4 Reasons Why Hospital Scheduling Software is a Necessity

10 Nov, 2016 | Tags: , , , ,

4 Reasons Why Hospital Scheduling Software is a Necessity

Running a hospital is a major operation. If you are Johns Hopkins Hospital, it means dealing with over 10,000 employees, ranging from full-time nurses to part-time janitors. And that means 10,000 schedules. WhatTimeDoIWork.com aims to relieve that organizational burden by providing hospital scheduling software that is one of the most advanced on the market.

Employee scheduling software is no longer optional in the healthcare industry, but a necessity. Every patient deserves your full attention and care, which requires a full team. If that team means 200 nurses – and only 175 show up due to miscommunication – patients will be overlooked and tasks will fall through the cracks, which means mistakes may be made. And when it comes to saving lives, patients can’t afford mistakes.

4 Reason Why It is Necessary:

  1. One Click Scheduling:

Do your employees constantly call you asking for their schedules? Are you having to constantly ask them to be patient because you are still painfully laboring over writing out each shift?

Not anymore.

Instead of manually typing in each entry, WhatTimeDoIWork.com allows you to simply point and click to schedule your hospital staff. Our process is so streamlined, you will probably do a little dance in your chair out of pure excitement. If schedules change or members of your team call in sick, no more calling each one of them individually. The software will automatically notify each employee of the schedule changes, as well as allowing them 24/7 online access – No more calls asking “What Time Do I Work?”

Since hospitals run around the clock, we realize the importance of clear communication so every surgeon and surgical tech is on the same page – Ready to help patients and save lives.

  1. Conflict Free Schedules Every Time

There is no way to avoid employees requesting time-off or having varied availabilities due to second jobs, vacation time or sickness. This information can easily get lost in all of the other paperwork, so with our scheduling software, you can keep all of that information in an organized and simplified area…online. This way you have access to all schedule requests at anytime.

In the past, you would have to check your request books and calendars to know when you can schedule each staff member, but our program automatically sends conflict alerts while you are scheduling your employees so you don’t make a mistake.

Employees simply submit their requests online so it is displayed on their schedule instead of a scrap piece of paper. If you think this will make your life easier, your staff will be thankful too! Employees also receive automatic reminders about their shifts, so you can eliminate no shows.

When your whole team shows up, more patients can be seen, which means less time in the waiting room and higher patient satisfaction.

  1. Accessible Employee Contact Information

We keep your employee’s contact information in an organized online folder so when you need to contact 50 staff members, you can save yourself the time of searching down a contact list to find their numbers. You just type in their name and voilà.

An even larger undertaking is contacting your entire staff about weather conditions or a large catastrophe that will affect the ER that day. Good news. You have the option to simultaneously call every person in your contact list in seconds with one click. You can also send out mass emails and/or text messages to selected employees or your entire staff.

  1. Save More Money

You might be thinking…How does paying for a new program save me money? Well, it’s simple. Our software automatically calculates labor costs daily and/or weekly while you create your staff schedule so you can more accurately budget for the year.

It also saves you countless scheduling hours throughout your week, so you can devote more time to urgent tasks. You can even save, copy and reuse previous employee schedules if there is no need for changes. WhatTimeDoIWork.com caters the platform to fit your exact needs, so we work with your hospital team to make sure the site is as easy to use as possible for your employees.

If your hospital is in need of a scheduling software, sign up for a FREE trial today. Once you see the ease of the software, you won’t go back.

We provide pay-as-you-go pricing and require NO service contracts or additional fees. The software updates automatically and comes with a free program wizard to walk you through the learning curve. Help us help you give your patients the treatment they deserve by signing up for a 30 Day Free Trial today – No credit card needed!

Hospital Staff Scheduling

06 Sep, 2016 | Tags: , , ,

Every healthcare organization faces a challenge in managing staff scheduling and ensuring open shifts are filled. It is important to note though that costs are minimized when patients are matched with the staff in such a way that patients’ needs are met and the scheduling is done professionally.

