Coordinate better care with healthcare scheduling software

Because of the nature of healthcare, scheduling employees can be complicated. You need to account for the different shifts to be covered as well as your employees’ skill sets.

Instead of starting on Monday and filling in shifts from first to last until you reach Friday, start by scheduling an “anchor” employee (typically one of your best or one with the right skills and experience) in each shift and then filling in other team members around them.

This ensures that the nurse, technician, or doctor suited for each shift is working when you need them most. It also ensures that you have a core of skill and experience to provide stability across all shifts.

To help you in this regard, use your healthcare scheduling software to set eligibility requirements for each shift so you don’t accidentally schedule an employee who doesn’t have the right skills, qualifications, or experience.

With advanced healthcare software, like Sling, you have the option to allow your team members to self-schedule their shifts or bid on the shifts they want to work.

Giving your employees the freedom to build their own schedules can help improve their engagement and reduce the time and energy your managers put into the scheduling process.

If you choose to try self-scheduling or shift bidding, consider adding an “anchor” employee to each shift before opening things up to everyone else. This can help prevent shift imbalances that might affect the quality of care you provide.

The best way to manage multiple healthcare locations is with workforce management software like Sling.

Whether your team is spread across two, 20, or 200 locations, healthcare scheduling software can help you keep everything organized and under control.

With the right suite of tools, you can filter schedules to find the information you need; communicate with one person, a specific group of people, or everyone regardless of their location; and create reports by location or region to gain valuable insight about your operation.

Running the activities at multiple locations may seem like a daunting task, but, with help from Sling, you’ll be better positioned to build a system that works for everyone involved.

Some advanced healthcare scheduling software includes time clocks with a geofencing feature. This allows you to set virtual borders around a job site so employees can only clock in when they have crossed inside those boundaries.

Similarly, geofencing makes it possible for you to set your team’s mobile time tracking so that it automatically clocks out when a team member crosses outside the boundaries you’ve set.

This powerful feature makes it easier to control where your employees work and helps you cut down on time theft (be it intentional or unintentional).

Yes, healthcare scheduling software can help busy managers control labor costs by providing notifications when a shift approaches a certain expense threshold.

For example, the Sling app helps you control labor costs by giving you the option to set a labor budget that works for your operation and then showing you real-time updates on what each shift will cost as you schedule.

No more back and forth trying to find the right combination of employees for each shift so you don’t exceed your labor budget. With tools like Sling, you’ll be better positioned to come in at or under budget every time.

Of course, healthcare scheduling is about more than just who works where and when. It’s also about task management, communication, and workflow optimization (just to name a few).

The Sling suite of workforce management tools gives you unprecedented control of your entire healthcare operation, including aspects such as:

• Employee scheduling
• Time and attendance
• Wages
• Budgets
• Task management
• Communication
• Reporting
• Location management

Sling can also help you manage time off, coordinate availability, organize shift trade requests, reduce absenteeism, and simplify payroll. And that’s just the tip of the Sling iceberg.

Right now, you can get all the essentials to help you organize and optimize your healthcare workforce and handle internal communication for an unlimited number of users and locations for free with just one click.