Choosing rostering software for a hospital medical department comes down to fourteen questions. Most vendors will answer all of them well in a demo; the point of asking is to get the answers in writing, compare them like for like, and notice which ones a general-purpose workforce system cannot answer at all. Under each question below is what a good answer looks like and, briefly, how HosPortal answers it. The list is written for departments in Australia and New Zealand.
1. Was it built for hospital medical rosters, or adapted from general workforce scheduling? A good answer names on-call tiers, supervision ratios, theatre lists and training terms as things the system models natively, not as workarounds.
HosPortal: Built only for hospital medical departments since 2008.
2. Which departments like ours use it, and can we speak to one? Named hospitals and a reference call.
HosPortal: 100+ departments across anaesthesia, ED, ICU, radiology, surgery, medicine and JMO units in Australia and New Zealand; references arranged on request.
3. How does it handle on-call, and post-call rest? Tiers per service, rest rules enforced at build time, fairness counters.
HosPortal: Native on-call roles, Shift Conflict Rules, counters per clinician.
4. How does it manage trainee supervision and skills? Skills per clinician, requirements per shift or list, supervision rules, breaches flagged before publishing.
HosPortal: All four.
5. Can it roster junior doctors across terms and rotations without rebuilding? Terms as objects with their own patterns; allocation drives the roster.
HosPortal: Term Builder.
6. Does it support self-rostering and preference gathering? Both selection and preference models, with quotas.
HosPortal: Both, with an AI builder to fill the remainder.
7. Does it enforce award hours and fatigue rules while building, or report them afterwards? While building, with overrides logged.
HosPortal: Work Rules and Shift Conflict Rules at build time.
8. How does the AI work, and who controls the rules? Ask whether it is an optimiser or a language model, whether results are explainable, and whether your rules stay yours.
HosPortal: Constraint-solving optimiser on rules you define; optional module, A$7 per user per month billed annually.
9. What do clinicians get? Native apps, calendar sync, SMS alerts, swaps and a shift market.
HosPortal: iOS and Android apps, iCal, SMS, Market and swaps.
10. Does it produce timesheets that payroll will accept? Award rules applied, adjustments with approval, export in payroll’s format.
HosPortal: Yes, with export templates matched to your payroll system.
11. Where is our data hosted and under which privacy law? Region named, Australian Privacy Act compliance, backup and uptime figures, penetration testing cadence.
HosPortal: AWS Sydney; Privacy Act; daily backups; 99.9% uptime; independent penetration test every two years.
12. Does it support single sign-on and multi-factor authentication? SAML with your identity provider, MFA for everyone.
HosPortal: SAML including Microsoft Entra ID; MFA.
13. Is pricing published, and what is included? A price you can see before the demo, with setup, training and support included or itemised.
HosPortal: A$17 per user per month billed annually (A$200 per user per year), published, setup and support included.
14. How long does implementation take, who does the work, and what happens to our data if we leave? Weeks not months; the vendor builds the templates; data exportable on exit.
HosPortal: Two to eight weeks through LaunchBay; templates built with you; roster, staff and leave data exportable.
Print the fourteen questions, send them to each vendor, and compare the written answers. Then book demos only with those who answered all fourteen.
Whether the system models on-call, supervision and training terms natively. A vendor that answers with workarounds will have a department rebuilding rosters by hand within a year.
For most public and private hospitals, yes: state health data policies and the Australian Privacy Act make an Australian region the simplest position to defend, and it should be stated in writing.
Weeks, not months. Two to eight weeks is realistic when the vendor builds the roster templates and the department supplies its staff list and rules promptly.
Yes. Published pricing is a sign the vendor sells the same product to everyone and that the department can budget before investing time in evaluation.