Current Staffing Overview

The Current Staffing Overview screen is organized into the following areas (descriptions follow below):

• Header

• Left pane: Staffing details

• Right pane: Roster tab, Qualified Staff tab, and Assign and Compare buttons

Header

At the top of the screen, you can view a summary of the organization unit or schedule group that you selected. The summary area shows the following information.

• The organization unit or schedule group you are viewing and the date and time you specified

• A pencil icon to change the organization unit, schedule group, or date that you are viewing

• Status counts

  Note  

  Clicking any of the status values takes you to the ActiveRoster tab. For more information, see Using ActiveRoster

• The broadcast summary screens show the broadcast notifications that have been sent. These links are only available if your system is licensed for Open Shift Notification.

  • The Shift Broadcast Summary tab shows a list of broadcasts that have been sent, the broadcast statuses, and the employee response statuses.

  • The Message Broadcast Summary tab shows a list of message broadcasts that have been sent, along with details about the messages.

• A search field that allows you to search for employees. The purpose of the search is to view schedule details and make quick transaction updates for an employee while you are working on the Current Staffing Overview. With this ability, you do not have to leave the screen; simply make any needed updates for the employee and return to working where you were.

  Select an employee from the results to display employee information, a two-week calendar, and their transactions.

  • Transactions shown in the Transactions column include those that start at any time during the day the Current Staffing Overview is open for.

    Example 

    You are on the Current Staffing Overview for 9/2 and you search for and select an employee. Any transactions that start between 00:00 and 23:59 on 9/2 are shown.

  • The two-week calendar shows the employee's scheduled transactions for each day.

  For information about the transactions shown on the calendar, see the Transactions table below.

  From the two-week calendar, you can assign the employee to a transaction (activity or pay code). For information, see Assign a transaction below.

Staffing details

The staffing details on the Current Staffing Overview screen are arranged in the following ways.

• The rows are organized first by coverage period and coverage period start time, then by organization unit.

  The coverage periods shown in these rows are for the coverage set that you selected when you opened the Current Staffing Overview, which may be the default or a non-default coverage set. Note that if you selected a non-default coverage set, the coverage periods shown in these rows may not match the coverage periods you see when you expand the rows to view details since the details always show the default coverage period.

• The columns contain the following information.

  Tip

  Click a value in any of the fields to display the employees in the Roster pane who have scheduled activities. If an employee has other activities that overlap the coverage period you are viewing, those activities also appear in the Roster.

  • Organization unit codes and descriptions

    The broadcast icon appears next to an organization unit when a message notification has been sent to employees in that unit. For more information, see View and edit previously sent Open Shift broadcasts.

  • Notes

    The icon indicates that schedule notes have been added for the coverage period. For more information, see Add and cancel schedule notes below.

  • Ratio

    The employee-to-patient ratio represents the number of scheduled employees compared to the number of patients (from the most recent census download). The values in the ratio are rounded to the nearest whole number.

    Example 

    A ratio of 1:5 could indicate many different scenarios, such as:

    • One nurse and five patients

    • Two nurses and ten patients

    • Two nurses and nine patients. This is a nurse-to-patient ratio of 2:9, or reduced to 1:4.5, and then rounded to 1:5.

  • Census

    Click a census value to view the details.

  • HPPD

    Hours per patient day (HPPD) is an alternate way to view the ratio of scheduled effort to patient census. It represents the number of hours scheduled in direct patient care per patients on the unit. If your department maintains target or budget HPPD numbers, you can compare these to the scheduled HPPD values in the Current Staffing Overview screen.

    Note  

    HPPD is calculated by dividing the sum of the scheduled productive hours and scheduled productive overtime hours by the census value. When the census is 0, HPPD is shown as 0.

  • Caregiver Utilization (%)

    The Caregiver Utilization value indicates a comparison of scheduled employees to the optimal staffing target, shown as a percentage.

    The ideal value is 100. A value under 100 indicates low utilization (overstaffed), while a value over 100 indicates high utilization (understaffed). Thresholds determine an acceptable range above and below 100. Below the range, the value appears in blue; above the range, the value appears in red. For example, if the acceptable range is 90 to 110, a value below 90 is blue, a value above 110 is red, and a value between 90 and 110 is black.

    The Caregiver Utilization is calculated as follows:

    [(Sum of the qualifying profile needs) / (Sum of the qualifying profile coverage)] x 100

    Note  

    The Caregiver Utilization column may not be enabled for your organization.

