Shift scheduling software

[tkim]

What do you use - and like?

We currently hand-schedule in three month blocks using a rotating shift template. Can be a bear.

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[WilcoWorld]

Used Tangiers when I did the schedule. I didn't have problems with the program, but I always had to do at least 15% of the shifts by hand, which required rescheduling another 15% by hand.

 

[Boogie Man]

RN perspective, but have recently transferred to 100% e-scheduling. Hospital uses Concerro (through API Healthcare). Pretty nice, easy for me to use since I'm a visual person and it projects your shifts onto monthly calendar, very user friendly for self scheduling and time off requests.

 

[tkim]

I'm wondering how these programs are for auto-generating schedules given the 'complexity' of some people's requests and preferences. Ideally, we'd divvy up all the weekends and overnights equally as no one prefers those, but it would be flexible enough that if you like bunching your shifts together or spreading them over the week, it can do that.

 

[Cerberus]

I liked the demo from ShiftAdmin but it's expensive and not all administrators will go for the monthly cost when amion is like 350$ a year and handwritten schedules are "free". I use amion and it's not awful once you learn how to use it.

 

[dchristismi]

I schedule my group and I LOVE Shiftadmin! It is worth every freaking penny. It's very easy to put in complex requests, and I can always override it.

Disclaimer: I haven't used anything else. But SA makes it so easy, relatively speaking, that it's a couple hours, not several days.

 

[tkim]

so we have a template where we are on a 'team' and our team shifts go through a rotation, and every team rotates though the nights, weekends, etc. then once every three months we have a 4 hour meeting and do trades, fill vacations and fill out the rest of the schedule for the next three months. it's congenial but exhausting having to go through multiple 'round robbins' of picking up shifts. some people want to do less than others, but no one leaves until the shifts are filled. then it becomes a death march.

 

[Cerberus]

so we have a template where we are on a 'team' and our team shifts go through a rotation, and every team rotates though the nights, weekends, etc. then once every three months we have a 4 hour meeting and do trades, fill vacations and fill out the rest of the schedule for the next three months. it's congenial but exhausting having to go through multiple 'round robbins' of picking up shifts. some people want to do less than others, but no one leaves until the shifts are filled. then it becomes a death march.

If you have a template, I think amion is a decent cheap option. You can put in the template and carry it out over x number of months which means just clicking "replace all" for whoever is assigned to a particular template. Doesn't really help with schedule requests though.

 

[tkim]

If you have a template, I think amion is a decent cheap option. You can put in the template and carry it out over x number of months which means just clicking "replace all" for whoever is assigned to a particular template. Doesn't really help with schedule requests though.

Yeah the template is tes suxxor. We all start with 18-20 hrs/week, then go from there. I would prefer to have those hours lumped together so I can have the maximum time off if I don't work any more hours (hah).

The way the template is right now, we have shifts separated by 1-2 days. Then when we come to the schedule meeting, we're all trying to bunch the shifts together, but since the open shifts are all over the place, it's like one on, one off, two in a row, then one off, etc. The careful shift progression from day to nights is blown out of the water.

 

[CraftyMed]

We've got EZ Shift. I'm not involved with the actual scheduling, but I hear it allows you to put in preferences, exceptions, and specific requests. I think they've got a demo online. I can say that no matter which one you choose, you're going to hate it. It's the scheduling part that's a problem, not the software

I've had to work with EZ Shift, Whentowork, Amion, Tangier, and old-skool paper. None of them stands out as better than the others

 

[tkim]

We've got EZ Shift. I'm not involved with the actual scheduling, but I hear it allows you to put in preferences, exceptions, and specific requests. I think they've got a demo online. I can say that no matter which one you choose, you're going to hate it. It's the scheduling part that's a problem, not the software

That's church, yo.

 

[Apollyon]

We've got EZ Shift. I'm not involved with the actual scheduling, but I hear it allows you to put in preferences, exceptions, and specific requests. I think they've got a demo online. I can say that no matter which one you choose, you're going to hate it. It's the scheduling part that's a problem, not the software

I've had to work with EZ Shift, Whentowork, Amion, Tangier, and old-skool paper. None of them stands out as better than the others

I am on my phone, so I'll tell you your last sentence is right on. Just like EMRs, it's not which one is best, but which one sucks the least.

