If you have a complex rota that you are currently doing manually, I am sure that you will find OmniRota software a great help and time saver.
Kevin begins by describing the rota in his surgery…
We have a complicated set-up in terms of how each individual doctor works. Most have specific days they can or cannot work and do some things on certain months but not others. We also have different types of surgeries (normal surgeries, one-problem surgeries and on-call type surgeries) with days when these do and don’t occur. There are also added complications with managing surgeries around such things as bank holidays and protected learning time as well as extended hours.
How does OmniRota cope with these idiosyncrasies?
All of these can be factored in to the software and once set up, essentially, the rota ‘manager’ in the practice just has to put in annual leave dates, any specific day off requests then…click a button and a ready-made rota appears.
Does using OmniRota save time for you and your staff?
There is an immense time saving. Some minor editing of the resulting rota is usually required, just to tweak the distribution of surgeries so that it balances evenly across the week, but this is not onerous and is probably just due to the complex working pattern and inflexibility of some of our doctors.
Has the software developed to meet the changing needs of a modern surgery?
There are many nice features which have been added over time such as the ability to hide part of the future rota until it is completely ready, warnings if rules are broken, calculating annual leave remaining for individual doctors and many more features. You can view the rota from anywhere where you have a web browser (I use a Mac at home and PC at work and there are no problems on either with viewing or managing the rota). We find that the custom reports (statistics) that can be produced are very helpful in reassuring doctors that everybody is doing their fair share of on-calls and other duties and is a great feature of the software. You can also download your own rota to Outlook or an iOS calendar and it integrates perfectly.
What about the support available?
The support available for using OmniRota is excellent. Andrew O’Connell is usually the main contact for this and he always responds quickly. Responses are friendly and helpful and all queries and problems have been sorted out very promptly. They will set up the rules for each doctor – you just have to tell him exactly what the rules are and then there is very little to do other than input annual leave etc.
Do the team respond well to requests for changes or enhancements to the software?
If you have any suggestions regarding improvement of the software, these are taken on board and are often incorporated if feasible and reasonable. This was particularly the case when the web-based rota first went live but is constantly improving.