Depending on a number of factors, staff scheduling gets complicated and thus end up wasting a lot of time and resources. However, every healthcare organization is different they all share a common need in scheduling their staff.

How to Avoid Three common Staffing and Scheduling Drawbacks

Most healthcare systems experience common drawbacks in their efforts to meet staffing and scheduling. However, this can be avoided by using a new methodology referred to as the “Collaborative Staffing”. The methodology is a ground-up that enables employees to be part of the solution in deploying the workforce. This approach minimizes the labor costs and ensures optimal patient coverage. Here is keener look at the three common drawbacks and how they should be avoided.

Carrying the Staffing Process from the Top down With Limited Employees Involvement

In a “manager-directed’ approach, creating staffing plans and filling staffing needs is the responsibility of unit managers and/ or a central staffing office. This top-down approach gives very little input or insight to nurses and other frontline staff into staffing process. This makes the nurses do very little to be part of a solution in case of gaps in staff coverage. In this regard, the challenge of staffing and scheduling rests on the manager’s shoulder.

However, managers’ time would be best spent focused in more tactical initiatives such as mentoring staff quality and patients safety. This is important than spending time in the routine tasks of managing staffing coverage. Moreover, staffs know about their preferences and availability than the managers. Thus, giving them control over shifts makes them enjoy better work/life balance and an increased sense of freedom.

The feeling of working in an empowering environment brings about many benefits. For instance, nurses tend to be more committed to the organization and register high quality of care in their units. Thus, collaborative staffing is a staff-partnered process that enables employees by granting them visibility into the organizational needs. It also gives them a right that empowers them to be part of the solution. In this regard, mangers and staff are able to collaborate to fill open shifts. This considers the employee skills and preferences to ensure that the patient care needs are put into account.

Staffing in Units to Match Staff with Patient Needs across the Enterprise

The opportunity to develop a dependable staffing strategy lacks when each unit is solely involved in their own staffing. This is because it may bring about lack of transparency thus making it difficult to available staff to fill gaps in another unit. In this regard, when a nurse is sent home for low census in one unit, another one is called in to meet increased needs.

Thus, even though the one going home is more qualified and is willing to fill the shift than go home, it is not possible. This is because there is no connection made due to the lack of visibility.

Lack of Standardized Staffing Policies in the Organization

There should be consistent policies regarding overtime, incentive programs and holiday schedules in the entire organization. This is because all employees like being treated equitably and fairly. Thus, inconsistent practices in staffing can bring about perceived or actual inequities.

However, in a collaborative model system, consistency and fairness are driven by the transparency. Moreover, standardized staffing policies create equality that can lead to a more unified workforce. This ensures that workers can work together to handle the challenges of staffing and scheduling.

Collaborative staffing ensures interdepartmental visibility and communication. Everyone in the healthcare is able to enjoy the benefits like system-wide staff optimization, increased employee engagement and decreased overtime and premium labor costs.

Better Scheduling Improves Management

Scheduling is major issue when it comes to running a big healthcare. Moreover, it influences the number of the practices run and serves as a foundation to a successful healthcare business. In this regard, scheduling of physicians and staff maximizes the efficiency of the healthcare and the patients’ care.

The best way to improve your scheduling is to get an automated physician and staff scheduling application. The machine should be able to work with unique policies and rules in the healthcare organization.

Conclusion

According to Dr. Karlene Kerfoot, a Chief Nursing Officer for API Healthcare, a GE company, technology has brought a great value that is growing each day. This is because technology helps healthcare staff in performing most activities daily. Moreover, technology can also be used to manage broader job satisfaction in hospitals like staffing and scheduling.

References:

How to Avoid Three Common Staffing and Scheduling Pitfalls

http://www.emrendhi.com/tag/nursing-staff-scheduling/

How to face hospital staffing challenges?