 

[Arcan57]

I've got to think the software stuff beats paper, just in terms of it being easier to detect conflicts. I use Tangiers right now to make the schedule (~9 FT, 6 PT over 5 shifts at 1 site) and so far I've just used it with everyone set to "manual". It hasn't been worth my while to try and enter all their disparate (and crazy) preferences into Tangier to try and get an automatic schedule. Also, most of my docs have somewhere between 9 and 21 requested days off/month. The last time I tried automatic without significantly restrictive preferences it choked and died with 50 shifts left unfilled. I still haven't demo'ed SA, but I've heard good things about it from other schedulers.

 

[Apollyon]

Also, most of my docs have somewhere between 9 and 21 requested days off/month.

Seriously? Not "I can't work these days", but "I can ONLY work these days"? That is, plainly, a prima donna. Why does that one person get preference, or are some-to-most of those demands not accommodated?

 

[Arcan57]

Seriously? Not "I can't work these days", but "I can ONLY work these days"? That is, plainly, a prima donna. Why does that one person get preference, or are some-to-most of those demands not accommodated?

Would that it was only one person. Nobody in my group works more than 15 shifts a month, and most are part-time at another hospital system. 3-4 docs just give me specific days to work because they are waiting on their schedules from other places. I've finally eradicated that behavior in my FT docs, and have stopped the practice of the PT docs asking for only week day am shifts. Baby steps....

 

[tkim]

The problem with my group is that we prefer not to work overnights or weekends, so we'll be watching the schedule like a hawk to make sure no one gets assigned more of the less desireable shifts.

 

[Arcan57]

The problem with my group is that we prefer not to work overnights or weekends, so we'll be watching the schedule like a hawk to make sure no one gets assigned more of the less desireable shifts.

Aw, the solution to that is to request off 5-7 weekend days and have a lot of mid-week "Night off prior required" requests (at least using Tangier). Especially if your group is a stickler about keeping circadian cycles, you can create a great schedule where there may only be 2-3 nights shifts a month you can work.

 

[tkim]

So we've started using Shiftadmin and it's been a moderate learning curve, but overall the schedule has come out acceptable to everyone. For anyone who has used Shiftadmin for a long time - how do you guys deal with the crazy summer vacation months? The holiday season?

 

[docB]

So we've started using Shiftadmin and it's been a moderate learning curve, but overall the schedule has come out acceptable to everyone. For anyone who has used Shiftadmin for a long time - how do you guys deal with the crazy summer vacation months? The holiday season?

I didn't see this thread before. We use Tangier. I don't really recommend it but it's functional. We have 7 hospitals, 50+ docs and 40 MLPs so we had to go to something. I was impossible to do by hand.

We feel about Tangier the way tkim feels about Shiftadmin. Big learning curve and acceptable results. It just seems like there could be something better.

 

[tkim]

I didn't see this thread before. We use Tangier. I don't really recommend it but it's functional. We have 7 hospitals, 50+ docs and 40 MLPs so we had to go to something. I was impossible to do by hand.

We feel about Tangier the way tkim feels about Shiftadmin. Big learning curve and acceptable results. It just seems like there could be something better.

Shiftadmin versus our old way - all of us sitting in a room every three months and hashing out our schedule, I choose Shiftadmin, hands down.

It's pretty good at keeping everyone's needs and quirks down as long as you take the time to input them before rolling the schedule. I'm thinking about the future, when people start to game the system by using their guaranteed days off to add to the front or back of their vacation time to extend their vacation time. Our next scheduling period includes the summer vacation months, where everyone wants the same weeks off in July and August. It's going to be a nightmare.

 

[docB]

Shiftadmin versus our old way - all of us sitting in a room every three months and hashing out our schedule, I choose Shiftadmin, hands down.

