Efficient scheduling is one of the cornerstones of effective healthcare delivery. With numerous professionals across various roles, managing availability, recurring shifts, and unexpected absences can be a complex and time-consuming task. However, with the right approach and tools, healthcare organisations can optimise their scheduling processes, ensuring that the right professionals are available at the right times, without overburdening staff or compromising patient care.

The Challenge: Managing Availability and Recurring Shifts

In a healthcare setting, the availability of professionals is critical to maintaining high standards of patient care. However, managing this availability—alongside recurring shifts and unexpected absences—requires careful planning and flexibility. Here are some common challenges:

1. Recurring Shifts: Many healthcare facilities operate around the clock, necessitating a well-planned schedule that accounts for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly shifts. Ensuring these shifts are filled consistently while accommodating staff preferences and needs is no easy task.
2. Resource Absence: Whether due to planned leave, illness, or emergency, managing absences without disrupting care can be challenging. Finding suitable replacements at short notice or redistributing workload among available staff requires swift decision-making and real-time data.
3. Maximising Professional Availability: Ensuring that healthcare professionals are utilised efficiently, without overworking them, requires precise planning and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Our Method: Optimising Healthcare Shifts and Availability Using Salesforce and Dayback

Recently, we partnered with a healthcare client to help them overcome these exact challenges by leveraging Salesforce and Dayback to automate their availability and shift management processes.

We implemented a custom solution that enabled the client to manage their scheduling more effectively. This approach included:

1. Creating Recurring Shifts with Salesforce

Through custom Salesforce development, we designed a function that allows administrators to create recurring shifts based on staff availability. By automating this process within Salesforce, we removed the need for manual creation of shifts, this solution allowed the client to manage workloads more effectively.

2. Proactively Managing Absences with Real-Time Data Integration

We integrated real-time data insights into the client’s scheduling system, enabling them to manage absences more proactively. When a healthcare professional was unavailable, our solution leveraged Salesforce’s capabilities to automatically block availability for bookings until the shift could be covered or rescheduled, reducing the risk of disruption to patient care.

3. Defining Availability and Filling Gaps Efficiently with DayBack for Salesforce

We utilised DayBack, a powerful Salesforce app, to clearly define the availability of each healthcare professional. This enabled the client to calculate available slots and identify gaps in the schedule more efficiently. By leveraging DayBack’s advanced scheduling and data management capabilities within Salesforce, the client could seamlessly fill these gaps, ensuring that no resource was underutilised or overworked.

Conclusion: Transforming Healthcare Scheduling

Our recent partnership with a healthcare client showcases how leveraging Salesforce development can significantly impact operational efficiency. By automating recurring shifts, managing absences proactively, and filling gaps strategically within Salesforce, healthcare organisations can ensure that they have the right professionals available at the right times, without overburdening their staff or compromising on patient care.