Building off their earlier expansion of Andgo services and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) was looking to expand the new provincial response site to include filling open shifts related to COVID-19. The pandemic hit in the middle of shifting from a regional technology system to a system that encompasses the entire province. In the weeks since COVID reached the province, Andgo has been working on expansions for the Saskatchewan Health Authority to enable their entire workforce and users to access unfilled shifts and schedule information related to COVID-19.
The SHA requires a single site to manage and find placements for all COVID-19-related shifts for their entire workforce. This expansion includes providing online schedules related to COVID-19 and enabling all users to bid on open shifts online. This site is a response to COVID-19 shifts that need to be filled after the regions have attempted to fill them. They also need to accommodate filling shifts for physicians and volunteers.
The SHA has increased its users of Andgo’s software from 15,000 to 90,000 in a matter of weeks. The original scheduling database did not include physicians prior to this pandemic. It was discovered early on that this had to change, and Physicians had to be included in the process. A newer development is volunteers. Volunteers are needed due to the higher demand for healthcare workers due to COVID-19. Overall, Physicians and volunteers were added to the pool of provincial healthcare workers so they can mobilize their workforce to tackle the new high and in-demand needs to help in managing COVID-19.
Adding all physicians, volunteers, and the entire province-wide workforce increases the number of active users on the site to 90,000 in a given moment. This is a huge increase from the 15,000 users prior to COVID-19.
The SHA needs COVID-related open shifts to be visible to their entire workforce. It’s important for all registered SHA users to be able to view and select all COVID-related open shifts online. This new update will allow Scheduling Staff to upload the open shifts every five minutes for users to view and select. This enables them to stay on top of possible shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another update to the system is enabling all users to see their schedules for COVID-19-related shifts. Schedules are often changing from day to day in the healthcare industry, especially during this pandemic. All users registered with the SHA, including physicians and volunteers, will be able to view their up-to-date COVID-19 shifts online.