5 Staff Scheduling Software for Healthcare (In-Depth Look)

ByEric Czerwonka Last Updated
5 Staff Scheduling Software for Healthcare (In-Depth Look)

Over the years, we’ve helped countless healthcare businesses simplify their scheduling. That includes, but isn’t limited to, small and midsize medical offices (e.g. dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, etc.), animal hospitals, rehabilitation centers, home health services (e.g. field nurses), health and wellness centers, and more.

Traditionally, healthcare organizations use Excel to manage their schedules. However, this is a notoriously frustrating and inefficient process.

Using healthcare scheduling software organizes the process and saves you time and headaches. Less time dealing with on-call scheduling means more time your healthcare professionals can devote to patient care. For example, with scheduling software, you can easily:

  • Create schedules via drag-and-drop functionality and automatically notify healthcare employees (rather than reaching out and coordinating manually with them).  
  • Send automatic mobile and/or email notifications to employees anytime there’s a change to the schedule.  
  • Display each employee’s unavailable hours on the calendar so you can work around them when you sit down to handle shift scheduling. 
  • Handle all your time off needs (e.g. Employees can request paid and unpaid time off within the app. Reports with time off balance are easily accessible. And so on.).
  • Allow employees to send shift trade requests to one (or several) teammates, subject to your approval. 
  • The list goes on.

In short, multiple sectors of the healthcare industry can significantly benefit from using workforce management software (especially when compared to inefficient methods like Excel, which typically waste more time and money).  

The question is, what’s the best scheduling tool on the market?

In this post, we’ll discuss why we feel that Buddy Punch (our product) is a good fit for companies in the healthcare space.

However, we’ll also list four other scheduling software for healthcare, so you can make a more well-rounded choice.

Best Staff Scheduling Software for Healthcare

  1. Buddy Punch
  2. When I Work
  3. Connecteam
  4. Sling
  5. Hubstaff

1. Buddy Punch

We’ll share just a few of Buddy Punch’s essential scheduling features below.

Click here to see a more comprehensive list.

Easily Create Shifts via Drag and Drop Functionality

With Buddy Punch, the scheduling process is as easy as:

1. Clicking on an empty cell in the calendar (which brings up the shift creation pop up).

Simple click an empty slot to create a new shift.

2. Within the shift creation pop up (shown in the image below), you can specify:

  • Who the shift will be assigned to,
  • The shift’s end and start time,
  • Whether the shift is repeating or not,
  • Location, department, or position codes,
  • And more.
Create every detail of a schedule.

3. Drag and drop shifts where needed until you’re satisfied with the schedule.

4. Make the schedule live by clicking on “Publish”.

It’s as easy as that! We also made a 1-minute video walkthrough that shows how to create and publish a schedule.

Automatically Notify Employees when Their Schedule is Published

Choose when and how to publish a schedule.

When you publish the schedule, there are 2 options:

1. Automatically send a mobile and/or email notification to your staff, alerting them of their shift. (Anytime a schedule change happens, employees can also receive an automatic notification, rather than you having to reach out manually. This drastically reduces the chance of no-shows that were unaware of being scheduled, and reduces the odds of you having to make adjustments last-minute.)

2. Publish without notifications. (Your staff can simply log in to the Buddy Punch app at any time to view the schedule.)

Most customers prefer the first option, as it saves time on coordinating and alerting employees about their shifts.

Repeating Shifts

Schedule the frequency of a shift or schedule.

With this feature, rather than re-creating a shift each time, you can have it repeat.

Per the above image, all you have to do is select the frequency. For example:

  • Weekly,
  • Monthly on the first Tuesday,
  • Annually on December 1,
  • Every weekday (Monday to Friday),
  • And so on. (Select the “Custom” option to pick from many other configurations.)

Setting Availability

Employees can mark preferred work hours and when they're unavailable.

Your staff can easily set their scheduling availability within Buddy Punch. For example, Angela could log into the scheduling app and mark that she’s unavailable from December 25 to January 2.

This information will be easily referenceable the next time you create the schedule.

Shift Trades

Employees can request trade shifts right in the app.

Employees can send shift trade requests to one (or several) teammates.

If a teammate agrees to the request, it can optionally be sent to an administrator for approval. This helps reduce the number of open shifts you have to fill.

Shift Start Reminder

Create a reminder or notification in four easy steps.

What happens if an employee does not punch in within X minutes of the start of their shift?

The image above shows how you could configure an email and/or mobile notification to be sent to them.  

Note: Click here to learn about our additional scheduling notification features (e.g., Shift End Reminder, Early In/Out Alerts, Late In/Out Alerts, and more).

Buddy Punch Offers Many Other Scheduling Features

This is just the tip of the iceberg. (Click here to learn about the full breadth of our scheduling platform.)

Payroll & Accountability Features

While your business may only choose to use Buddy Punch for scheduling, we also offer features to (1) save you time on payroll and (2) increase staff accountability.

We’ll discuss each in turn below.

1. Save Time on Payroll

Time Off Tracking

Medical facilities commonly use this feature to facilitate paid/unpaid time off requests. When requests are displayed on the schedule, you can work around them when creating shifts.  

For example, let’s say John sends a PTO request for January 5th. You would log into the app and have the option to approve or deny the request depending on your staffing needs. If you approve the request, then it will automatically be displayed on the Buddy Punch calendar when you next sit down to create a schedule. You can then work around January 5 and avoid accidentally scheduling a shift for John on his off day.

