NHS Tayside pilots workforce management solution
Staff deployment is optimised through SMART e-Rostering solution
NHS Tayside is piloting a new workforce management solution in an effort to improving staffing levels, reduce reliance on bank staff, and ensure fairer working times.
As part of the trial the health board is deploying the SMART e-Rostering and bank management solution from Kronos across nine rostering locations and around 300 members of staff.
The pilot will be rolled out in three stages across a range of clinical and operational areas, starting with two surgical wards and then taking in theatres, outpatients, elderly peoples’ services, mental health and laundry services.
The trust hopes the move will lead to a range of benefits including a reduction in the time taken to produce rosters, more efficient use of staff, a better work-life balance for employees, and increased availability of management information.
Ann Mudie, e-Rostering pilot lead at NHS Tayside, said: “We undertook an evaluation of systems available, which included reference visits to existing users. SMART’s customers in the UK gave us good feedback on the system, particularly regarding SMART’s NHS experience and the flexibility of the support it was able to offer.”
Tristen Spencer, director of SMART at Kronos, added: “By optimising the use of staff and ensuring that establishment resources are used as efficiently as possible, NHS organisations are able to achieve a balance between delivering excellent patient care services while ensuring management of costs. We are seeing huge interest from health boards in Scotland as they look to maximise their resources.”
