A journey to improved visibility of junior doctors rotas in a large teaching hospital
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust operates from two main sites, Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital. It provides acute care for a population of around 600,000 and employs over 8,000 staff. The trust began the journey of moving junior doctors onto the HealthMedics software in early 2015 and in December 2016, to support the introduction of the new junior doctor contract, started using RLDatix’s Rota.
Getting started on the Rota journey
Helen Knowles is Head of HR Services at the trust and says the decision to purchase Rota came once it recognised the implications of the exception reporting requirements in the new junior doctor contract. “We wanted a system within which it was easy for the junior doctors to raise exception reports and we didn’t want a system that relied on emails; it was also important that any new software linked to our existing systems.” Being able to record exceptions in real time through secure online accounts was a significant pull factor for the trust and it is using information gathered to provide feedback on junior doctor rotas across its four Health Groups. The four Health Groups are: Family and Women’s, Medicine, Surgery and Clinical Support. The trust’s Guardian of Safe Working has been key to driving the use of Rota for exception reporting. Getting junior doctor buy-in has also been an important part of the journey.
Meeting the implementation challenge
Like any other trust, ensuring rotas are accurate and up to date is an ongoing challenge and the team acknowledges that not all Health Groups are able to implement the system at the same pace. Andy Lockwood is the trust’s e-Roster Manager and his team is tasked with building rosters and liaising with the medical staffing team. “There has to be ownership within each Health Group and it is fair to say that the junior doctor forum, set up as part of the new contract, are really engaged in helping us roll-out the system,” he says. “Where we have found it works best is where there is a clinician making decisions about rotas and acting as the gatekeeper for swaps and annual leave. Once the decision is made the roster can be updated accordingly.” One factor which has made a difference to the journey has been the trust’s decision to co-locate the medical staffing, e-roster, payroll and HR services teams which has improved communication and engagement between the teams.
Realising the benefits of HealthMedics integration
“In 2015, when the Trust first made the decision to purchase Health Medics, a key driver for the project was to move from a paper based to an electronic system to not only reduce paper trails within the trust and speed up processes but to also provide an accurate overview of who was on duty and when”
Andy Lockwood, e-Roster Manager
MedicOnline, which enables the junior doctor to view rotas and request annual leave electronically from a portable device, is particularly useful as in the past doctors were submitting paper based annual leave forms.
Prior to the purchase of the HealthMedics software, some areas used shared online calendars; now a team view of rosters is available via the RLDatix system.
“This has been a really useful feature in terms of helping to encourage uptake,” says Andy. “The next part of the journey is to trial the facility whereby juniors can request swaps via the system. The added benefit here is that the system does not allow a request to be submitted where it would be contrary to the rules as set out in the new junior doctor contract or where is breached Working Time Regulations.”
Both Helen and Andy agree the support from RLDatix has also helped the trust on its HealthMedics journey. “We still have some way to go, but we know we can get the support we need when we want it,” says Helen.