This becomes even more beneficial with multiple employees. We’ve talked to many in practice management who are absolutely relieved they now have an organized system, rather than manually coordinating with employees via text and having to use Excel. When they’re not focused on nurse scheduling, they can optimize care for their patients.

Another great aspect of our software is that it automatically tracks each employee’s paid and unpaid time off balance. Both administrators and employees can view it at any time via easily accessible reports.

The ease of use and clarity provided by a management system like Buddy Punch keeps your healthcare workforce running smooth, and can reduce stress for both you and your employees. This means improved retention, less callouts, and efficient caregivers in your employ. All in all, using a scheduling system to handle all your time off tracking needs saves lots of time and headaches.  

Additional Payroll Features

  • Accruals: With Buddy Punch, setting customizable time off accrual rules is a breeze.
  • Payroll Reports on Demand: Running payroll is a notoriously long and frustrating process that involves manual calculations. But with Buddy Punch, employee hours are automatically calculated! You can also download an Excel report with this information (alongside time off hours, overtime hours, and other info that’s needed for payroll).
  • Payroll Provider Integrations: Transfer employee hours into your favorite payroll provider in just a few minutes. (No matter which payroll provider you use, we likely integrate with it.)
  • And more.

2. Increase Staff Accountability

With Buddy Punch, you have the option to activate one (or several) of the following features:

  • Punch Limiting Rules: Restrict when employees can clock in to X minutes within the start or end of their shift.  
  • Photos on Punch: Employees can use their phone or computer to take an image of themselves whenever they punch in/out. An administrator can then verify the validity of the punches.
  • Geofencing: Limit punches to a specific location.
  • IP Address Locking: Limit punches to a specific IP address (e.g., Wi-Fi network or in-office devices).
  • And more.

Online Reviews on Capterra

As of this writing, Buddy Punch has 782 reviews and 4.8 stars on Capterra — a widely used software review site.

Here are just a few of those reviews:

“The Customer Support team is super responsive, thorough, and effective. Their support software allows for much quicker response times than you could get on the phone. Their team is knowledgeable about my organization and the way that we use the platform. I have received many helpful suggestions to how we can best leverage the Buddy Punch platform in our sometimes complicated organizational structure. We have had very few issues, but have always received immediate resolutions when anything has come up. The software is straightforward and well-run, and was easily understood by our team of 55+ non-technical staff of all ages”.

Click here to read the full review.

“My staff loves that the software works seamlessly… BEST of all, when I have a question, Buddy Punch really LISTENS and always walks me through the answer or offers to help themselves… The Buddy Punch Customer Service is EXCELLENT! Poor service is one of the main reasons we left our last scheduling and payroll reporting software.”

Click here to read the full review.

Click here to see all of our Buddy Punch reviews on Capterra.

Interested in Learning More About Buddy Punch?

For more information:

2. When I Work

At the time of writing, When I Work has 891 reviews and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra.

They offer several user-friendly features and functionality, such as:

Here’s one review showing why it’s a great staff scheduling software for healthcare:

“Overall we have loved using When I Work. It makes scheduling seamless and reduces the amount of time we spend on employee schedules. We also really love the reminders and text alerts as it makes it easy to communicate with our team quickly when things change.”

Click here to read the full review.

Click here to see all of When I Work’s Capterra reviews.

3. Connecteam

At the time of writing, Connecteam has 133 reviews and 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra.

This cloud-based tool offers several features and functionality, such as:

Here’s one review showing why it’s a great software for healthcare providers:

“The support has been amazing. I had a live one on one with a rep that went over features that were applicable to MY business, not just a general introduction that wasn’t pertinent… I liked that it was able to support us as a small business, and not only for large businesses. We use the scheduling aspect, lists, tasks, and updates.”

Click here to read the full review.

Click here to see all of Connecteam’s Capterra reviews.

4. Sling

At the time of writing, Sling has 104 reviews and 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra.

They offer several features and functionality, such as:

Here’s one review showing why it’s a great medical staff scheduling software:

“Sling is excellent! I have been using it for several years and it’s getting better every year. I highly recommend it. It allows real time scheduling for team members as well as time off requests, shift notifications and several more options. It’s extremely convenient and easy to use. There are great simple features like color blocking specific roles, it’s the little things that count. Along with all of that there is virtually no annoying advertising. Sling has created a seamless connection between schedule creators and team members creating easy communication and boundaries. Thank you Sling for generously offering such a great app.”

Click here to read the full review.

Click here to see all of Sling’s Capterra reviews.

5. Hubstaff

At the time of writing, Hubstaff has 1203 reviews and 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra.

They offer several features and functionality, such as:

Like most other options here, Hubstaff works on Desktop as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. Here’s one review showing why it’s a great healthcare staff scheduling software:

“Hubstaff is simple. As a team member, I was able to set up the software, be added to the project at hand, and start working within minutes. No complicated options to figure out, and everything was 100% intuitive. The desktop app is small and unobtrusive. I really don’t want more things to complicate my work, so Hubstaff was perfect for me. It also has a mobile app which it syncs with perfectly. I only had to use this once, but it was quite useful to have the option.”

Click here to read the full review.

Click here to see all of Hubstaff’s Capterra reviews.

Learn More about How Buddy Punch Can Solve Your Scheduling Needs

For more information:

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