scheduling.......

[JamieB]

anyone have some creative scheduling ideas?

I'm toying with blocked scheduling, , having staff work 4day work weeks....but longer hours per day, and straddling historical shift times......it would provide much better coverage, but will also be a huge change to what they're accustomed to......

I have 6 techs to cover 7days a week, 7a to 11p........ I have a night shift that I'm not touching....

any ideas are welcome, welcome, welcome....heaviest days are Tues-Thurs....

we also have additional staff (component prep staff) that I'm willing to throw in the mix as well....they just could not do transfusion/reference work obviously.....they are an additional 4 staff members....

I welcome all ideas !

thanks.

[John C. Staley]

My best suggestion would be to sit down with the staff, tell them what you want to accomplish then turn it over to them. Besure and provide the limitations under which they are restricted but let them come up with something. They will probably surprise you and if they come up with the schedule there will be no problem getting them to buy into it. Remember you are working with smart, college educated people.

At my previous transfusion service the staff was given this duty. Some of the criteria was that everyone had to work with everyone else at least a couple of shifts. The department was covered 7 days per week from 0600 until 2230. They became creative with a modification of the 7 on 7 off system. It worked great for 15 years and is still working to the best of my knowledge.

:juggle::juggle:

[JamieB]

Thank you .....I appreciate that input and will likely go in that direction!

[L106]

Jamie,

John presented some of the most important factors that will make your new creative scheduling successful.

I'll offer a few other suggestions, based on our experience. (We have several techs on 4-day, 10-hour shifts, primarily for employee satisfaction.)

We were able to generate data from our computer system to show workload trends. Which are our high-volume tests days? What are our peak, busy times of the day that warrant the most staffing, overlap, etc. We also looked at what daily chores were flexible and could be moved to different times of the day (because of changes in staffing patterns.)

Be sure to address what is expected for weekend and holiday coverage, make sure your instituation is set up to handle variations such as 10-hours of sick pay when someone calls in sick for one day, etc. Also, if the creative scheduling is going to make it necessary for the staff to be more flexible when covering when a coworker is on vacation, etc., put that right on the table at the beginning. (10-hour days means less bodies present per day.) It's also a good idea to make it clear if the new creative scheduling is not guaranteed to be permanent. (Right now we are temporarily taking our 4-days/10-hour techs back to 5-days/8-hour shifts because of a personnel shortage, with the understanding that we will go back to the 10-hour days as soon as we have adequate personnel to cover the workload.)

[RR1]

Thanks John and Donna,

Useful points for capacity planning too.

[Likewine99]

John and L106 have it right on the money!

Change is always scary but if the staff have input on how they see this working it should make the transition easier. Remind everyone too that this is a trial, a work in progress, and can be modified as necessary.

[STDUFFY626]

I believe John has the best idea. Let the Techs come up with "their scheduling plan" to cover the 7 day week and they will make it work. I've seen management structured plans, well thought out, just collapse when implemented because management could not think of the most important items that staff considered important. And you will be surprised at the ideas the Techs will come up with.