The 11 Best Healthcare Staff Scheduling Software in 2024

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

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. 

Multiple sectors of the healthcare industry can significantly benefit from using workforce scheduling software. The question is, what’s the best scheduling tool on the market? 

In this post, we’ll take a look at the 11 best healthcare staff scheduling software to help you find the right option for your team.

1. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is a time-tracking and employee scheduling tool built for healthcare teams of all types. With customers in sectors as diverse as medical offices, home healthcare, dentist offices, hospitals, veterinary clinics, and more, it has a wide range of features that make all aspects of healthcare workforce management simpler. 

Buddy Punch is well-known for its ease of use. As one of its healthcare customers writes on the review site Capterra:

“Buddy Punch has made it easy for our practice since we expanded and now have staff in remote locations, including staff that work from home. It’s user-friendly and makes the supervisors’/managers’ jobs easy when it comes to approving timecards!”

Let’s take a look at how Buddy Punch makes employee scheduling — and much more — easier and faster than ever for healthcare providers.

Drag-and-drop scheduling

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

Within the shift creation pop-up, you can specify:

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

Drag and drop shifts where needed until you’re satisfied with the schedule. Then, make the schedule live by clicking on “Publish.”

It’s as easy as that!

Schedule notifications

Choose when and how to publish a schedule.

When you publish the schedule, there are two options:

  1. Automatically send mobile and/or email notifications to your staff, alerting them of their shifts. Additionally, anytime a schedule change happens, employees can also receive an automatic notification so you don’t have to reach out manually at the 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.

Repeating shifts lets you use a schedule you’ve created as a template for future schedules. This is particularly helpful if you have staff who work the same hours every week. You can just create that shift one time and then apply it to all future schedules (future schedules won’t be published until you manually publish them).

When creating a repeating shift, all you have to do is select the frequency. You can have it repeated weekly, monthly on a specific day, annually, every weekday, and more. With the custom option, you can select from many other configurations or create your own.

Employee availability

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

Your staff can easily set their 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. Or she can specify which days she prefers to work. Admins can also add availability for employees.

This information will be easily referenceable in your scheduling calendar view so you can avoid scheduling employees on days or at times when they’re not available to work.

Shift trades and covers

Employees can request trade shifts right in the app.

Employees can send shift trade and cover 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.

Locations, positions, and departments

If you have multiple locations, positions, and departments to schedule for, Buddy Punch makes that process simpler too. You can assign shifts to specific healthcare facilities, departments, and positions to let employees know where they need to be and what roles they’re scheduled for.

You can also filter your schedule by location to build schedules for your different locations individually. When you remove the filter, you’ll see all of your shifts for all locations, each color-coded to make understanding the schedule easy.

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.  

Let’s say John sends a self-service 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.

Another great aspect of Buddy Punch is that it automatically calculates employees’ paid and unpaid time off balances. Both admins and employees can view accrued PTO at any time.

Additional features

Buddy Punch helps streamline healthcare employee scheduling, but it also does much more than that. You can also use the cloud-based platform to track time, run payroll, track attendance, and keep your employees accountable. 

Here are some of the other features that get healthcare admins excited:

  • Early/late alerts: Get a notification when an employee clocks in early or clocks out late so you can track attendance even when you’re in a different location than staff.
  • Real-time GPS tracking: For home healthcare and other businesses with traveling staff, you can use real-time GPS to track caregivers’ locations the whole time they’re on the clock and see where they are on a map at any given moment.
  • Kiosk mode: Set up Buddy Punch on an Android or iOS tablet or computer to create a central time clock kiosk that all team members can use to clock in and out.
  • Geofences: If employees clock in and out using their computers or mobile devices (using Buddy Punch’s mobile app), you can set up geofences that prevent them from clocking in and out unless they’re on-site.
  • Overtime calculations and alerts: Buddy Punch automatically calculates overtime hours and pay for you. And you can set up alerts that notify you when employees are nearing overtime to adjust their work schedules and avoid extra labor costs.
  • Payroll reports: Download an Excel, CSV, or PDF report that includes employee regular and overtime hours, paid time off, and everything else you need to run payroll.
  • Payroll integrations: Speed up payroll even more by integrating Buddy Punch with payroll providers like QuickBooks, Gusto, Rippling, Paychex, ADP, and more to transfer employee hours into your favorite payroll provider in seconds.

Even this is just a sampling of everything Buddy Punch can do. You can view all of its features here.

Pricing

Buddy Punch’s scheduling software starts at $5.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee. With it, you get access to all of the scheduling features listed above, as well as the tool’s time, attendance, and PTO tracking features.

Want to learn more about Buddy Punch? Start a free trial — no credit card required — take an interactive tour of the product, or request a personalized demo.

2. QGenda

QGenda is a great scheduling solution that focuses largely on making employee scheduling much easier. Two unique aspects of QGenda are the rules-based shift swapping feature, which allows your employees to swap shifts while still knowing what shifts they can and cannot take, and the time-tracking feature which also includes geo-location verification. 

QGenda is a great option that should be considered for any healthcare-focused group. Other key features include:

QGenda has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 57 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Despite the setup taking time as any new program does, I cannot speak more highly of QGenda. It is very intuitive and similar in operation to CAQH. It has a logical layout that makes using it relatively easy.”