  • Profile Groups with Coverage and Need

    Click a coverage/need value to view the details. This opens a box with coverage, need, and variance values, broken out by profile. Also shown is a header with the organization unit's default coverage period information.

    Click a profile row to display the employees in the Roster pane who have scheduled activities in the selected Profile Group. If an employee has other activities that overlap the coverage period you are viewing, those activities also appear in the Roster.

    The broadcast icon appears next to the profile group when a message notification has been sent to employees in that profile group. The broadcast icon also appears on a profile's row when a message notification or an Open Shift notification has been sent to employees in that profile. For more information, see View and edit previously sent Open Shift broadcasts.

    Note  

    The Other column includes all profiles that are not part of a profile group.

    The Indirect column includes employees whose coverage is classified as indirect patient care.

Roster tab

Click a value in any of the fields in the staffing details area to view employees on the Roster tab.

The information in the Roster includes:

• Employee name and primary phone number

  • (F) appears next to the names of employees who came from a float department.

  • The boxes next to the employee names are used to make selections for the Assign and Compare buttons.

• Transactions (activities, pay codes, and unavailability)

  • To appear in the Roster list, employees must have a transaction that overlaps the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

  • Requests are shown with a flag symbol.

  • The word Extra appears under schedules that are determined to be extra shifts. For more information, see Set up extra shifts.

  • Requested and approved Unavailability transactions appear as follows:

    Approved Unavailability:

    Approved Recurring Unavailability:

    Requested Unavailability:

    Requested Recurring Unavailability:

    For more information about unavailability, see Unavailability Requests.

  Tip  

  Hover over a transaction to view more information about it. Click an activity or pay code to open a dialog box to edit or delete it. For more information, see Edit or delete a transaction.

Qualified Staff tab

Click a profile (within a profile group) to view employees on the Qualified Staff tab.

On the Qualified Staff tab:

• Click the filter symbol to open a list of filtering options.

  These filter options allow you to tailor the staff list to help you find the best matching employee for the shift. In addition, if you use Open Shift Notification, this allows you to quickly send a broadcast to a select group of employees. For example, you can filter for only qualification Level 1 and Receives Broadcast, then broadcast to this smaller group.

  • On Call - displays employees with an on-call activity code scheduled

  • Overstaffed - displays employees in an organization unit that is determined to be in an overstaffed situation

  • Float Staff - displays employees whose home labor distribution is a float organization unit

  • Productive Schedule - displays employees who are scheduled with productive schedules

  • Not Scheduled - displays employees who do not have a schedule or those who have scheduled activity codes with a length of zero hours

  • Matching Shifts - displays employees whose home labor distribution contains the same shift defined for the selected coverage period

  • Qualification Levels - displays employees who match the selected qualification level

  • Receives Broadcast - displays employees who have a phone or email notification method set up

  • Broadcast Not Sent - displays eligible employees who have not yet been sent an Open Shift Notification broadcast that overlaps the selected coverage period

• Sort the staff list within each qualification level by clicking the column names in the header row. There may be additional pages of employees; click the page numbers to move to the next set of employees.

• Broadcast open shifts to the selected employees. For more information, see Notifications: Open Shifts and Messages.

  Open Shift Notification is an optional module. The ability to broadcast open shifts to employees and have them reply depends on whether your organization is licensed for this module.

The information in the Qualified Staff list includes:

• Qualification level

  Profile qualifications allow your organization to define levels of requirements that an employee must meet to be included on the Qualified Staff tab. Administrators define these levels starting with employees whose profiles match exactly and then defining larger groups of employees by relaxing the requirement restrictions.

  Example 

  An administrator could set up profile qualifications for RNs in the Med/Surg department as follows:

  To fill RN vacancies in the schedule, administrators want exact matches first, then RNs from similar units (schedule partners), then RNs from similar jobs in dissimilar units (schedule partners), and then, in an emergency, any RN.

• Employee names and phone numbers

  • The boxes next to the employee names are used to make selections for the Assign and Compare buttons, and for sending a broadcast via the optional Open Shift Notification module.

  • The phone number that displays is either the employee’s Open Shift Notification phone number (if it is supplied on the employee’s Preferences screen) or the employee’s highest priority phone number from the employee record.

  • If an employee has been sent an Open Shift Notification broadcast that overlaps the selected coverage period, the symbol appears next to the name along with the number of notifications sent to the employee.

    Click the symbol to view details about the broadcast, such as the date, time, and organization unit.

  • (F) appears next to the names of employees who came from a float department.

