Software and Services

The e-Roster module for consultants and SAS doctors has been based on feedback from over 50 NHS trusts (users of Zircadian’s e-JobPlan solution).

Job planning is a vital strategic exercise that allows a trust to identify the type and quantity of work its consultants will deliver over the following year. Rostering allows the more flexible planning of consultants’ day-to-day movements but within the overall activity goals set by job planning. Zircadian’s e-Roster module is a web-based solution that handles this process more effectively. The system integrates with e-JobPlan and e-Leave to create a fully comprehensive solution which expertly
organises all aspects of consultant activity.

Job & Service Planning
Whilst a consultant’s job plan specifies contractually the amount of work the consultant will do in a year, often, the weekly template is too rigid to accurately
reflect the day-to-day activities a consultant performs. An activity roster created nearer the date the work is actually performed, is more flexible, takes leave into
account more efficiently, and should accurately reflect what the service is delivering during that period. E-roster compares the roster against job plans to help
identify which activities consultants can undertake, which consultants have spare capacity and who is available to cover who.

e-Roster is easy to use
Zircadian’s e-Roster module allows managers to plan clinical and non-clinical activities dynamically, week‑by-week or month-by-month. Initially, rosters can be created from existing job plans, service plan templates or planned from scratch. The first stages in roster planning are defining the clinical and non-clinical
activities the department will deliver for the life of the roster, and then identifying which consultants will be performing those activities. Before a roster is published
the e-Roster system will warn a roster manager if activities have not been allocated to consultants or if minimum coverage levels have not been achieved.

e-Roster increases accountability and helps keep the service running
e-Roster helps minimise the number of cancelled activities, such as clinics and theatre sessions, and enables better utilisation of valuable hospital resources such as clinic rooms and theatre space. e-Roster has electronic links to a number of theatre scheduling systems to help synchronise use of theatre space and the resources needed to run theatre. The e-Roster module keeps a running tally of the
rostered activities for each consultant and reconciles this with the annualised activity numbers from the job plan. e-Roster will help a consultant assess their remaining workload for the year and gives them the flexibility to plan their work around, for example, school holidays or particularly intense periods of service demand. e-Roster provides greater flexibility with increased accountability for both consultants and service.