Nurses keep your medical practice running smoothly. Nurse scheduling software makes it easier for you to make their lives easier.
Running a medical practice can literally be a matter of life and death. So when it comes to scheduling the nurses who keep your practice running smoothly, you can’t afford to use an insufficient tool, or spend months and months finding a nurse scheduling software program that works for your team.
COVID-19 has put a strain on staffing and scheduling at medical practices of all sizes, from rural doctor’s offices to major metropolitan hospitals. This can have a negative impact on patient experience as well as the morale of your nursing staff, with as many as half of all U.S. nurses and physicians reporting burnout even before COVID-19.
You shouldn’t have to struggle with a cumbersome, unintuitive nurse scheduling system during “normal” times. In 2020, an unusable staff scheduling system could lead to undertreated patients, alienated medical staff, unfilled shifts, and worse.
In this guide, we’ll look at four top options in the nurse scheduling software market (see methodology below) to help nurse managers track and manage nurse shifts, including time off requests, open shifts, substitutions, and more. Each of these options has a user review rating of at least 4 out of 5 in our directory with 10 reviews or more.
1. Connecteam
User rating: 4.7 out of 5 Reviews: 90+
Connecteam is an all-in-one employee management app serving industries of all shapes and sizes, including medical practices. It’s designed from the bottom up to be mobile-friendly, allowing your nursing staff to have their scheduling information in their pocket whether they’re resting at home or helping a patient. It earned accolades for Best Value and Best Ease of Use based on user ratings in our directory (methodology here).
Drag and drop template scheduling in Connecteam (Source)
Key features:
Predictive scheduling
Recurring shifts
GPS status updates
Built-in chat
Pricing: Starts at $29/month for up to 200 users when paid annually. Upgraded plans add features and additional schedule groups. There is also a free plan with limited features.
2. ScheduleAnywhere
User rating: 4.6 out of 5 Reviews: 25+
As the name implies, ScheduleAnywhere was developed to enable teams (including nursing teams) to manage their schedules from anywhere. The software, which has been helping healthcare professionals for more than 20 years, is designed for healthcare, law enforcement, and other teams that operate 24/7.
The employee schedule view in ScheduleAnywhere (Source)
Key features:
Shift-swapping
Built-in messaging
Online schedule distribution
Custom calendar views
Pricing:
$25/month for up to 10 employees
$50/month for 11-25 employees
$2/employee/month for 26-50 employees
Prices include live phone and email support.
3. ScheduleFlex
User rating: 4.4 out of 5 Reviews: 230+
Powered by Shiftboard, an open source employee scheduling software developer with more than a decade on the market, ScheduleFlex is specifically designed for teams that require flexible, dynamic work scheduling. Those teams include call centers, warehouse and distribution centers, and, of course, nursing teams.
ScheduleFlex earned a spot in our Top 20 Employee Scheduling Software report based on user reviews and web search interest.
Shift management in ScheduleFlex (Source)
Key features:
Float pool management
Skills tracking
Shift dispatching
Automated group scheduling
Pricing: ScheduleFlex implementation and subscription pricing is not available online. Contact the vendor to request a demo and get a quote.
4. Snap Schedule
User rating: 4.5 out of 5 Reviews: 10+
Snap Schedule nurse scheduling software is designed to cover every aspect of modern medical scheduling, from regulatory and union requirements to overtime management. Snap Schedule also offers flexible pricing, with both a SaaS subscription model and a perpetual license (one-time payment) model.
The daily view in Snap Schedule (Source)
Key features:
Online time clock
Shift swapping
Auto generated shift scheduling
Analytical insights and reporting
Pricing: Snap Schedule 365 starts at $450/year plus $36 per employee. A perpetual license for one computer is $450, with three-computer packages available for $950.
More nurse scheduling software options
If none of these options fit all of your requirements, explore our complete nurse scheduling software directory where you can sort by the highest rated options and filter for specific features. You can even filter for options that offer a free trial.
Finding an efficient, easy to use nurse scheduling system can go a long way to making your practice run smoother. But we know that no matter how much you prepare, you may still run up against COVID-19 related nurse staffing shortages. The CDC recommends the following strategies for those situations:
Cancel all non-essential procedures and visits
Contact local healthcare coalitions to identify additional nurses
If possible, provide safe alternative transportation and housing to help nurses report to work
Implement plans to transfer patients to facilities with adequate staffing
Monitoring patients remotely could also help alleviate some of the strain and risk associated with on-premise nurse staffing. Our recent article on remote patient monitoring looks at four benefits, including:
Lowering the risk of spreading infection among staff and patients
Accepting patients from a wider area
Providing better quality of care
And preparing your practice for the future