACS improved workforce efficiency across its facilities, reducing the percentage of overtime hours by 47%, unscheduled hours by 52%, and saving $11M annually from reduced meal break penalties.

“Covr has truly been a game-changer for our staffing needs,” said Kennedy. “The platform is incredibly user-friendly and has made managing our team so much easier. Not only does it save me time, but it also helps cut down on unnecessary labor costs.”