Whanganui Radiography Department Embraces AI Scheduling

We have been working with the Whanganui radiography department to free up clinical time by adopting RosterLab to enable automated scheduling specific to their unique specialist needs within healthcare.

So far, we have seen that by replacing manual scheduling processes, the department is reducing administrative burden and enabling highly trained clinicians to spend more time on patient care.

Less Time on Admin, More Compliant & Sustainable Schedules

This New Zealand account uses “radiographer” for an imaging professional. US terminology includes radiologic technologist for X-ray and CT work, and MRI technologist for MRI work.

With current manual processes, a senior MRI radiographer spends at least 40 hours (a full working week) creating each 12-week schedule using Excel spreadsheets, which are printed out for review with staff and then updated.

This amounts to over 170 hours per year on administrative work. The time burden is further compounded when taking into consideration additional time managing leave requests, shift swaps, and individual scheduling queries.

Unitec Pilot Study Leads to Wider RosterLab Adoption

The collaboration between RosterLab and the Whanganui radiography department began with a self-scheduling research project led by Unitec. In this study clinician's explored whether self-scheduling could improve fairness and autonomy while maintaining safe staffing levels.

So far, we have seen that with RosterLab, schedule generation time is reduced from 40 hours down to less than 4 hours. The system can accommodate staff preferences, all while ensuring compliance with union requirements and maintaining appropriate staffing levels.