• Transactions (activities, pay codes, and unavailability)

  • Transactions appear for the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

  • Requests are shown with a flag symbol.

  • The word Extra appears under schedules that are determined to be extra shifts. For more information, see Set up extra shifts.

  • Requested and approved Unavailability transactions appear as follows:

    Approved Unavailability:

    Approved Recurring Unavailability:

    Requested Unavailability:

    Requested Recurring Unavailability:

    For more information about unavailability, see Unavailability Requests.

  Tip  

  Hover over a transaction to view more information about it. Click an activity or pay code to open a dialog box to edit or delete it. For more information, see Edit or delete a transaction.

• Group Variance

  A Group Variance value only appears for employees with existing transactions and shows whether the organization unit where the transaction occurs is over- or understaffed. This helps you make staffing decisions based on the staffing levels of the unit where an employee is scheduled. Because of this, the variance may not match the variance of the organization unit you are currently viewing.

  The Group Variance is determined as follows:

  Once the employee's scheduled profile is identified, the system determines whether the profile belongs to a Profile Group. If so, all the profiles for the Profile Group are processed as defined below and combined to determine the Profile Group Variance value.

  • The Need is found by checking the Staffing Plan for the selected profile, coverage period, and date.

  • The Coverage is found checking the schedule for the selected profile, coverage period, and date.

  • The variance is found by subtracting the Need from the Coverage. A negative value is considered understaffing and is shown in red. A positive value is considered overstaffing and is shown in blue. A zero value is considered even staffing and is shown in gray.

Assign and Compare buttons

The Assign and Compare buttons are available on Roster and Qualified Staff tabs.

Assign button

Assign (add) transactions to employees.

Compare button

Select at least one employee from the Roster, and then click the Compare button. From the Compare Staff dialog box, you can:

• Compare the staffing details of the selected employees, allowing you to make more informed staffing decisions.

  For information about the columns and transactions on the schedule, see Definitions on the Compare Staff dialog box below.

• View a two-week calendar to see the employee's scheduled activities.

  To view the calendar, click the arrow to the left of an employee's name. Click the left or right arrow to move ahead or back another two weeks. Click a plus symbol to add a new schedule.

• Link to an employee's TCS (Time Card Screen) in a new browser window by clicking an employee's name.

• Assign transactions to employees.

• Add, edit, and delete activities.

• Broadcast open shifts to employees via Open Shift Notification.

  If an employee has been sent an Open Shift Notification broadcast that overlaps the selected coverage period, the symbol appears next to the name along with the number of notifications sent to the employee. Click the symbol to view details about the notification, such as the date, time, and organization unit.

  Select the employees to receive the notification and click the broadcast icon . For more information about broadcasts, see Notifications: Open Shifts and Messages.

  Open Shift Notification is an optional module. The ability to broadcast open shifts to employees and have them reply depends on whether your organization is licensed for this module.

To open the Current Staffing Overview, complete the following steps.

1. Navigate to Actions > Scheduling > Current Staffing Overview.

2. In the Open Schedule dialog, enter or update the information to open the desired Current Staffing Overview.

   • Choose the Organization Unit or Schedule Group option.

   • Organization Unit information (trunk, branch, and, if needed, leaf levels)

   • Schedule Group

   • Date

   • Coverage Set

3. Click Open.

4. If needed, navigate to a different day or coverage period with the arrows above the table.

Once you have identified the needs you want to fill, you can assign (schedule) open shifts to qualified employees. In addition, you can add pay codes to employees.

If your organization is licensed for Open Shift Notification, you can use it to assign employees to open shifts. For information, see Notifications: Open Shifts and Messages.

To assign, or add, a transaction (activity or pay code) to an employee, complete the following steps.

1. Select the appropriate employees.

   Tip  

   You can select multiple employees. Transactions you assign will be added to all selected employees.

   You can select employees from these locations:

   • Roster tab

   • Qualified Staff tab

   • Compare Staff dialog box (on the Roster or Qualified Staff tab)

     The Transactions column shows transactions that overlap the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

   • Two-week calendar (expand an employee on the Compare Staff dialog box or select an employee from the Search Employees field)

     The two-week calendar shows you the employee's scheduled transactions for each day. To view the calendar on the Compare Staff dialog box, click the arrow to the left of the employee's name. If needed, click the left or right arrow to move ahead or back another two weeks.

2. Click the Assign button, or from the two-week schedule, click the plus symbol.

3. In the Create Transaction dialog box, select the Activity or Pay Code option.

4. Update the fields with the details about the transaction.

5. Click Save.

To edit or delete a transaction (activity or pay code), complete the following steps.