It's pretty good at keeping everyone's needs and quirks down as long as you take the time to input them before rolling the schedule. I'm thinking about the future, when people start to game the system by using their guaranteed days off to add to the front or back of their vacation time to extend their vacation time. Our next scheduling period includes the summer vacation months, where everyone wants the same weeks off in July and August. It's going to be a nightmare.

What we really need is a computer program that can make the schedule and then can spawn a virtual doctor like on Star Trek when no one else can cover.

 

[Hercules]

Shiftadmin versus our old way - all of us sitting in a room every three months and hashing out our schedule, I choose Shiftadmin, hands down.

It's pretty good at keeping everyone's needs and quirks down as long as you take the time to input them before rolling the schedule. I'm thinking about the future, when people start to game the system by using their guaranteed days off to add to the front or back of their vacation time to extend their vacation time. Our next scheduling period includes the summer vacation months, where everyone wants the same weeks off in July and August. It's going to be a nightmare.

We use shiftadmin and are still happy with it. It's easy to keep people from gaming the system in shiftadmin. One of you is the administrator and they can just flat out deny any requests a person makes adjacent to their vacation (as long as everyone in the group agrees that those requests are not allowed). As for wanting the same vacation times, you guys either need to make it a first come first serve free for all or just take turns on who gets to pick first each year for their vacation times.

 

[Schedule Maven]

Catching up on old posts-but I've been using Intrigma for 4 years-and find that it has worked well for us. We have the paid version, for stats and keeping everyone honest on requests, but they just came out with a free basic version for those of you paying for others.

 

[buffywannabe]

Our residency uses amion and i am told our chiefs spend >40 hr/mo to do the schedule for 46 residents + off service. I'm hoping this is a gross overestimation (I want to try for chief), but if not I figure there must be a better way. Has anyone tried the free intrigma?

 

[EctopicFetus]

I used amion when I was a chief 6 years ago.. 40 hours.. no way.. but scheduling 40+ people is a huge PITA.

I am a huge fan of shiftadmin.. Although the costs are decent

 

[link2swim06]

I liked the demo from ShiftAdmin but it's expensive and not all administrators will go for the monthly cost when amion is like 350$ a year and handwritten schedules are "free". I use amion and it's not awful once you learn how to use it.

Amion is $350 a year!? That's a ripoff. I could create the whole website in about a day and it's not very good. I guess it's all pennies in the grand scheme of things but if it's indirectly coming out of your paycheck when there is something that does the same thing for free...

 

[Snelgrave]

Resurrecting this thread. I just inherited the scheduling duties with our group, and we use AMION. I find it only average so far, and the program looks like it was built in the 90s. Are any of the competing products worth making a switch?

 

[Hercules]

Resurrecting this thread. I just inherited the scheduling duties with our group, and we use AMION. I find it only average so far, and the program looks like it was built in the 90s. Are any of the competing products worth making a switch?

After 2 more years I'm still a big fan of shiftadmin.

 

[EMDoc0411]

Try the free version of Intrigma. I met the reps at AAEM earlier this year and have been very happy so far.

 

[alehar]

So some of us chiefs throughout the country got together and wrote a review of some of the more common scheduling software options. We talk about ease of use, price, etc.

http://www.aliem.com/5-scheduling-software-options/

 

[emergentmd]

Shiftadmin is the best by far IMO that I have used.

 

[Hotsei]

What about Lightning Bolt? It has recently been ranked 1st in KLAS but I don't see any mentions here. Any experiences with this one.

 

[Hotsei]

I didn't see this thread before. We use Tangier. I don't really recommend it but it's functional. We have 7 hospitals, 50+ docs and 40 MLPs so we had to go to something. I was impossible to do by hand.

We feel about Tangier the way tkim feels about Shiftadmin. Big learning curve and acceptable results. It just seems like there could be something better.

Has anyone tried Lightning Bolt?

 

[vm26]

Resurrecting this thread. I just inherited the scheduling duties with our group, and we use AMION. I find it only average so far, and the program looks like it was built in the 90s. Are any of the competing products worth making a switch?

We use "schedule anywhere"...seems to work well but I am not the one who actually makes the schedule