Efficient staffing and scheduling decisions are vital for any management team. Staffing operations can be difficult and time-consuming in any industry, but the healthcare sector's specific demands can make these even more challenging. Well-run scheduling processes can save time, reduce overhead costs, and improve patient satisfaction and staff morale, making choosing the right software solution crucial.

Why Healthcare Staff Scheduling is Important

The global healthcare system is grappling with a critical shortage of healthcare workers, exacerbated by ageing populations, increasing healthcare demands, and global talent competition.

With 48 million women giving birth annually without skilled care and a projected 40% retirement rate of nurses in Western countries within the next decade,1 the pressure on healthcare organisations is immense.

Optimising staff allocation is essential to address these challenges. Selecting the right healthcare scheduling software ensures optimal patient care, improves staff satisfaction, and maximises operational efficiency. It can bring multiple concrete improvements, including:

Optimised staffing: Ensure proper coverage, fair workload distribution, and improved staff utilisation based on skills and availability.
Improved communication: Facilitate seamless communication between staff and management, reducing errors and improving response times.
Regulatory compliance: Maintain adherence to labour regulations, preventing overstaffing or understaffing issues.
Improved patient satisfaction: reduce wait times, and enhance overall patient experience with better-quality care.
Reduce spending: less time on timesheet approval and pay processing reduces the real-time cost of manual and administrative work, which may not be money you get back directly, but this time can then be invested in other activities

(1) WHO: Global Health Workforce Alliance in their Key Messages: Global Health Workforce Crisis.

What Is Healthcare Staff Scheduling Software?

Staff scheduling software solutions have been developed to replace pen and paper or spreadsheets previously used for scheduling. This type of digital transformation can streamline workforce management operations and utilise staff more efficiently.

Most workforce management software providers offer cloud-based calendars. Modern solutions also include well-designed drag-and-drop interfaces and the ability to measure working hours precisely.

Switching to staff scheduling software has become increasingly popular in the healthcare industry, whether the work is done in hospitals, day clinics, physician practices, medical staffing agencies, nursing homes, domiciliary care, senior living services or other healthcare providers.

What to Look for in Healthcare Scheduling Software

Selecting the right healthcare scheduling software is crucial for optimizing staffing and improving patient care. Unlike generic scheduling tools, healthcare organisations require specialised software to manage complex shift patterns, comply with regulations, and efficiently allocate resources. Key features include robust scheduling capabilities, time and attendance tracking, staff management, absence management, and compliance features. By investing in the right software, healthcare providers can streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and ensure adequate staffing levels to deliver optimal patient care. However, the complexities of healthcare operations demand a partner that can adapt to unique organisational needs. While no solution can perfectly address every challenge, focusing on core functionalities, user-friendliness, and scalability is essential when selecting healthcare scheduling software.

Core Functionalities

There are certain basic functionalities every healthcare provider should consider when choosing scheduling software platforms. These include:

Complex Shift Scheduling: Ability to accommodate various shift patterns, including rotations and on-call schedules.
Time and Attendance Tracking: Software should be able to accurately record hours worked, calculate overtime, and integrate with payroll, ideally automated to save time
Manage and Store Staff Data: This should include ways to securely store employee information, including qualifications, visas, shift availability, hours worked, pay rates, sick leave, vacation, or any other absences and missed shifts.
Meet Compliance Regulations: Any scheduling software tailored to healthcare should also be able to meet healthcare-specific regulations, like HIPAA, regarding the security and privacy of patient data.

Additional Features

Depending on your needs and budget, you may consider scheduling software with optional but useful features. You should be able to create healthcare schedules without these, but they can become more important depending on the size and scale of your operations.

