The Planner

The Planner is for managing day-to-day happenings. Shift offers, scheduling adjustments on a one-time basis are all managed here. For long-term changes, review the schedule manager.

 

 

The Planner

Client Planners give you a unique weekly view of the scheduling activity of Clients and their Caregivers. 

 

Important features

• Planners give you the whole picture at a glance, using colors and patterns that impart meaning without clutter. 
• When more detail is needed, double-click on any Shift.
• As the schedule is adjusted, 'Assigned' and 'Total' hours columns keep you aware of the hours worked and needed.
• Get quick access to a Planner anywhere you see a Planner button. 

 

Overview

Parts of the Planner

Selecting Shifts

Assigning Shifts

Adding and removing Shifts

Shift Status

 

Parts of the Planner

Let’s look at how each part of the Planner functions.

 

Figure: Client Planner and Shift Legend

 

Date Range

It shows the week that the Planner currently represents; default is the current week. To move to other weeks, click on the center button (that shows the dates) to open a calendar tool, for selecting any given week. To move one week at a time in either direction, use the forward and back arrows on either side of the date range.

 

Shift Legend

Shifts on the Planner are represented with bars of different colors and patterns, which extend along the timeline from the start time to the end time of the Shift. For example, the solid red bars in the Service summary line represent Shifts that are open (have not been assigned to a caregiver yet). The Shift legend shows the meaning of each of the colors and patterns that represent the different Shift statuses.

 

Service Tabs

The Service Tabs appear on the Planners of Clients with more than one Service. These  tabs allow you to seamlessly toggle which Service is displayed on the Planner. You can view each Service by clicking the Service Tab labeled with that service's Service Type, or you can view all the Services for this Client at once by clicking the "All" tab.

 

Client Week Schedule Line

The service summary line shows what’s happening for the Client’s Service for the week represented on the Planner. This one line fully reveals the state of scheduling for this Client. It shows you all the Client's shifts for the week and whether each shift is Open, Assigned, Verified, or otherwise.

 

Caregiver Summary Line 

As Caregivers are entered into the Planner, they each have their own summary line, which shows the state of their individual schedule for the week. This includes the Caregiver button, which displays the Caregiver’s name and leads to the Caregiver's profile, and a schedule summary line similar to that shown for the Service, above. The Caregiver summary line will include any Shifts that Caregiver has for the week, including Shifts on other Services. Notice that the Open Shifts here are represented by half-height bars; this shows that the Caregiver can potentially be assigned to those Shifts. 

 

 

Figure: Client Planner 

 

Schedule

The Schedule button shows you the Shift pattern for the week represented by the Planner. Clicking on this button takes you back to the Schedule Manager, where you can modify or add new Shift patterns. If you are on a Planner with multiple Services and you're viewing the "All" tab, you will be prompted to choose which Service you would like to see the Schedule Manager for, when you click the Schedule button.

 

Stacked Client Weekly Schedule In the above image you can see that the client no longer has one bar representing their weekly schedule, but two. This stacking indicates overlapping shifts for the client. The clients RN service is happening at the same time as her HHA service, so the planner breaks into two lines to make for easier assigning. To assign between the stacked schedules, simply click the radio button next to the line you wish to assign.

 

New Window

This button will open a new copy of the Client Planner being viewed. This is helpful for looking at multiple weeks at the same time for a given client, instead of having to move back and forth between weeks on a single Planner window.

 

Shift List

Takes you to a list of the Shifts for the selected Service, for the week currently being viewed on the Planner. If you are on a Planner with multiple Services and you're viewing the "All" tab, the Shift List button will not be clickable. We’ll look more at Shift forms and lists in the Shift Lists section.

 

Assigned and Total Hours Columns

The Assigned and Total columns summarize the assignment status of the Service(s) being viewed and each of the Caregivers listed. Only assigned (blue) shifts count towards assigned hours, whereas assigned AND verified complete shifts count towards Total Hours.

 

Hours are further separated by 'Pay/Bill' and 'Actual'. These numbers show the difference between the scheduled duration of the shifts, and the hours that are being used for payroll and/or billing.

 

Note that the numbers have slightly different meanings depending on whether you’re looking at the Service line or a Caregiver line. On the Service line, Assigned indicates the number of hours that have been assigned to Caregivers on this Service (or on all Services if you're on the "All" tab of a multi-Service Planner) for this week; Total means the total hours needed on this Service for this week. On the Caregiver line, Assigned means the number of hours this Caregiver has been assigned on this Service for this week (or on all Services for this Client if you're viewing the "All" tab on a multi-Service Client Planner); Total shows the number of hours this Caregiver has been assigned on all Services for this week.

 

Figure: Client Planner

 

Include Inquiry

This gives you the option of allowing Caregivers who have a status of Inquiry to be included in searches and in the list of Caregivers who can be added to the form. This is useful if you have a pool of Caregivers who have not been hired but may be waiting in the wings for their opportunity to start. Other matching parameters such as Skills and Service Types will apply to them, just like the Active Caregivers. If you go to assign one of these Inquiry Caregivers, Rosemark will let you change their status to Active and assign them all at once.

 

Repeat Assignments

These buttons give you a quick way to repeat the previous week’s assignments. The Scheduling System will do its best to schedule the way the caregivers are assigned to following weeks the same as the the current week.  Basically, if a caregiver is assigned to work Mondays, it will assign them to work all Mondays for that client up until the date you choose. This is an easy way to assign a caregiver out three or four months if you know it is a steady situation.

 

Repeat Schedule

This button causes the shifts in the week being viewed to repeat into the future. Not to be confused with the week's assignments. For example, if you think of open shifts as chairs that the caregivers sit in,  this button repeats the empty chairs, not who is assigned to sit in them.

 

Add Caregivers  

List To select Caregivers for the Planner, click on the List button. The list of all Caregivers who have a Status of Active at some time during the Planner’s week comes up. The Service Types that they work will appear next to each Caregiver's name, to aid in selecting an appropriate one.

**Note: that you can add Caregivers to a Planner even if they would not be available to take an Open Shift (for example, if they didn't work the Service Type of this Service). This allows you to see the schedule of any Active Caregiver just by putting them on any handy Planner.**

 

Available

Another way to select Caregivers for the Planner is to click on the Add Available button. The Scheduling System will find all the Caregivers that would be available for at least one of the Open Shifts on the Planner for the week being viewed. It will only include caregivers that work that type of Service, have any necessary Skills that are required for that person's Service and have the necessary availability. 

 

Previously Assigned

Caregivers can also be added to the planner by previous assignment. If a caregiver has been assigned to the client in the last year they will be added to the planner.

 

Possibly Available

If the Possibly Available box is checked, the Add Available button changes to Add Possibly Available.  Rosemark will then look for all Caregivers who could possibly take at least one of the Open Shifts on the Planner, regardless of stated Availability, Service Types or Skills. It will NOT override already Assigned Shifts. Only Caregivers who have a status of Active during that week will be included (unless you've also checked Include Inquiry, in which case caregivers with a status of Inquiry will be included). This is helpful in an emergency when you need to get someone to work at a time other than when they normally accept shifts. 

 

The effect of this can be seen by comparing the figure above to the figure below. In the above figure, only 3 of the Caregivers are available to be assigned to any shifts. The figure below is the very same Planner, with the Possibly Available toggle checked, expanding the possibilities for assignment.  This also affects whether you can schedule over RA, EC and OC shifts. Note that Quit and Discharged statuses do not get overridden. Also, you can never assign over an Assigned or Verified Complete Shift.

 

Figure: Same Client Planner, now with Possibly Available selected.