MEDITECH
Staffing and
Scheduling
functionality brief
The Staffing and
Scheduling functionality included in MEDITECH's Human Resource
Planning application enables managers and heads of all groups and
departments in multiple- and single-facility health care
organizations to create detailed, accurate, on-line work
schedules for their staffs. The software provides all information
necessary to simplify staffing and scheduling, trimming
considerable time and effort from the schedule-making process.
Authorized schedule makers can experiment with draft schedules on-line
before creating a final schedule.
Highlights:
The
Staffing and Scheduling functionality can determine if:
• Enough staff is scheduled to work per
shift
• Staff with the right job skills are
scheduled to work per shift
• Enough staff is scheduled to handle
patient acuity (if applicable)
• Proposed shifts exceed budget
limitations.
Standard
Features
Scheduling
for All Staff
The functionality allows all the health care organization's
employees to be scheduled on-line. For example, nurses,
technicians, transcriptionists, administrators, maintenance, and
volunteer staff can be scheduled through the system.
Scheduling
Criteria Set By Groups and Departments
Groups and departments easily set up their own templates to
create staff schedules. Templates allow diverse groups with
varying needs to set their own scheduling criteria. Authorized
users can always change their groups' staff scheduling template
as needed.
Staff
Skills Feature
The specialized skills of individual staff members are viewable
on-line in the functionality. Special skills (e.g., a radiology
technician who is trained in nuclear medicine; a nurse who is I.V.
certified) are entered into the functionality. These special
skills then appear on screen when a schedule is being prepared.
Managers can also run reports through the Staffing and Scheduling functionality to list all staff whose certifications will expire soon. These managers can then send e-mail messages to their staffs advising them of their certification statuses.
Sorting
of Staff
Schedulers can view information on all their staff on-line. Staff
can be organized either by last name or by staff type and last
name. By grouping similar staff types, this feature makes it
easier for schedulers to find available personnel to work on a
particular shift.
Ideal
Staffing Variance
Built-in features ensure that the necessary numbers and types of
staff are scheduled to work a shift. A draft schedule informs the
scheduler if the shift is overstaffed or understaffed. Patient
acuity is also factored into the system for nursing staff. This
variance feature enables managers to balance work schedules in
order to distribute resources more efficiently.
Budgeting
Information For Cost-Conscious Scheduling
Budgeting capabilities in the functionality help managers
evaluate the cost-effectiveness of their proposed schedules.
Managers can compare the cost of their proposed schedules to the
funds they have in their budgets.
To break down an annual staffing budget, managers use helpful budget distribution features. Using budget distribution, managers can allocate dollars to specific time periods. If, for example, a care area experiences higher census and acuity during the summer months, the manager can allocate a higher percentage of the annual budget to these months. Budgets also can be broken down further by staff type.
Automatic
Timecard Generation
The functionality automatically generates timecards for employees
who use them. These completed timecard records are sent to
MEDITECH's Payroll/Personnel functionality, saving staff,
managers, and clinical department heads from maintaining and
processing manual timecards.
The timecards support any combination of job codes and shifts. For example, an R.N. works as a charge nurse one night per week; her timecard reflects that she merits a different rate of pay for that night's work.
Electronic
Signature
Timecards can be electronically signed on-line by as many as nine
people. The timecards are generated directly from the posted
schedule. If an employee is out sick or works an extra day (not
on the posted schedule), the authorized manager can either edit
the schedule or update the worker's timecard to reflect the
change.
Special
Requests
The entire process of asking for, receiving, and scheduling
special requests (i.e., days off) is performed on-line through
Staffing and Scheduling. These can include requested vacations,
planned sick days, or jury duty. After employees enter their
requests, the manager can approve or deny the request on-line. An
e-mail message is automatically sent back to the employee
verifying or denying the request. Approved requests automatically
update schedule generation. Likewise, timecards are modified to
reflect each person's approved special requests.
Per
Diem Tracking
The system's per diem capability assists managers who schedule
employees to fill in for vacationing co-workers. For example, the
system keeps record of:
• Recent calls to eligible staff (so duplicate calls are not
made)
• How often a particular employee has accepted or declined
an offer to work
• Availability of per diems
• Pay rates of per diem and on-call staff.
Volunteer
Scheduling
Volunteer workers can be configured into the on-line staff
schedule. The functionality treats volunteers like regular staff
members, except the system does not link volunteer workers to the
payroll software to generate paychecks. When creating a schedule,
schedulers can use the system to determine the effect volunteers
have on the workload of regular shift workers.
Flexible
Security Levels
The functionality offers different security levels, so care
organizations can control and limit access to schedules.
Scheduling can be centralized or decentralized for the entire
health care organization. Centralized scheduling offers added
control, while a decentralized approach (location by location)
means schedules can be quickly updated with call-ins, switches,
etc. Other access options include:
• Own: employees are allowed to self-schedule at their own
locations. They can view (but not edit) other employees’
schedules.
• Location: employees can edit all schedules for the
locations to which they are given access.
• All: users can edit schedules for all employees on all
locations.
• None: employees are not allowed to enter any information
to schedules.
Optional
Features
The functionality can share information with many other
applications:
• Patient Care and Patient Safety: Patient acuity
information is available to authorized Staffing and Scheduling
users. This enables schedulers to determine the degree of care
needed for a specific shift
• General Accounting: Budgeting information from this
product is shared with the Staffing and Scheduling functionality.
This enables schedulers to determine if proposed schedules are
economically feasible.
For more information about us, contact a MEDITECH Marketing Representative.
MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com