Kronos® for Healthcare Sets Industry Standard for Nurse Scheduling; Advanced Scheduling Solution Frees Nurses to Focus on Delivering Quality Patient Care

Business Wire, April 19, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Efficiency in scheduling continues to be a top-of-mind issue for nurses managers as they struggle to balance the needs of their staff with those of their facility, with the ultimate goal of delivering exceptional patient care. Nurse managers require a solution that is easy to use but also sophisticated enough to meet their advanced scheduling needs. With decades of experience providing workforce management solutions to the healthcare industry, Kronos(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) is providing the scheduling solution that meets these needs as part of Kronos for Healthcare. With the use of Kronos for Healthcare, nurse managers are able to create more effective schedules in less time, allowing them to focus their attention, and that of their nursing staff, where it is needed the most -- on patients.

Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services, a Kronos customer for more than 10 years, is implementing Kronos for Healthcare as part of its mission of utilizing technology to provide superior services. "Kronos for Healthcare will give our nurse managers access to real-time labor data, which will empower them to make more informed and cost-effective staffing decisions. As a result, Floyd Memorial will be able to better manage overtime and adhere to compliance regulations," said Ralph Mercuri, CFO at Floyd Memorial. "We look forward to reaping the benefits of rolling out Kronos' integrated workforce management solution to the rest of our more than 1,700 employees."

Kronos as a cure for staffing woes

With Kronos for Healthcare, nurse managers have real-time visibility into their staffing needs so that they can quickly identify labor shortages. This allows them to optimize deployment of staff, which maximizes the quality of care, and, at the same time, reduces overtime and minimizes the use of agency labor. The solution also applies employee skills and certifications to the staffing process, which helps healthcare organizations reduce the risk of scheduling unqualified employees and being put in danger of non-compliance.

In addition, Kronos for Healthcare relieves nurse managers of some of their scheduling duties by giving nurses the tools that are needed for self scheduling. Kronos for Healthcare allows nurses to perform a variety of tasks such as swap or bid on open shifts, set scheduling preferences, submit time- off requests, and review accruals. This empowerment leads to improved employee satisfaction -- essential during a time when nursing recruiting and retention is critical.

"Healthcare organizations need to be agile in order to ensure that staffing levels meet the needs of their patients. And manual or antiquated systems hinder this essential flexibility," said Charles DeWitt, vice president of vertical marketing at Kronos. "Helping thousands of healthcare organizations around the world solve their workforce management challenges, we understand that nurse scheduling is one of the most complex issues that they face. It is this understanding that fuels the development of Kronos for Healthcare and we take pride in the fact that nurses, organizations, and, most importantly, patients are reaping the benefits of our efforts."

About Kronos for Healthcare

Kronos for Healthcare is a complete workforce management solution designed to meet all the requirements of today's complex healthcare organization. This comprehensive, integrated suite of applications addresses the challenges that are inherent to managing the workforce in healthcare; including labor analytics, staff scheduling, HR, payroll, and time and attendance. The solution is supported by a focused team of healthcare professionals who deliver deep domain knowledge and proven industry expertise. Kronos for Healthcare provides organizations with all of the tools necessary to reduce direct labor costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction while supporting quality patient care with a quality workforce.

Kronos made this announcement from the American Organization of Nurse Executives' (AONE) 39th Annual Meeting being held in Orlando from April 19-22. Kronos is exhibiting in booth #425.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos Incorporated is the most trusted name in workforce management. Kronos helps organizations staff, develop, deploy, track, and reward their workforce, resulting in reduced costs, increased productivity, better decision-making, improved employee satisfaction, and alignment with organizational objectives. More than 20 million people use a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos' high-impact enterprise solutions at www.kronos.com.

(C) 2006 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.