 |
FriarTuck implemented a
hospital-wide deployment of the optimized workforce management system
to schedule, track and manage
nurses and doctors for the National University Hospital (NUH). The scope
of the project covered about 1,400 staff across 50 departments such as
Intensive Care Units, Operating Theatres, Medical Wards and Emergency
Medicine Department. There are 70 over managers and 10 management users.
The challenges come from the different work policies and practices adopted
by NUH such as 3 rotating shifts, debit-credit system and short-long shifts.
Nurse scheduling is known to be one of the most complex optimization problems – it
requires assessment of multitude factors like contractual requirements,
regulations, patient acuity, staff availability, skills, fairness and preferences.
|
The optimization criteria set out by the NUH management is quality of service, employee satisfaction
and fairness, fatigue and operational cost. NUH has started enjoying the benefits
of the system as soon as it was implemented through significant reduction in planning time,
improved staff productivity and better visibility of the workforce across the hospital.
The
planning time has reduced drastically by 71% from an average of 7 days to
less than 2 days for every department, leading a total savings of 2,760
man days per year for NUH. This savings alone justifies the investment in the
system.
“Most crucial is that this software allows nurses to state preferred shifts
in the planning phase enhanced with weightage and optimizes the fulfillment
of these requests. The potential of this innovative approach is obviously going to dramatically
improve the nurse rostering process for major hospitals”
– Penny Seet, former Asst. Director of Nursing, NUH |