Improve Staff Scheduling using AI and GenAI and Reduce Nurse Burnout!
Traditionally, scheduling staff in hospitals can be a time consuming task, especially if done manually with spreadsheets or pen and paper. Managers may need to take into account various factors such as staff availability, patient load, skill mix, and compliance with labor laws and regulations.
Challenges and functional requirements of a good staff scheduling system
In a study to analyze the impact of AI based Scheduling systems in healthcare settings, it was found that average engagement scores of the staff showed a 30% improvement after the implementation. The primary aim is to improve control and flexibility, but an additional benefit has been the ability “to have one or two mornings and one or two afternoons off a month to allow for increased work-life balance so they are better able to attend events important to them,”
In a survey by Zebra Workforce Management Healthcare in 2021, it was identified that 60% of all Nurse managers spend at least one day of the week managing their schedules. This is only getting worse with time. Manual schedules using spreadsheets took 60 to 75 hours of effort every month. An AI enabled system can generate schedules within seconds and can provide an unlimited number of combinations to deliver the best schedule. The big difference is the ability to reciprocate a longer day or week now with a shorter day or week in the future.
Time Allocation for Staff Scheduling – Managers
- On average, Nurse Managers spend over one day per week on schedule management.
- Manual scheduling using spreadsheets consumes approximately 60 to 75 hours monthly.
- This time-intensive process contributes to inefficiencies and operational challenges.
Time Allocation for Staff Scheduling – Staff
- Professionals spend up to 20% of their time manually fine tuning their schedule.
- This excessive workload leads to dissatisfaction, error-prone work, and employee burnout.
- The strain on staff affects overall morale and potentially compromises patient care.
Frequent changes
Hospital schedules are subject to frequent adjustments due to unexpected changes such as sick leave, staff turnover, or fluctuations in patient volumes. Managers may need to invest additional time in ensuring that the schedules remain adequately staffed and balanced.
Staffing Policies:The hospital’s staffing policies and labor regulations can also impact the time spent on scheduling. Compliance with policies and rules might require extra time and effort. Hospital staffing needs to address the twin challenges of maintaining labor compliance and at the same time aligning with the ever-changing patient-acuity loads and regulatory requirements. Having the right staff on hand minimizes patient risk.
Insufficient staff: Insufficient medical staffing has been a persistent challenge in the healthcare sector. Maintaining safe staffing ratios has proven to be an uphill battle, as there is often a shortage of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers available to cover all shifts adequately. This scarcity in staffing can result in several adverse consequences, including medication errors, decreased patient satisfaction, and an increased risk of staff burnout.
Staff do not feel heard When archaic scheduling systems are not user friendly and oriented towards staff experience, staff can feel ignored and not heard when their preferences are not taken into consideration. This can lead to poor staff morale.
Managing the complexity manually
Using email or sticky notes to submit time off requests is a
recipe for those requests to be overlooked or forgotten. Additionally, managing
leave and time off requests can become burdensome in itself.
Advantages of having a good scheduling system
How can AI and Gen AI help with this
- Better prediction means better planning
- More power to nurses to choose their schedules
- More time for managers to care for patients
Intuitive Scheduling
Intuitive scheduling is at the heart of the CloudAstra nurse scheduling solution. The solution allows the Nurse Manager/Administrator to define slots and shifts for any specific duration of time based on daily/weekly/monthly schedules. The shift schedules can be shared across multiple departments (ER, OR, Consultation) and specialties (Cardiology, Pediatrics etc.). The system also allows the creation of Nurse affiliation across departments and their availability list. A Nurse or other staff can set own preferences and report any last-minute absences that may need to be factored in while creating the schedules. Shift exchanges can be carried out directly through the system.
Any spikes or troughs in the near term can be addressed by adding staff requirement changes. A chat-based interface in the system allows managers to confer with their peers in other departments and also the nurses to have real time updates.
An AI based scheduler sifts through shifts, time slots, staff availability and preferences, and past data patterns to create a Nurse schedule that is dynamic and keeps changing with any changes in input data.
Retain staff and reduce labor costs
Good scheduling processes allow all the departments access to the right mix of accredited staff. Providing nurses with the ability to accommodate their preferences for shifts and locations allows for better flexibility and control.
With an effective scheduling system, hospitals can avoid expenditure on unnecessary overtime and agency temps by resolving scheduling challenges with the existing workforce.
CloudAstra’s hosted Staff Scheduling Offering
The workload on the nursing staff in the last few years has increased significantly and the inefficiency in scheduling adds to the burden leading to frustration and burnout. The solution does not lie in increasing the workload for nursing staff, it should go in the opposite direction and reduce the unnecessary workload by having highly efficient scheduling solutions.
Using AI and generative AI based solutions can significantly reduce the burden of scheduling on managers and help staff feel more heard and empowered.
Contact info@cloudastra.ai to understand how to achieve the goal of better staff scheduling using AI and Generative AI .
Contact Us
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