Realtime rostering
Skills for Health is helping the UK and Ireland’s health organisations to manage staff more effectively.
Skills for Health is delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with two of Ireland’s leading technology companies, Flextime from the South and Equiniti from the North, to provide a new approach to healthcare workforce rostering and time management. This unique collaboration was recently awarded a place on the Health Service Executive’s framework for the supply of e-rostering and time management solutions to hospitals across the Republic, and is in negotiation with several Trusts across the UK.
This new system is based on the award winning doctors’ rostering system from Skills for Health’s Realtime Rostering, a cost-effective online solution for creating compliant doctors’ rotas and delivering smooth day-to-day working for medical staff. When combined with Flextime’s Time Management solution and Equiniti’s expertise in Systems Integration, this has enabled Skills for Health to offer hospitals and healthcare organisations a workforce-wide approach to managing the future healthcare professional workforce. This system enables employers to manage current and future rosters, while easily establishing employee pay in relation to actual time management. The programme then integrates with payroll and HR to enable accurate and timely salary payments.
To raise awareness of the partnership, Skills for Health recently arranged a series of meetings with hospitals and healthcare organisations across Ireland to find out what employers need, what their main issues are in this area, and what they would like to see put in place.
At the rostering events, the Institute of Public Administration gave a keynote presentation about the importance for good governance of correct and timely data – highlighting the point that without this, key decisions are likely to be “wide of the mark” and can potentially lead to more issues. This directly relates to a well-integrated rostering and time management system as employers will be able to see and understand more about where the pressure points are in the system.
Speakers also attended from Guys and St Thomas’ in London discussing the importance of the rules that need to be incorporated into any accurate rota designs – specifically the New Deal and European Working Time Directive rules – and how the system depends on quality information being entered into it. In addition, the events also hosted two experts in rostering systems, sharing how they work in theory and in practice, the best ways of utilising rostering to reduce spend on locum staff and how to set them up to get the right staff in the right place at the right time. James Moreton, Regional Director at Skills for Health, comments: “Attending the rostering events across the week in Ireland was a really valuable exercise for Skills for Health to give the team a better understanding of the issues facing Employers in Ireland around rostering and time management Crucially, the main points raised are very similar to the UK, and it is reassuring for healthcare employers in Ireland to know that the new system we are putting forward could answer most, if not all, of their concerns.”
Skills for Health’s DRS Realtime is an easy to use, tried and tested and secure online system operational in over 150 hospitals in the UK. Using DSR Realtime, organisations can create effective day-to-day rosters up to a year in advance ensuring a better balance of staff is available through the day. Flextime and Equiniti operate across the UK and Ireland, with public sector bodies such as HM Prison Service and others.
For more information visit www.skillsforhealth.org.uk or call us today on 020 7388 8800.
