Rostering has always been complicated. Rotas need to accommodate a huge range of specialties, grades and skills, as well as factor in clinician preferences and align with service plans. It’s a major time sink for trusts and rarely leaves all parties satisfied.
As NHS organisations push to drive up productivity, reduce temporary staff spend, and boost clinician retention, the clunkiness of rostering has never been more exposed. Poor rostering systems are holding back progress at a critical juncture for the health service.
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But a better way is now within our grasp. One where prioritising clinician preferences isn’t a luxury, but can exist side-by-side with safely staffed wards, reduced costs and increased productivity. The power of purpose-built algorithms can flip the rostering status quo on its head.
The advent of AI-powered preference-based rostering
At Patchwork Health, we’ve poured 10 years of NHS workforce experience into the creation of a powerful new AI solution. Our preference-based rostering system uses a proprietary algorithm to model thousands of shift permutations and capture individual staff preferences before creating the safest, fairest and most cost-effective rota. And it can do all of this in minutes.
Already live in several NHS trusts across the UK, this algorithmic rostering is replacing the painstaking, manual processes that burden workforce teams and leave clinicians dissatisfied.
Trials of the technology across a 10-week roster, based on the staffing needs of a real ward of 10 clinicians, showed that Patchwork’s system could produce rosters that not only met 98 per cent of negative clinician preferences but also cut unfilled shifts by 97 per cent.
Overall, this delivered a 98 per cent reduction in temporary staffing costs. For the ward, with 10 clinicians across those 10 weeks, this meant a projected reduction in temporary staffing spend from £18,000 to just £400. Across a year, that represents an annualised saving of nearly £100,000 for that 10-person ward alone.
Replacing a system designed to fail
AI-powered preference-based rostering frees workforce teams from the daily battle of trying to fix problems with the wrong tools. Creating rosters that meet safety requirements is complex enough – compound this with the multitude of possible shift configurations, the large proportion of clinicians working less than full-time, and daily requests for swaps or leave, and it’s no surprise that rosters struggle to meet the needs of the clinicians and departments they serve.
The human brain simply can’t permutate the thousands of configurations required to settle on the most logical, strategic combination of shift patterns that will bring these clinical preferences, service needs, regulatory constraints, and cost realities onto the same page. But AI can.
Instead of grappling with these seemingly endless conflicts and being forced to settle for a sub-optimal roster, AI-powered preference-based rostering allows workforce teams to zone in on solutions almost instantly – both at the point of roster creation and beyond.
When rolled out across a trust, this technology can unlock a new work-life reality for scores of clinicians, ensure that hundreds of thousands of shifts are fully staffed, and save millions on temporary staffing.
Driving clinician empowerment and workforce grip and control
We all know that trusts are working tirelessly to shore up retention while boosting productivity. Managers want to give staff more control and empowerment to help keep them happy in their careers. But they can’t do this through traditional systems without losing control of shift fill rates or incurring higher temporary staffing costs.
In our trial, every worker – whether full- or part-time – was given the correct, pro-rated number of shifts, with an equal and fair distribution of nights, long days, and normal working days. This means no more “pot luck” reality of shift allocation that frustrates clinicians and can leave wards over- or understaffed.
Crucially, this was possible while also meeting 98 per cent of negative clinician preferences, such as the need to meet a caring commitment at 5pm every Tuesday.
That this new level of personal autonomy can be delivered while reducing rota gaps and slashing temporary staffing spend is a game-changer. For the first time, trusts can treat each clinician as a true individual when it comes to rostering, while also advancing operational priorities to cut temporary staffing costs, drive up productivity, and ensure patients are met with a safely staffed ward each and every time.
Putting flexibility and productivity on the same page
With the right technology, flexibility and productivity can go hand-in-hand. By giving clinicians more control over their careers, we can help them feel empowered and engaged in a way that feels impossible under existing systems. By giving workforce teams better tools, we can close productivity gaps while keeping a handle on costs and control. And by putting this power in the hands of trust leaders, we can chart a course out of the current bind and towards a truly sustainable future for the NHS workforce.
For too long, the NHS has battled on through what can feel like a vicious staffing circle. With Patchwork Health’s AI-powered preference-based rostering, we have a tool at our fingertips which can break this pattern and set a new reality in motion. There has never been a better, nor more urgent, time to embrace it.