1. Select the transaction you want to edit or delete.

   You can select transactions from these locations:

   • Roster tab

   • Qualified Staff tab

   • Compare Staff dialog box (on the Roster or Qualified Staff tab)

     The Transactions column shows transactions that overlap the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

   • Two-week schedule (expand an employee on the Compare Staff dialog box or select an employee from the Search Employees field)

     The two-week calendar shows you the employee's scheduled transactions for each day.

   After selecting a transaction, the Modify Transaction dialog box appears with the details about the selected transaction.

2. In the Modify Transaction dialog box:

   • Edit the transaction by making the desired changes and then click Save.

   • Delete the transaction by clicking Delete and then confirm the deletion.

To approve or deny a request to work, complete the following steps.

1. Select the request to work you want to approve or deny.

   Tip  

   A request to work appears as a transaction with a flag symbol and no background color, such as .

   You can select requests from these locations:

   • Roster tab

   • Qualified Staff tab

   • Compare Staff dialog box (on the Roster or Qualified Staff tab)

     The Transactions column shows transactions that overlap the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

   • Two-week schedule (expand an employee on the Compare Staff dialog box or select an employee from the Search Employees field)

     The two-week calendar shows you the employee's scheduled transactions for each day.

   After selecting a request, the Request to Work dialog box appears with the details about the selected request.

   In some situations, a warning message appears at the top of the dialog box. The message states, "This request is for a coverage period, organization unit, or profile that differs from your original view." It reminds you that the request to work is outside the specifics of your current view and that approving or denying the request might impact a different situation and may not be noticeable in your current view.

2. In the Request to Work dialog box, complete the desired actions:

   • Reviewer Comments (optional)

     Enter comments about your decision.

     Click Save Comment if you are still reviewing the request or need to come back to it later. If you click Approve or Deny instead of Save Comment, your comment is also saved.

   • Approve or Deny

     If approved, the request to work becomes a published schedule for the employee, and the needs and coverage values are updated.

     If denied, the request to work is removed from the Current Staffing Overview.

     Whether approved or denied, if the employee has enabled the event subscription to notify them after a request's status has changed, the notification is sent to the employee. The notification preference is found here: Preferences > My Preferences > Event Subscriptions > Employee Transactions > ReqToWorkStatChg (Employee Request to Work Status Change). For more information, see Event Subscriptions.

   • Delete (if available to you)

     Take care when deleting requests. They will be deleted completely and can no longer be searched for or reported on. For example, you might use this when a mistake was made during the initial request.

     The leading practice, in most situations, is to deny the request instead of deleting it.

   • Click X to close the dialog box without making any changes.

Marking certain shifts on the Current Staffing Overview as "extra" allows you to prioritize employees that should be called off first in the event of a low census scenario.

When the Extra Shift feature is enabled, schedules are considered Extra when they are acquired by the employee through the following ways.

• Approved from a request to work an open schedule

• Accepted via an Open Shift Notification broadcast

• Changed manually by a scheduler to be Extra

• A schedule awarded from an Offer

• An Extra schedule that has been traded

  When an employee trades a schedule already labeled Extra, the Extra status follows with the employee to the new schedule. For example, the employee had a schedule for Thursday and traded with someone for a Friday schedule. The Friday schedule is now labeled as Extra.

To set up extra shifts, complete the following steps.

1. Navigate to Configuration > Organization Unit > Organization Unit.

2. Search for and open the root organization unit.

3. Click the Indicators tab and open the Staffing and Scheduling card.

4. In the SS Solution Standard 15 field, make the following appropriate selection:

• Y = Extra shift processing for scheduling is enabled

• N = Extra shift processing for scheduling is disabled

5. Click Save.

Staffers can modify the census values so that the system can recalculate and accurately reflect staffing needs. For example, census might be downloaded four times per day, but situations can change more frequently, requiring you to have more current data to make staffing decisions.

Similarly, you can update the staffing needs after recalculation. This may be needed if the recalculated needs to do not match actual patient needs.

To update the census or staffing needs, complete the following steps.

1. In the staffing details area, click a value in either the Census column or a profile group column.

   The row expands to show more details.

   Tip  

   When you hover over editable fields in the expanded details, a pencil icon appears to indicate which fields can be updated manually.

   Note  

   The Census column is named from the Code field on the Census Classification. If you do not have a Census column, meaning the Code field was named differently on the Census Classification, then the census values will not accumulate correctly.

