Case Studies

Thumbnail of Sydney Tertiary Hospital Saves 300+ Hours a Year with AI Rosters

Sydney Tertiary Hospital Saves 300+ Hours a Year with AI Rosters

A large tertiary hospital, part of South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, faced the complex task of writing rosters for over 60 Senior Medical Officers (SMOs) in their Emergency Department (ED). Balancing part-time workers and fairness expectations made roster creation a significant administrative burden. Before RosterLab, rostering a 13-week term took senior staff specialists approximately 120 hours of manual effort. With the implementation of RosterLab's SMO rostering software, this workload has been reduced by 67% - to around 40 hours for their first roster, while still getting the hang of a new rostering system and process. “It’s not just about saving hours. It's about confidence in the roster, about fairness, and about giving senior clinicians time back for patient care - not spreadsheets.” - Emergency Physician. With four roster cycles each year, this represents over 320 hours and approximately $40,000 saved annually on time alone - with further efficiencies expected as the team continues to refine their rostering rules for the next term. “It's not the task that burns you out - it's the grind of constantly fixing broken systems.” explains the physician. Writing SMO rosters in a large ED isn't just about filling shifts. Their leadership team had to juggle: Complex availability constraints (many SMOs also worked in other hospitals) Ensuring fairness in shift distribution Maintaining senior coverage 24/7 Balancing clinical, educational, and leadership responsibilities Managing daily swap, leave edits and manual fixes that carry a steep time cost Beyond the direct cost savings, the manual rostering process also carried significant opportunity costs for senior clinical leadership. The emergency physician also notes that “..the complexities of consultant preferences made rostering feel like solving a jigsaw puzzle. RosterLab has already made a big dent in that ..” Working closely with the team, RosterLab introduced its AI-driven SMO rostering software. The first roster model was understandably the most challenging, as staff adapted to a new rostering methodology and clarified rules that had often lived informally in managers' heads. Despite this learning curve, the first-term roster built with RosterLab reduced roster writing time dramatically. Notably: Time reduced from 120 hours to 40 hours (a 67% improvement from the first roster) $40,000 saved annually Roster quality and fairness improved, with clearer application of availability and shift equity Solved complex rules, such as “no-day-after-night” and other critical EBA rules Enabled open shifts to reduce coordination calls for staff availability “I used to manage a labyrinth of formulas across multiple spreadsheets. It worked - but it was incredibly time-consuming. With RosterLab, we're trading that for something smarter and more sustainable.” says the physician. With our new auto shift swap feature, the next roster will be even more automated and involve fewer post-planning changes from admins. The team also noted that their time savings are only the beginning. As they continue to add new custom rules into RosterLab, they anticipate even more reductions in manual work and increased consistency in their scheduling. Once the requirements and inputs are set up in RosterLab, there's no need for a spreadsheet 'puzzle master.' Any trained manager can run it, ensuring consistent rostering quality, clinical safety, and adequate staffing. In addition to saved hours, the hospital has unlocked other key benefits: Improved confidence in roster fairness across part-time and cross-site SMOs Smoother rostering cycles, with less last-minute fixing Better utilisation of senior clinical time for patient care and leadership With tools like open shifts and shift swaps, the team can handle unexpected changes more easily Increased autonomy allowing any trained manager to run the roster “I see this as a reinvestment of the time I spent building spreadsheets - in learning something that’s going to give us better time benefits long-term.” explains the emergency physician. Why This Matters In complex environments like Emergency Departments, efficient SMO rostering is critical not just for operational flow, but for maintaining clinical excellence and workforce wellbeing. RosterLab's ED rostering software empowers hospitals to focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional patient care. “If rostering still feels like a grind, it doesn’t have to be. We’ve seen what’s possible when the right rules and tools are in place - and I’d be happy to show you how it could work for your team.”- Daniel, Co-Founder at RosterLab Discover how RosterLab’s digital scheduling solution can help your hospital save time, improve fairness, and focus more on patient care.