Real-time Scheduling: Make last-minute schedule updates while accommodating the department, role, qualification and workload constraints.
Workload Alerts: The system should be capable of identifying uneven workload distribution and suggesting modifications to prevent burnout and ensure fair shift distribution.
Real-time notifications: Swift communication of available shifts, schedule changes, and on-call status helps prevent confusion.
Mobile Accessibility for Self-Service: Staff can easily access and manage their schedules and time-off requests on mobile devices.
Integration with Existing Systems: Seamlessly connect with EHR or EMR systems, payroll, and other software for synchronised, automated operations.
Reporting and Analytics: Generate reports to track performance, identify trends, and optimise staffing.

Evaluation Criteria

When selecting a software solution, consider the following:

User-friendliness: Ensure the software is easy for staff and administrators to use. How easy is it to learn about the system? What kind of training is available from the provider as part of onboarding, and what kind of support is available afterward?
Scalability: Your providers should be able to accommodate growth in staff size and organisational complexity. With many providers, this may come at a cost regarding the number of users and may compromise performance.
Security: Robust protection of sensitive patient and employee data should be a main criterion when considering a provider, but try to find out as much as you can about their security procedures, how they ensure your data is protected, and how it may be processed.
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Evaluate the software's value in relation to its cost. Scalability and flexibility will be key here, but consider whether there are additional elements of organizational or workplace software that you could access with your provider as part of the price, e.g., further software integrations and payroll management.
Vendor Reputation: Research the software provider's track record and reliability. You should be able to find reviews, if not case studies, from work with previous clients. Case studies across any industry should help show you how the platform can help, but any healthcare case studies we collate for our customers will show you exactly what to expect and give you peace of mind that your provider has expertise in healthcare scheduling.

By carefully evaluating these factors, healthcare organisations can select a scheduling software that meets their needs and improves overall operational efficiency.

How PARiM Streamlines Healthcare Staff Scheduling

PARiM's healthcare scheduling software tackles the industry's unique challenges. Forget paper-based systems or cumbersome spreadsheets; PARiM offers a user-friendly, cloud-based solution to optimise your entire staffing operation.

Here's how PARiM empowers you as a healthcare providers:

Effortless Scheduling: PARiM's drag-and-drop interface allows for quick shift creation and assignment, even for complex patterns like rotations and on-call schedules. Advanced features like select mode and calendar pickers further streamline the process.
Powerful Automation: Manage complex scheduling needs with "shift patterns" tools automatically assigning shifts based on pre-defined rules. This ensures your staff is matched to the right skill sets and locations for optimal patient care.
Advanced Filtering and Sorting: With PARiM's robust filtering and sorting options, quickly locate the perfect staff member for any shift. Filter by qualifications, proximity, or over 30 other criteria. This saves time and ensures the right staffing mix for each situation.
Cost-Effective Model: PARiM's unique pricing model scales with your business. You only pay for scheduled hours, making it ideal for organisations with tight budgets or fluctuating staffing needs. This can lead to significant cost savings compared to traditional models.
Improved Efficiency: PARiM increases scheduler productivity, as seen in Interim Healthcare Minneapolis' case. With PARiM, schedulers can fill 50% more shifts per week than emailing or calling staff.

Beyond simply scheduling, PARiM includes an integrated, customisable pay rates system to manage complex pay structures, absence management, and insights available on costs, overtime and workload distribution so you can optimise scheduling and budget.

Ready to Experience the Benefits?

You can have a hands-off introduction to PARiM's cloud-based solution and try it yourself with a 14-day free trial; no credit card information is required. Alternatively, our team is always ready to guide you through the software functionality and show you how we can make PARiM work for you with our free demo.

PARiM instantly improves a myriad of surface-level processes: how doctors work set schedules and perform on-call duties, how nurses rotate between set shifts and administrative or reception staff are slotted in to cover clinic hours or ward duties; how you pay your staff; how you manage subcontractors and clients or partnering institutions; handle HR data and vacation requests and so forth. Adopting PARiM in any healthcare organisation with more than 150 people means +300% cost-savings from our unique pricing model. We’ve helped US-based providers like Interim Healthcare Minneapolis achieve a 50% increase in the number of shift hours filled.

How to Choose the Right Healthcare Staff Scheduling Software in 2024?