Rostering meets econometrics

At HosPortal we are all pretty analytical and love a bit of data. Actually, we prefer a lot of data that we can crunch to come to some interesting conclusions…and ideally some useful ones, too. Over the next few posts we have used the reporting and export functions available to any hospital to look at various aspects of rostering.Any economist can tell you that more liquid and active markets mean greater satisfaction and value for both parties involved, whether giving or receiving. This post looks at how liquid the roster market is, and how much it is improved by HosPortal. HosPortal’s ‘market’ function allows people to give shifts to others, or swap shifts with others, at the press of a button. No more phoning around to find a shift or a person to give a shift to; no more emailing an administrator to get them to search for you.The chart here shows six private hospitals and what proportion of the last 92 shifts of the year changed hands. It compares 2016, before HosPortal was installed, with 2017.

1. Every hospital saw the number of shifts changing hands increase when using HosPortal. Some of them significantly so. (This data is being extracted in November, so the final 2017 number will be even higher).
2. At almost every hospital, more than a third of the shifts are swapped or given away. This reflects an underlying desire for people on call to be able to give and receive shifts to suit their circumstances.
3. The illiquid market for Hospital B is explainable by the way its call is managed. But even if there the number of shifts that changed hands has increased by half when using HosPortal.