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Thumbnail of Case Study: ICU in Western Australia

Case Study: ICU in Western Australia

A hospital in Western Australia's ICU The ICU of a hospital in Western Australia faces the ongoing challenge of creating a dynamic 24-hour, 3-month-long medical roster for over 20 people. They want to implement automatic scheduling. Certain skills need to be present 24/7 Hours worked for each employee are within strict limits Certain shift types (e.g., long days and nights) are distributed equally Both individual preferences and availability are accounted for Junior employees are always supervised Continuity of care, i.e., having the same person do the same role for several days. To address this ongoing challenge, the ICU of the hospital decided to use RosterLab, a software that streamlined the rostering process. RosterLab allowed all staff members to input their preferences, leave requests and availability, which it considered while ensuring that all the roster requirements are met. It also optimised staffing requirements and reported on whether it was possible to meet their minimum staffing requirements during each period of the day. Result: By using RosterLab, the ICU of the hospital was able to automatically create an effective 24-hour medical roster that meets all the department's requirements. "RosterLab has saved me countless hours and made this process manageable" - Peter Saved time by using RosterLab’s AI to make a months-worth of the future roster in under an hour. Reduced the time and administrative burden of rostering by allowing individuals to make their preferences, availability and leave requests directly via the mobile web application. Enabled the department to visualise the cause and effect of different rostering constraints that are often considered individually, but not collectively. Formally defined the ICU’s entire rostering ruleset of contractual obligations, service needs and fairness principles through RosterLab’s proprietary generalised rules engine. Improved continuity of care by ensuring staff work the same role for several days Provided records of requests being met to report back to staff Improved staff job satisfaction by meeting and considering more of their preferences and requests. The ICU of this hospital continues to use RosterLab to manage its complex rostering needs. The software has proven to be a reliable, effective, and easy-to-use solution to the department's ongoing challenge. The software's user-friendly interface and quality customer service have contributed to the department's satisfaction with the ongoing rostering process. "The number one reason I am so happy with RosterLab is the quality of the customer service. The staff are incredibly helpful and make themselves available to help with the initial set-up after which rostering becomes very simple." - Peter

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Thumbnail of Case Study: Dargaville Medical Centre

Case Study: Dargaville Medical Centre

Dargaville Medical Centre is a Cornerstone Accredited General Practice comprising of experienced doctors, knowledgeable nurses, and friendly administrative staff. The dedicated staff there have over 12,000 registered patients. The practice manager, Judy, writes highly detailed rosters to maximise the efficacy and satisfaction of the staff available to her. Her roster writing challenge for just coverage includes scheduling shift-specific roles and ensuring adequate service coverage within the availability of the nursing team. Integrated into this challenge are the staggered shift times and rotation of specific duties to aid in cross-training the team there in all aspects of providing top-tier healthcare to the local community. "The rostering requirements for our staff are an absolute nightmare, with multiple staff each having their own unique needs, e.g. days and hours they can work, along with multiple skill sets/roles that the practice needs to be fulfilled on a daily basis. This meant it could take a staff member several days to complete a four-week roster." - Judy Harris, Practice Manager All this has to be done every four weeks with this level of detail, it's surprising that roster writing takes her only a couple of days a month. Those hours were spent in Excel, a process that Judy described as “an absolute nightmare”. When Rosterlab engaged with Dargaville Medical Centre, we saw firsthand the manual Excel process that Judy goes through. Rosterlab created an initial template to use as a starting point. This made it a lot easier for both parties to communicate on common ground, and within a few Zoom sessions, the sample rosters made by Rosterlab were looking quite close to the requirement. From then, all that was needed was a bit of training on how to make specific adjustments to the roster parameters within the Rosterlab app. "With Rosterlab, the process has been dramatically reduced, and believe it will only get quicker. Rosterlab has been extremely responsive to our suggestions and needs for our rostering. This included making MULTIPLE additions and alterations to their programme to suit our requirements." - Judy, Practice Manager Nowadays, the Rosterlab AI generates a roster for Dargaville Health Clinic in under a minute. Each new roster is created specifically to suit the current situation, taking into account changes in leave and other requests. The practice manager checks over this roster with access to a bevy of dynamic statistics and makes some human adjustments within the Rosterlab app. All in all, the entire process is now around three hours a month. "Rosterlab has been a pleasure to work with, and we highly recommend it to other medical practices and businesses. If Rosterlab can help with our complicated rostering needs, we are confident it will work for anyone." - Judy, Practice Manager Rosterlab is dedicated to bringing time savings, union compliance, fairer rosters and more empowered staff to healthcare organisations like Dargaville Medical Centre. You are the healthcare professionals; let us be the rostering professionals for you. Book a demo today for your unique rostering case.

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