30 Aug, 2016 | Tags: , ,

Hospitals are a busy place — they are also the place where every single task is important and urgent. And hence, scheduling of manual labor becomes extremely important. There are so many challenges that hospital administrators face when it comes to hospital staffing.

Every patient needs to be constantly looked after. There should always be doctors present within the hospital premises to take care of an emergency or a new patient. Every team should be equally balanced and have equal number of people. Also, there should not be too many open shifts. This will ensure that the hospital staff is not overburdened with work each day. Open shifts do not only drain the hospital staff of its energy, they also lead to increased labor costs. There are many such tasks around scheduling the onus of which fall upon hospital administrators and staff persons. The hospital can run into great trouble if the staff scheduling is not properly done.

While most hospitals employ the services of expert administrators to do scheduling, sometimes even the experts fail. It is difficult to manage a system as big and as unpredictable as hospitals. There are certain strategies that hospital administrators can employ to reduce hospital staffing challenges. Here are a few of them:

1. Centralize the resource management system: In most of the hospitals, each unit has a separate scheduling manager. While this is a good idea as far as team or unit communication is concerned, it can also lead to scheduling issues. If staffing managers of different unit work together, staff paucity can be taken care of by moving staffs across teams. One of the best ways to manage resources in a hospital is to create a centralized system where people become a part of a single large team instead of small segregated teams. The impact of this should also be noted and analysed from time to time so that an efficient system can be put into place.

2. Induce self – scheduling:   Self-scheduling is a good idea if you do not suffer from paucity of hospital staff in general. Self-scheduling also creates an environment of co-ordination and personal management. It empowers hospital staff and allows them to work according to their own comfort. This is especially good if your hospital staff is made mostly of nurses and attendants who are parents to young kids and who need to devote time to their family on a daily basis. However, self-scheduling system will not work well if the hospital staff is not wholly committed to their job.

3. Do predictive analysis:   Most businesses employ this technique to get an idea of future staff demand. Based on data analysis, business intelligence and predictive modelling, resource managers can plan well in advance. Though predictive analysis will not give exact numbers, it will still gave a fair idea of the number of staff members that will be needed in the months to come. If the charts show rigorous demands, administrators can actually begin to train the hospital staff in advance. Management based on predictive analysis is known to have reduced costs and created very effective systems. If you are managing a hospital with a big work force, you can benefit greatly from predictive analysis.

4. Get rid of recurring open shifts: Open shifts can create an imbalance in the scheduling chart. An open shift means that someone from the staff who already has a full-time duty will have to cover up for the absence of another person or a last-minute opening. Recurring open shifts can make the hospital staff feel exhausted. They can also lead to job satisfaction. Hence, open shifts should be taken care of. One of the best ways to reduce open shifts and minimize staff dissatisfaction is to induce incentives. Hospitals should introduce a rule under which every person doing an open shift should be given an incentive.

Taking care of hospital staffing challenges will not only reduce the total cost, it will also create a better working environment for the hospital staff. Not just that, it will lead to an efficient system in which every patient is taken care of properly. An inefficient management system can cause chaos and negligence, and there is no place for either of the two in a hospital.

How to get new customers through the door and keep them coming back for more

09 Apr, 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

fun at restaurant

Getting new customers through the door is a large feat in itself, but keeping them can be just as challenging. There are many factors that play into the customer experience. We have put together the list of some simple and budget friendly ways to get new customers, and a list of reasons that weighs heavily on their decision to come back.

How do I attract new customers?

Getting new customers is the goal of all businesses; you cannot grow by simply maintaining your current customers, you need new customers. Trying a new restaurant is a big gamble for most people in today’s market, as they are very selective on where they spend their hard earned money.

Standout

You need to be known for something, it can be type/ethnicity of food you offer, special promotions or signature dishes.

Be social

 If people don’t know that you are out there, how are they ever going to walk in the door? Social Media is huge in today’s culture, not only can you share images, articles and experiences, but now with “check-ins” friends of your patrons can see that they came to your establishment.

