Success Story: Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital

May 23, 2023

Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital Refines Self Scheduling with ScheduleAnywhere

Customer

Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital is a 22-bed Critical Access Hospital with more than 200 staff members who provide around-the-clock care and support services. In addition to its inpatient services, Culbertson maintains a 24/7 emergency department and provides laboratory services. Additionally, the hospital offers cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation, imaging, outpatient geriatric psychology, surgical services, therapy services, a wound clinic, and multiple outpatient specialty clinics. The hospital also operates family practice clinics in Astoria, Beardstown, Rushville and Table Grove, Illinois.

Challenge

Supervisors at Sara D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital had a self-scheduling system for scheduling its nurses. Nurses used paper documents and a staffing grid to select shifts to match their qualifications. Supervisors would approve each schedule, create a master schedule in Excel and post it in each department. When nurses wanted to swap or cover a shift, supervisors first needed to manually count whether the appropriate number of properly qualified staff members would still be scheduled. These calculations took managers away from other core responsibilities and added up to a significant drain on time and financial resources.

When changes were made, managers would update and repost the schedules. However, there was no process in place to ensure employees knew the schedule had been updated or whether they were affected. Nurses could only see the most current schedule when they were at the hospital – frustrating them, and often leading to improperly staff shifts.

“I examined several employee scheduling programs. I knew we needed an online, cost-effective system that would work for the unique scheduling demands of our healthcare facility.” Rhonda Briney

Solution

After researching alternatives, supervisors at the hospital selected ScheduleAnywhere employee scheduling software. The new system allows Culbertson to retain its self-scheduling model while eliminating paper schedules and spreadsheets – all while providing everyone with anytime, anywhere access to up-to-the-minute schedules. Now nurses and staff members can use the mobile app to submit time-off and other requests and see who is available to cover or swap a shift. The software tracks coverage and staffing requirements, so supervisors can easily decide whether to accept or deny a request, knowing whether they would still have the appropriate number of qualified employees scheduled. When changes are made, the schedule updates automatically and any nurses whose schedules were affected are notified. Additionally, supervisors can send emails and text messages about critical scheduling issues to individuals, all employees or a select group.