Authors (including presenting author) :
Tse LY, Ho CM
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Artificial Intelligence
Keyword 4: :
Occupational Therapy
Introduction :
Staff rostering is a major administrative task in hospitals, involving the assignment of appropriate personnel at the right time and place to ensure efficient manpower supply and service provision. In occupational therapy, rostering is complicated by weekend and public holiday services, with the challenging of matching rank and specialty mix, diverse duties, and specific considerations. Current manual methods are time-consuming, mentally taxing, and error-prone, therefore there is a need of a more efficient method customized to department needs.
Objectives :
To develop an Automated Staff Rostering Program (ASRP) aiming to reducing the time required to create rosters and minimizing errors in the process, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency in occupational therapy department.
Methodology :
ASRP is an AI-coded program developed by our department through discussions with AI for solution exploration, followed by program and prompt design, coding, and debugging. The workflow involves inputting an Excel file containing staff basic information, duty details, and prior duty records. The program applies pre-designed prioritized principles, including gender constraints, specialty pairing, team diversity, assignment spacing, limits, special remarks and etc. It processes the data and automatically generate output file in minutes. The output file contains five sets of roster options, each including date assignments for therapists and supporting staff (with specialties) and updated staff records (highlighting additions and unassigned staff) for managerial review and selection.
Result & Outcome :
Since its implementation in 4Q 2024, ASRP has generated over 180 roster duties with a maximum generation time of 5 minutes for five rosters. It has achieved a 98% reduction in rostering time, comparing to manual rostering and has saved over 30 hours of rostering time. It ensures 100% adherence of the rosters generated to principles and staff availability. As the program was developed by our department, there is no production or maintenance costs. A satisfaction survey was conducted by roster planner, therapists and supporting staff. Feedback indicates 100% satisfaction from roster planners and 90% from therapists and supporting staff regarding accuracy and objectivity. ASRP successfully enhances operational efficiency by reducing rostering time and errors, saving therapist time to clinical works. This project is under further collaboration with different professions, including doctors and nurses, to maximise the benefits across multidisciplinary teams, improve overall departmental scheduling, and further optimise patient care delivery in the healthcare setting.