3. Workforce.com

Workforce.com’s employee scheduling software is one of the only options on this list not created specifically for healthcare scheduling. However, it can be a great option if you need more than just nurse scheduling software. 

A unique part of Workforce is its template schedules and drag-and-drop features, making scheduling easy and accessible. Other key features include:

Workforce.com has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 26 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“This software is the best in saving time and labor for shift workforces. I have enjoyed an easy-to-use and customizable dashboard. Employee engagement is at its best giving the freedom over workforce management needs. It is cost-effective and very impactful. I highly recommend Workforce.com.”

4. Deputy

Deputy is a great option if you need more automation in your scheduling management system. Its automation features will help with schedule and workflow optimization. It also has multiple time clock features that are useful for nurses and other healthcare staff. 

For example, there’s a touchless clock and pre-shift health check that lets you make sure your employees are healthy and that they aren’t coming into contact with germs when clocking in. The employee attestation is also important, so your employees are required to report any scheduling conflicts or issues. 

Other key features include:

Deputy has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 724 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“I loved using Deputy every day. What’s not to love? Everything is laid out for you in a very simple yet pleasing design. You can clearly see your schedule and any upcoming time off. Clocking in and out is super simple as well. I loved using Deputy at every company which was smart enough to implement it!”

5. ShiftWizard by HealthStream

ShiftWizard is a great option for medical staff scheduling software that is focused on making sure your employees work well together and keeping track of the costs of business. 

ShiftWizard has the unique feature of incentive management, where you can create both monetary and non-monetary rewards, helping improve work-life balance and prevent burnout. Other unique features include:

ShiftWizard has an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 720 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“I have been using ShiftWizard for several years, and it has been helpful with making my schedule and requesting time off. There is documentation for when I request vacation time. It allows me to see the people I will be working with and how many nurses are scheduled that day. It was not difficult to learn how to use the system.”

6. Oracle Health

Oracle Health is a full practice management system that is absolutely packed with features for every single aspect of a healthcare business. The feature list below does not encapsulate the amount of solutions that Oracle Health provides. 

For the most part, Oracle Health functions as employee assistance software and is a great option for those who need a tool made for that exact purpose. Other features include:

Oracle Health does not currently have any Capterra reviews. 

7. UKG

UKG’s main feature is its AI HR tool. If you need automation in HR such as reporting, recruiting support, and performance reviews in addition to a scheduling system, then UKG is a great option. 

However, AI HR is not the only important feature of UKG, as UKG’s employee experience management features give you many different tools to make sure employees are not only engaged but also well trained for their jobs.

Other features include:

UKG does not currently have any Capterra reviews. 

8. Nursegrid

Nursegrid is a great option if you just want a scheduling needs and employee communication solution that is specifically made for healthcare. Nursegrid is unique in that it is pretty much just a communication software that is specifically catered to nurses. Its features include: 

Nursegrid has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 13 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“The day-to-day operations run extremely well. The monthly loading of schedules is super fast. I LOVE that nurses can keep track of their multiple licenses and when they are due. That is like a majorly handy little personal reminder system!”

9. Smartlinx

Smartlinx is another option on the list specifically catered towards healthcare and wellness, and it’s a good general option for that exact thing. Their specific scheduling app means you can be very specific with what you need, but their other features work seamlessly with that as well. 

The automated scheduling is already helpful, but their applicant tracker as well as their business analytics give you the data you need to create a healthy workplace. Other features include:

Smartlink has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 6 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Implementation was a breeze with resources helping, and project management and user training are all included. Customer support is very responsive and always delivers resolutions quickly.”

10. Symplr Workforce

Symplr Workforce is a great option for healthcare productivity. Many of its features are great for exactly this. Symplr’s performance management encourages constant improvement and employee communication and allows you to keep track of what can be improved and when. 

Other key features include:

Symplr Workforce has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 11 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“It’s what we use for our payroll and PTO. I like how it’s easy to use. You can see all the days you requested off and how much PTO you have left. It shows the accrual rates of your PTO, which is helpful. All I have to do is click one button to sign off on my timesheets.”

11. OnShift

OnShift is a great general HR solution, but it’s also focused on making sure that your employee retention is high and that your employees are capable of doing the work that needs to be done. If you need assistance with these things as well as keeping up-to-date data on your hiring prospects, then OnShift is a great option. 

Key features of OnShift include:

OnShift has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 13 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“OnShift is a great app to help my staff know when they are scheduled to show up to work. It is most valuable when some staff are full-time and some part-time. There are no more ‘I forgot’ or ‘I thought I was scheduled for tomorrow.’ All staff know when they are scheduled and expected to come in.”

Choosing the right healthcare staff scheduling software for your business

The right healthcare scheduling software can make a big difference in keeping your team running smoothly and focused on what really matters — patient care. 

With tools like Buddy Punch, QGenda, and Workforce.com, there’s something for every type of healthcare organization. 

Whether you need easy shift swaps, compliance support, or just a way to keep everyone on the same page, these platforms simplify the scheduling process and save you time. Find the one that fits your team’s needs and say goodbye to scheduling headaches!