Summary of HosPortal benefits
When we are talking to potential new customers it is not uncommon for the clinical team — doctors, roster administrators — to get very excited and animated about how much we can massively improve their lives. Only for them to then look dejected when they think about how to gain funding approval from their commercial colleagues who do not see the difficulties inherent in rostering and how much of a game-changer HosPortal can be, even compared to other so-called specialist rostering software.
So here we outline the facts, feedback and views we have on why HosPortal is so valuable in any use case.
Rostering efficiency
For most customers, repeated anecdotal feedback is that HosPortal saves over half the time required to build a roster and can reduce to an even greater degree the time taken to maintain the roster once published:
Once staffing patterns and templates are built (which we assist with as part of the setup phase) publish a complex multi-week roster in minutes.
Use pattern-based rostering to apply a user to multi-week staffing patterns with a click.
Use term-based rostering to cycle trainees through standard training terms with a few clicks.
Review activity statistics in real-time to check for balance/fairness and compliance with minimum obligations.
Quickly and easily review and edit staff activity: track the impact of leave; find gaps in allocations and rosters; determine who is available to be staffed today; filter staff and VMOs by skills and team membership to work out the best person to fill a vacancy.
HosPortal takes care of all the communication with staff: send roster updates and changes, send reminders, track whether users have acknowledged their shifts, and send real-time updates if there are urgent and short-dated changes (such as SMS messages that are sent if shifts are changed less than 3 hours before a start time).
With appropriate rules in place, completely automate the process of managing activity swaps or transfers. No admin personnel need to be involved… however, they can still maintain oversight and awareness of changes.
Use the roster ‘market’, with rules you set, to alert doctors about additional staffing opportunities or vacant shifts.
Automatically track short-notice sick leave, generate alerts if someone calls in sick, and then quickly rebalance the roster with available staff.
Share rostering, staffing and leave approval permissions in a controlled way across multiple staff. Reduce the load on core roster administrators.
In private hospitals or, when using our self-roster and preference-gathering features, the effort in building and publishing rosters can be reduced even further, to a few hours per year.
Once the quotas are set up, let HosPortal manage the entire roster-building process: invite people to participate, collect their preferences, fill vacant shifts, build draft rosters using our automated fill algorithm, track compliance against shift quotas and expectations, manage roster rules, and let everyone know what their final shifts are.
Use HosPortal to manage shift swapping and transfers, reducing the need for administrator intervention altogether.
Rely on our communications tools to eliminate the opportunity for people to complain that they were not aware of their shifts or were given shifts they could not do.
Reduce the time taken to build a roster from weeks to days.
In one case we have undertaken a detailed time-and-motion study of the rostering activities in conjunction with a potential customer. It showed that roster administration time was reduced by about 90%, and we also eliminated double-handling of data such as collating shift preferences, translating from surveys and emails into a useable format, checking rules and shift counts, and coordinating shifts between multiple rosters. This reduced errors, improved staff satisfaction and improved confidence that the roster met rules and users’ preferences.
Other efficiency tools
HosPortal has other tools that assist in improving the effort in doing routine and common tasks:
See on-screen real-time statistical reporting and use sophisticated and detailed spreadsheet exports to allow more complex analysis. Use this analysis to report on and then reduce overtime, cancelled sessions, under-utilised sessions and extra ad hoc sessions required to meet excess work.
Every roster screen is configurable. Save different views and filters to quickly change between settings, or to recall views that you prefer when editing rosters.
Use the secure document storage library to give users quick and easy access from any device in any location to training material, reference manuals, policies and procedures.
Automate leave approval workflow. Automatically approve or deny leave based on sophisticated rules to reduce work for the leave approvers; collate leave requests into a single management screen that provides approvers with all the information they need to make leave decisions.
Send email or SMS messages to any or all accredited users, for instance for clinical call-backs. Filter users by the rosters they are on, or their role in your facility.
Set up subscription contact lists, to allow people to get only those messages of interest to them, increasing the likely response rate.
Manage events, agendas, minutes and attendees all in one place.
Add and remove very fine-grained permissions over any part of HosPortal’s functions and users using our simple, transparent and powerful permission management system.
Clinical benefits
In addition to the efficiency gains, health facilities can reduce clinical and operational risks, too.
Rosters are immediately updated and available to all user, and can be sent in PDF by email automatically to the switchboard or other people who need to know who are not HosPortal users.
Immediately see where staff have been rostered in conflict with the roster rules, or when they are on leave. Set rules to prevent overworking.
Filter and sort all vacant shifts. Send alerts to roster administrators at any time before a vacant shift to ensure these are filled promptly.
Use auto-fill functions to fill vacant shifts with people who have not met their quota obligations.
On any mobile device you can call, text or email any other user directly from your device. Speed up call-backs and critical communications.
Create alerts to notify administrators when another roster administrator overrides the rostering rules.
Reduce key-person risk with roster administrators. HosPortal creates records of rules and structures that allow quick and easy handover to new personnel, either when your normal roster administrators are on leave or when there is a permanent change. HosPortal support staff are available to support any transition. Many manual tasks are eliminated, reducing the training load on new staff and making it easier to find volunteers to assist with rostering.
Keep records of all staffing changes and all communications, to review at any time in the future. Use HosPortal records and shift audit records to assist with incident analysis.
Benefits to users
In addition to the benefits our customers receive, all our users benefit too:
See real-time updates synchronised across any phone, laptop or other devices, from any location.
Manage swaps and transfers with a click. HosPortal manages compliance with rostering rules.
Use the market to find people to take your shift, or if you need a swap. Offer incentives for people to take your shifts.
Automate invoicing and billing for private on-call lists. Review the status of invoices.
See all activity across multiple hospitals in one place with a single login. Reduce the opportunity for conflicts and the need to rebalance shifts.
Link HosPortal data to your external calendars, such as Outlook, Google, iOS and Android calendars using iCal.
Get shift reminders, and get alerts when shifts change.
Subscribe to the messages and data feeds you want to see; unsubscribe from the ones you don’t. A roster administrator can always override your preferences in an emergency.
