CASE STUDY: The schedule creation time is reduced from 7 to 3 days. 

During the development phase, we tested WoShi on a real example in the biggest medical center in Slovenia. 

The WoShi application – or Worker Scheduling – is the only AI-powered worker scheduling application that operates completely automatically. We have developed it specifically for healthcare and it addresses all the specifics of scheduling healthcare workers in hospitals, medical centres, nursing homes and medical centres.

During the development, we relied on the challenges and requirements in the scheduling of the medical staff in the largest Slovenian medical institution, the University Medical Centre (UKC) Ljubljana and in the Home for Senior Citizens in Metlika. As such it enables: 

 

  1. compliance with the skills and competencies of workers.
  2. compliance with the limitations of legislation.
  3. scheduling people in pairs or teams.
  4. selection of workers whose schedule never changes.
  5. determining the desired time for on-call shifts.
  6. quick search for the most suitable replacement.
  7. organisation of work in consecutive days.
  8. automatic entry of holidays and work-free days.
  9. entering absences such as vacations, trainings and wishes for days off.
  10. entering the wishes of the workers to be present when it suits them.

 

Case study AI robot

Development based on real cases from healthcare

During the development phase, we tested WoShi on a real example. Sanja Arnautović, BSc in Midwifery, spec., is employed at UKC Ljubljana in the operating room of the Division of Surgery. She is the deputy head nurse and has been scheduling workers in her department for four years. She currently coordinates 86 staff nurses, and the schedule must be posted on the bulletin board by the 20th day of the current month. She schedules workers in the following teams:  

  1. continuous health care (10 positions);
  2. readiness for transplantation (5 positions);
  3. afternoon shift for various surgical areas TRAUMA, ABDOMEN, UROLOGY, NEUROSURGEON (6 positions).

Before she started testing the WoShi application, she used only pencil and paper to compile a schedule. She spent most of her time checking which of the workers were still available for scheduling in the current month, so as not to violate the requirements related to the worker. She had to go through the whole list each time.  

She became familiar with the WoShi application in 2019. Since then, by testing the program and making useful suggestions, she significantly contributed to the upgrading of the program and the adaptation of functions for scheduling work in healthcare.  

The process of creating a schedule used to take her 7 days, including obtaining data, coordinating with workers, and making changes. Today, with the help of the WoShi application, she does the same amount of work in just three working days.  

In the first phase, she enters planned annual leaves and training. She checks whether there are changes in competencies and passed exams. She also records the surgical areas that are still written by hand, and then starts the program. On the second day, she checks the schedule to make sure there are no errors and exports it.  

After the trial phase, she finds WoShi easy to use, saving her time and reducing scheduling errors. She also highlights remote access as an advantage, as it allows her to finish work at home in an emergency.