Ensuring quality care with better Workforce Scheduling
With more than 1,000 beds, a wide array of medical services and four different locations, Albert Schweitzer is one of the largest general hospitals in the Netherlands. The organization’s vision is to provide quality care with intelligence, heart and soul. Albert Schweitzer employs more than 4,000 full-time workers and 400 flex workers for this purpose. It counts 250 planners in 250 departments among its staff. Ensuring that enough medical personnel is available to meet demand is a key challenge in such a large operation.
Adapting to new developments in healthcare
Albert Schweitzer is no stranger to new technologies. The organization has an entire platform (ideasz.nl) devoted to innovation. When it comes to data and analytics, the hospital adopted ORTEC Workforce Scheduling several years ago to optimize administrative processes. The tool helps them create a schedule using annualized hours. It automates the payment of allowances, makes payments more accurate and saves time for both medical and administrative personnel, who no longer have to spend hours processing time sheets.
An interface between ORTEC Workforce Scheduling and the organization’s payroll system allows for direct information flow and scheduling efficiency. Albert Schweitzer wanted to take these benefits one step further by retrieving data from the application to improve business results. Enter ORTEC Business Intelligence Support.
Less time spent in operational matters, more time to focus on better outcomes
"ORTEC Business Intelligence Support is a must have if you want to use ORTEC Workforce Scheduling for the entire organization and truly optimize your staff scheduling," – Matijs Dekker, Head of the Hospital’s HR Service Center. “ORTEC Business Intelligence Support helps us generate reports that tell us something about the quality of the schedules and the progress of the scheduling process. We can now easily control hours and make financial forecasts for future obligations and accumulated hours that will have to be paid out.”
With ORTEC Business Intelligence Support, Albert Schweitzer was able to retrieve even more information from ORTEC Workforce Scheduling. An important goal was to compare occupancy rates with staffing levels to gain insight into how effectively they were scheduling personnel and how this could be optimized in the future.
Our team helped them implement additional modules for our Workforce Scheduling application, such as ORTEC Budget & Control. With this module and ORTEC Business Intelligence Support, Albert Schweitzer can get the most important management information in a single click. ORTEC Business Intelligence Support transforms schedule data into management overviews and business intelligence. For instance, managers can generate reports to determine total annual hours and the various leave balances for each employee.
ORTEC Employee Self-service and ORTEC Flex Pool were included to manage the hospital’s flex pool capacity and enable employees to review and request changes to their schedule. A great example of how applied mathematics can contribute to achieve better outcomes for various stakeholders in healthcare.
Better for business and better for patients
“ORTEC is a company that thinks along with you,” adds Matijs Dekker. “From a financial aspect, ORTEC Business Intelligence Support delivers the right management information, especially with regards to occupancy rates and staffing levels.”
Coupling ORTEC Workforce Scheduling with ORTEC Business Intelligence Support resulted in increased returns at Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Compiling business reports is now much easier, resulting in time savings as well.
Improved insight into occupancy rates and staffing levels has improved the quality of schedules and the organization’s ability to match supply and demand. This has freed up more time for the organization’s staff to focus on delivering the quality care they are known for.
