EMS PRO
to handle every need. Finally, the last company began to stand out as the best all-around choice as they could provide us with an easy and effective way to create our online scheduling program without having to use multiple vendors or draining our bank accounts.
Combining our admin- istrative team’s “wish list” and our employees’ input helped narrow down the search and ultimately choose the right vendor for our company. Aladtec’s EMS online scheduling program, EMS Manager, is designed specifically for our field so we didn’t have to explain the inter- esting dynamics of EMS scheduling. They had al- ready solved many of our problems because they had previously answered these same questions for other EMS companies.
Additionally, our ad- ministration team was allowed to try an online demo of their program. This was especially helpful to us as we were able to see exactly how the system would work. We plugged in our data on the small-scale demo and all the information was live. If we wanted to know how to create a rotation or edit infor- mation or swap a shift between employees, we just logged into the demo and tried it for ourselves.
It was a great tool in helping us get a real visual and a real under- standing on how their program worked. The demo had another ad- vantage: we were able to see, first hand, just how responsive and friendly their technical support and customer service representatives were.
Once we started using the demo, we were able to see many other impres- sive features that online scheduling had to offer. This particular pro- gram allowed us to track employee competencies as well as create a home page and events calendar that would replace our company newsletter. The library feature would function as a repository for all of our continuing education files. Employ- ees could voice their opinions and suggestions via threads on a forum/ message board. The more we saw, the more we were certain that an online scheduling package was the right fit for our grow- ing company.
The Time Clock mod- ule was another draw for Lifestar because we wanted to incorporate the real data from the schedule with our payroll program. EMS Manager offered us an easy way to do this integration. They worked with our payroll provider, writing the exact code necessary to trans- late Time Clock data.
We just started using the mobile app version as well. I can pull up our EMS Manager system on my iPhone and all of the important informa- tion is there. It is easy to use and streamlines our scheduling and person- nel info into the palm of your hand. We literally have access to our sched- ule ANYWHERE!
Lifestar Ambulance began using an online scheduling system in the winter of 2008 and it completely revised our entire scheduling meth- odology. The approach to scheduling and its inherent conflicts have changed dramatically now. Employees have more control over their submissions of time off requests and availability as well as shift trades and sign-ups. Managers are spending more time on other projects. Informa- tion flows freely be- tween all groups within
Lifestar’s structure: our managers aren’t buried under miniature paper mountains and our employees aren’t left in the dark anymore. Also, we no longer fear a total system crash, either.
Since our move from the dark ages of paper schedules to a web-based system, we have seen a significant change and overall improvement in our daily operations. Our only regret: we should have done it sooner! u
For more information, visit:
www.aladtec.com or call 888-749-5550
Author
Stephanie Fowler Burt, EMT-B, is he Human Resources Administrator for Lifestar Ambulance, Inc. in Salisbury, Maryland. She has been a mem- ber of their team for more than eight years. Lifestar Ambulance is a private ambulance company, serving the patients of the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and Southern Delaware.
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