Offer deals

A great way to get new customers to try your bar or restaurants is to offer special deals for new customers, such as a free appetizer or shared dessert.

How do I keep customers coming back?

Now that you have new customers coming in the door, let’s look at the flip side of keeping them coming back for more. There are many reason that you could experience slow nights (bad economy, it’s a week night or that there are no special events or holidays) that are out of your control. Here are the top 3 reasons within your control that make customers decide not to return to your bar or restaurant.

 Current Menu

Regularly check your menu to ensure that your pricing is aligned with your target demographic and that you are mixing in enough seasonal/trendy offerings with your signature dishes to keep customers interested and coming back for more.

  Loyalty Programs

 Loyalty programs can be as simple as deals based on the amount of money spent during each visit and/or the number of visits, and offer discounts on future purchases.

 Welcoming Atmosphere

 You guests have come to you not only for food and drink, but an enjoyable time with friends and family. Some of the top areas of importance include clean floors/tables/bar, clean bathrooms and the service that they receive.

How do I ensure employee satisfaction?

To ensure your customers will have a great experience, you must have a happy staff providing high quality service. The number one reason for employee dissatisfaction stems from scheduling. Scheduling includes ensuring that you have the right number of staff on for your customer level and ensuring that you fairly allot time-off and/or overtime shifts. What Time Do I Work.com offers easy-to-use and affordable online scheduling software designed to make scheduling a staff of any size a breeze with features like automatic staff communication about schedules, the ability to track and store employee time-off requests and scheduling conflicts and overtime alerts. Try What Time Do I Work.com for yourself today and get the first 30 days free.

The Top 3 traits of the Most Successful Bar and Restaurant Managers!

26 Mar, 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Managers of bars and restaurants have a long laundry list of responsibilities that are integral to the success of their business; the most successful managers excel these 3 areas:

  • Relationship with coworkers
  • Customer service
  • Attention to detail

In this blog article we will review what makes a successful manager.

Your customers’ first impression of your business is when they first step foot into your business. However it is the full experience including the food, service and atmosphere that remains with the customer long after they leave. Managers play a very important role in providing your customers with the best experience.

Relationship with employees:

  1. Treat employees with respect and remember to give good feedback – without a dedicated and supporting staff, your manager and business cannot be successful
  2. Give staff clear instructions – managers maintain the consistency in customer experience and clearly instruct employees about processes and policies. If there are changes that your staff is not aware of, customers can get a bad impression of your business
  3. Maintain a high quality staff  –   managers must support and praise the hardest workers, while weeding out the employees that aren’t performing (most importantly a manager should never discipline an employee in front of customers)
  4. Be a leader and set an example – managers must follow the same set of rules and policies as your entire staff without exceptions

 Relationship with customers:

  1. Meet and greet – businesses can only improve if they solicit customer feedback and respond immediately to all feedback to ensure that customers feel as though their feedback is valuable
  2. Respect that each customer will have their own opinions – while it might not be true that the customers are always right, managers should look to resolve any situations without argument or insinuating that the customer might be wrong
  3. Ensure that all customers leave happy – word of mouth marketing is very powerful, especially when the feedback isn’t too great, managers must remember this and strive to ensure that no customers leave unhappy

Attention to Business:

  1. Attention to detail in all aspects of the business – managers must have an understanding of what is going on in the back and front of house, to set expectations and handle any potential problems before they become a problem
  2. Do not ignore problems – managers should know inventory levels as well as any issues with equipment to ensure that speedy repairs to help provide each customer with the same high level service
  3. Efficiently manage day to day tasks – managers are responsible for all scheduling of their staff, and the pros use online employee scheduling software like What Time Do I Work.com, that records time-off requests and provides automatic alerts for scheduling conflicts and overtime hours to help manage labor costs.

Try What Time Do I Work.com today and get your first 30 days free with our no obligation free trial (you don’t even have to enter a credit card to start scheduling).