   

   For more information about Census Classification, contact your Functional System Administrator (FSA) or manager, or see Census Classification.

2. Click in a field and update the value as needed.

   • Census: For the appropriate acuity levels, update the value in the Census field.

   • Needs: For the appropriate profiles, update the value in the Need column.

   After you enter a value, the new value is saved automatically and the screen refreshes to show any effects of the change. For example, if you change the need, the screen updates the other values that are impacted, such as the Variance, Ratio, HPPD, and Caregiver Utilization fields.

   In addition, if you update the census, the needs are recalculated automatically.

You can add schedule notes to log comments about conditions or staffing situations affecting a coverage period. For example, you can add information about census, weather, holidays or other events causing staffing variations.

Add a schedule note

To add a schedule note, complete the following steps.

1. Click the icon next to Schedule Notes.

   The Schedule Notes dialog box appears and displays any existing notes.

2. Click Add Note.

3. Enter the details of the schedule note in the appropriate fields.

   • Enter a Coverage Period if the note applies only to one coverage period.

   • Enter the schedule note details either by selecting a Predefined Note Code or entering a Subject and Text.

     Previously defined settings determine whether you can edit the text of a predefined note.

4. Click Add.

   The Schedule Notes dialog box appears again and shows the note you just added. From here, click Add Note to add another or click Close to return to the Current Staffing Overview.

   The icon appears for the coverage periods with schedule notes.

View a schedule note

To view an existing schedule note, complete the following steps.

1. Click the icon in the Notes column.

   The Schedule Notes dialog appears and displays the existing notes.

2. To view the text of the note and additional details, click the appropriate note.

3. To view notes that have been canceled, select the Show Canceled Notes option.

Cancel a schedule note

To cancel a schedule note that no longer applies, complete the following steps.

1. Click the icon in the Notes column.

   The Schedule Notes dialog appears and displays the existing notes.

2. Select the boxes for the notes you want to cancel or select the Select All option.

3. Click Cancel Selected.

   The canceled notes no longer appear on the Current Staffing Overview. However, they are still retained and can be viewed again by selecting the Show Canceled Notes option in the Schedule Notes dialog box.

You can add notes to an employee's transaction (activity or pay code) to log comments about it. For example, information about why an employee was late or left early or any situation impacting the transaction.

You can add, view, or cancel notes from several locations. Transactions from the following locations can be used for any of the actions explained just after this list.

• Roster tab

• Qualified Staff tab

• Compare Staff dialog box (on the Roster or Qualified Staff tab)

  The Transactions column shows transactions that overlap the coverage period you are viewing. Any transactions that overlap the prior coverage period and the following coverage period also appear.

• Two-week schedule (expand an employee on the Compare Staff dialog box or select an employee from the Search Employees field)

  The two-week calendar shows you the employee's scheduled transactions for each day.

Add a transaction note

To add a transaction note, complete the following steps.

1. Click a transaction (activity or pay code).

   The Modify Transaction dialog box appears with the General tab selected.

2. Click the Notes tab.

   The Add Note section is expanded.

3. Enter your note.

   • You can select a Predefined Note Code and the entire message is entered for you automatically.

   • You can enter your own Subject and a message in the Text field.

4. Click Save.

Tip  

If you make changes to the transaction or add a new transaction note, but then switch between the General and Notes tabs before saving, a message reminds you that you have unsaved changes and the tab with the unsaved changes shows an asterisk.

View a transaction note

To view a transaction note, complete the following steps.

1. Click a transaction (activity or pay code).

   The Modify Transaction dialog box appears with the General tab selected.

2. Click the Notes tab.

   The Notes label shows the total number of active and canceled notes.

3. Expand Note History.

4. Click a note to see additional information, including the text of the note.

5. To view notes that have been canceled, select the Show Canceled Notes option.

   The note shows the label "Canceled".

6. When finished, click X to close the dialog box.

Cancel a transaction note

To cancel a transaction note that no longer applies, complete the following steps.

1. Click a transaction (activity or pay code).

   The Modify Transaction dialog box appears with the General tab selected.

2. Click the Notes tab.

3. Expand Note History.

4. Click the box for one or more notes, or click Select All.

5. Click Cancel Selected.

   Caution 

   Do not click the Delete button at the bottom. This button deletes the entire transaction.

   Once canceled, the note is still associated with the transaction. Click Show Canceled Notes to see it. The note now shows the label "Canceled".

6. When finished, click X to close the Modify Transaction dialog box.