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7 Ways We’re Helping the Helpers Right Now

The coronavirus pandemic didn’t give you or your healthcare organization much time to ramp up. There were no months or weeks for planning, just a sudden all-hands-on-deck situation that has stretched resources, surged capacity, and left many on the front lines scrambling.

During a reactive period like this, it’s crucial to take best advantage of the systems you already have in place. Over the past two weeks, we’ve been helping our clients do just that, and we stand ready to help others who could use our services, too.

Here’s what we’ve done so far – and what we hope to do more of in the coming weeks as our contribution to the coronavirus effort.

3 Ways We’ve Helped So Far

1. Deployed Custom COVID-19 or Isolation-Specific Icons

One of the more frequent requests we have received has been for the creation of new icons to track and report specific events related to the coronavirus. In addition to making the new icons, we have helped customers use the integrated Messaging Center to communicate how to use the new icons as well as specific policies and procedures related to the COVID-19 virus.

2. Helped Clients Configure New COVID-19 Departments, Schedules, and Positions

When two of our customers on the East Coast asked for help configuring ShiftWizard to add entirely new COVID-19 support departments, we immediately mobilized our support team to the task – and had the new configurations up and running rapidly for each client. This enabled our clients to focus on the practical aspects of setting up and staffing the new departments instead of worrying about how to accommodate the change in ShiftWizard.

We also adjusted scheduling to add new positions. Creating new positions and adding them to schedules in ShiftWizard is easy on the client side, but one of our clients reached out for help because they simply didn’t have time to make these changes themselves, given the increased demands of the outbreak. Right away, our support team added new COVID-19 related job titles to the client’s database and adjusted the relevant schedules accordingly. This rapid response allowed the client to focus on the higher-priority tasks of hiring, training and deploying these new staff people.

3. Created New Enterprise-Level Reports to Track Overtime and Flexing

As you might imagine, many frontline healthcare workers, such as RNs, are working a lot of overtime and/or getting flexed to other departments where they are needed. Two clients asked for help configuring new, enterprise-level reports to track this activity – so executives could evaluate staffing patterns and deployments to achieve the best outcomes for all their patients.

4 Other Ways We Can Help

When our clients call for help, we respond rapidly. But we realize you may not know about some of the other ways we can help you configure ShiftWizard to maximize its benefits to you. Here are some things we can do that will enable you to focus fully on your patients and staff while we handle the software end of things.

1. Configure distribution groups in the integrated Messaging Center for quick and secure communications with only those people who need to receive them. We offer four different ways to communicate with individuals and teams about their availability to work.

2. Configure global float pools to more easily manage and deploy your resources where they’re most needed.

3. Configure your employee planned and actual schedules to better manage overtime and fatigue rules to ensure everyone gets adequate rest. We also help you adhere to union rules by monitoring and tracking your scheduling decisions.

4. Configure reports to track specific skill sets needed to manage patient care in departments caring for people with the novel coronavirus. We can build any special report you might need to provide you with information required to make quick, efficient staffing decisions.

Contact us now for help with any of the above or to discuss any other needs you may have related to your evolving needs.

Nurses: What Help Do You Need Right Now?

As nurses work harder than ever to care for patients with COVID-19 and other serious illnesses, we want to know what the rest of us can do to support you.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn and leave a comment about what the community can do to make your life a little better right now, in this moment.

Healthcare Staff Scheduling. Developed by Nurses for Nurses.

ShiftWizard makes nurse scheduling and communication easy, so you can focus on what really matters—improving patient outcomes.