Scalable Healthcare Staff Scheduling Adapts to Current Staffing Needs

November 5, 2022

There is a tremendous demand for innovative healthcare staff scheduling right now. Without a standardized, central approach, it can be very challenging to address scheduling needs in a proactive manner. With the right software solution, you can create balanced shift work, reduce gaps in coverage, and efficiently manage your resources for better patient care.

happy, diverse team of doctors and healthcare staff

The current landscape of healthcare looks very different post COVID-19. The pandemic affected many aspects of the industry, including staff scheduling. Healthcare facilities are challenged by staffing shortages and allocating (and re-allocating) resources quickly and efficiently to meet patient flow, facility needs, and shift demands. Since February 2020, it is estimated that 30 percent of U.S. healthcare workers have either lost their jobs or quit, while 31 percent of those who kept their jobs have entertained the idea of changing careers.

Nurse retention rates leave much to be desired, and optimizing current resources isn’t easy without a streamlined approach. One of the top reasons why nurses consider leaving their unit is poor staff scheduling that lacks transparency. With a scheduling software that addresses common pain points in nurse scheduling, you’ll create consistency in processes and you can balance shifts more efficiently. This will make it easier for nurses to support each other instead of feeling overlooked.

Healthcare staff scheduling is complex and unique, so a one-size-fits-all solution just doesn’t work. Common scheduling apps aren’t configurable enough to make an impact, and too many solutions are trying to cater to any profession. If you’re going to invest the time and effort into implementing new scheduling software at a time like this, then it needs to be transparent, scalable, and work well with your current processes. You need a software solution designed to solve common pain points experienced in healthcare staff scheduling.

We understand why you may be apprehensive. You barely have time to make it through each shift, so the thought of revamping your scheduling process seems counterintuitive, but it’s likely just what you need to manage your staffing challenges successfully.

Streamlining your scheduling process will free up your schedulers and administrators during high volume times and allow you to allocate resources quickly and effectively. A scalable, simplified staffing solution is within your reach, and the implementation of a robust, web-based scheduling software like Schedule360 is the easiest, most beneficial thing you can do, even now, post pandemic, when your workflows are overwhelming, and you can’t imagine adding another task to your to do list.

Ease of Implementation

With Schedule360, implementation is simple, scalable, and designed to get you quickly set up with a scheduling solution that’s configured to your specific staff scheduling needs. Throughout the implementation process our team does all the heavy lifting of data entry for you, including providing a step-by-step guided plan to make the implementation process as seamless and stress free as possible for your staff.

The scalability of our software means implementation doesn’t have to happen all at once. The roll out can happen facility-wide or unit-by-unit. Once you become familiar with our scheduling software and experience how easy it is to set up and use, you’ll be ready to implement our software into other units.

Features Created with Healthcare Staffing in Mind

This innovative software speaks directly to common healthcare staff scheduling pain points and new features are continuously developed based on real customer feedback to meet current needs in the field. Enable the features you want, disable those you won’t use. As your staffing needs evolve, you can add more features to help you proactively manage your workforce.

Centralized Reporting and Oversight

To better optimize employee schedules and gain a real-time, big-picture view of your staff schedule, centralized scheduling is an efficient practice that can lead to:

  • Less gaps in coverage
  • A decrease in overtime expectations
  • Fewer staff scheduling errors

Schedule360’s award-winning software allows you to view your entire workforce with the click of a button. Schedulers can view centralized reports and schedules by location with drill-down management of department and employee schedules. Adopting a centralized approach is ideal for any healthcare facility, especially large multi-location hospitals that utilize float pool employees and often need an easy way to reallocate staff based on patient flow and urgent facility needs. Centralized scheduling can support specialized units with innovative features, even if separate units incorporate a different configuration with the same software.

Standardize Your Scheduling Process

Standardize and simplify your scheduling processes across the board with templates for handling preferred shifts, OT thresholds, vacation rounds, time off requests, and more. Standardization takes the guesswork out of the scheduling equation by establishing clearly defined rules and guidelines that are fair and balanced for all staff.

Credential Tracking

Tracking employee credentials and licensure to avoid non-compliance penalties is a difficult and time-consuming process for healthcare managers, especially when relying on outdated, manual tracking methods. Many organizations use a separate process to manage credentials than the system they use to schedule employees. Doing so can become inefficient when bouncing back and forth between the two while creating the schedule, and manually cross-referencing can lead to unintentional human error.

With Schedule360, admins can effortlessly and accurately track employee licensure and credentials with a hands-off approach. Here are some additional benefits of efficiently managing credential tracking via Schedule360:

  • Helps balance shifts based on skills.
  • Employees are responsible for entering data.
  • Auto reminders can be set up to notify staff of upcoming renewal requirements.
  • Disallows unauthorized staff to fill select shifts based on credentials for better patient care.

Schedule360 is the Scalable Solution You Need

We understand the apprehension of taking on a new system when you’re still reeling from the effects of a global pandemic, but we are here to ease your concerns. Once you experience the benefits of an organized and efficient scheduling process, the only regret you’ll have is not implementing Schedule360 sooner. Don’t take our word for it, let us show you what our software can do. Contact us today to schedule a configured demo of our healthcare staff scheduling software so you can see first hand how the right technology can lead to greater efficiency for you and your staff.