Capturing Staff Availability Before the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Peak

For hospitals and healthcare networks, the COVID-19 pandemic is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Many are now, or soon will be, operating at complete capacity. Each position and role needs to be filled, so many are looking to see how they can fill critical vacancies.

One midwestern medical network needed a solution to fill the vacancies created by responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The easiest solution is to ask existing staff and personnel within the network to pick up the extra work.

At many healthcare facilities, however, the environment has become extremely fast-paced. There is little time for someone to quickly ask another staff member if they can fill in. And as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to increase in severity, the operational strain many healthcare organizations are facing will continue to grow. 

Digital solutions are meant to aid in these scenarios, and can be designed to serve the exact function an organization needs to kickstart.

This midwestern medical network used Veoci to build a Form staff and personnel could easily access. The Form allows them to register their availability for work. When a staff member plugs in an ID value, certain details, such as name, are automatically populated into the Form’s fields. After answering another batch of easy questions, the staff member is done completing the Form. 

Priming all of the data about hospital staff to fill into these forms was fast thanks to the ability to upload spreadsheets into Veoci Forms to create new entries. Once the medical network provided the Veoci team with the file, it was used to seamlessly create each staff member’s associated entry. 

When the hospitals and healthcare facilities within this network (and across the country) eventually see a surge in patients and demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration can reference the Form entries with each person’s availability to find personnel to fill the anticipated vacancies.

As we’ve seen throughout the course of this pandemic, preventing the virus from reaching its full potential is a community effort. The “staff availability” Form this medical network created embraces this, also allowing contract practitioners to provide their availabilities so the network’s administration can call on them to help if necessary. This pandemic caused a shortage of supplies as well. By knowing the amount of staff working, it would help the personal protective equipment (PPE) as well. Read more about it here.

Preparation is the most effective tool in any disaster. By implementing this solution, this medical network can get ahead of pandemic and start preparing for its most difficult time.