Temple University EMS - Medical Staff Scheduling - Case Study

Case Study: Temple University EMS in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Business Overview

The idea for the Temple University Emergency Medical Services was started by Paul Grodziak, Val Rakita and Zachary Reichenbach in 2005. The Temple University Police Department was very receptive of the proposition of an on- campus EMS program and was eager to hear more. Realizing the daunting amount of work required, Anthony Wiencek and Peter Seltzer were brought in to help get TUEMS started.

In the fall of 2006, TUEMS became a recognized student organization, allowing for initial funding from the Temple Student Government. Additionally, TUPD placed an order for two Trek EMS Special Mountain bikes. After meetings with members of the PFD EMS Bike Team and members of the PENN Campus Safety Program, an additional order was placed for two sets of medical bike bags.

TUPD provided the organization with two AED's and oxygen tanks and Student health services, the Temple Transport team, and Temple hospital provided numerous medical supplies to aid with start-up supply needs. Members from TUEMS, Temple University Campus Safety (TUPD), Temple University Hospital, Student Health Services and Risk Management attended regular meetings to work out operational aspects including relations between the police, medical liabilities, organizational responsibilities, and proper medical oversight, to name a few.

In addition, members prepared for operations by completing an IPIMBA(International Police Mountain Bike Association) class. Further time was spent in the Temple Hospital Emergency Room, and completing radio and online training. On January 24, 2008, at 7:30pm, Temple University Emergency Medical Services officially started operations. Within minutes of becoming operational we were dispatched to our first call.

Scheduling Overview

When we started we had 8 employees, now we currently have 47 employees. Our scheduling challenge is that we are a student volunteer ems organization. So getting people to sign up with their already busy school schedules is hard.

Previous Scheduling Method

We use to schedule people through email. People would send when they could work then that info was placed into a excel file. After the scheduling manager got everything in order another email was sent to all the employees with the work schedule attached.

Since ShiftPlanning

The employee schedule maker ShiftPlanning has changed the whole dynamics of work scheduling in our growing organization. Due to the availability service we can see who can work during the day as classes are held. Also employees can go online and pick and choose in advance what days they want to work and then they can see the schedule in real time anywhere they are connected to the Internet so there is no waiting to see the schedule.

From a managerial position the employee schedule maker ShiftPlanning has relieved the stress of work scheduling from just one person. Now multiple people can schedule making it more efficient and opens up more time to deal with other operations of our organization. From what I have been hearing from the employees, this program is "cool." They love how they can sign up for shifts earlier in advance and see who's working with them on the schedule. They also like the shift trade option just in case they need to use it.

ShiftPlanning team is awesome. Keep up the good work. - Matthew Santiago (Captain of Operations) - Temple University Emergency Medical Services

This work scheduler has done wonders for our organization and continues to show us new things we can do. I would definitely recommend the employee schedule maker ShiftPlanning to other organizations.

Further

File sharing is a good feature because it enables me to keep everyone up to date on state protocols.
It is a place I can keep important files employees need so they can have access to them at anytime. Also personally the employee gallery helps me put a face to a name.