Rotamap Spring Event New Features

05 April 2018

Leave Requests

We have been making a number of improvements to our Leave Requests feature on both CLWRota and Medirota. CLWRota now displays study leave allowances on the leave request page beneath annual leave allowances. There is also the option to add more detail to study leave requests on both Medirota and CLWRota, such as course name and course fees. Recording this information on the systems may reduce the need for supporting paper documentation, keeping everything in one place and further aiding the approvals process.

Rota Masters can now edit individual leave allowances directly without needing to contact the Rotamap support team for updates to be made. Allowances for both annual and study leave can be set for the current year and all future years, or can be edited for a future year.

Template Painter

This Medirota feature allows a Rota Master to add in multiple templates for a person or a post at once, helping to more quickly enter job plans and working patterns to the system. The painter allows the type of activity, session value, PA value and hours for each session to be selected before adding.

A rota master adding in multiple templates for a clinician

The video below shows a rota master adding in multiple templates for a clinician

Template Exceptions

It is now easier to make a one off adjustment to non-setup week in Medirota. This means that all future swaps can be entered into Medirota without having to wait for the week to be set up. These one off changes are called Template Exceptions. Changes can be made via the Multiweek tab, by clicking the cross next to the name of the person you want to remove from the session; this makes the exception, which is then reflected by a strike appearing through the person’s name.

A rota master making a template exception for a clinician

Hiding Leave Pools

Leave pools in CLWRota that are no longer in use can now be hidden; a small improvement but one we've had some very positive feedback about. Historic data remains easily accessible when needed. Leave pools can be managed via the Super User login.

Bids

For the Bids feature in Medirota and CLWRota we've added in the option for an automatic message to be sent at the point of Rota Masters offering out new sessions for bidding. This option is selected by default at the bottom of the Bids page and allows for information to reach the relevant clinicians as quickly as possible.

After some feedback at the event, we’re also looking at adding in functionality to allow clinicians to decline a bid offer, so that Rota Masters can more clearly identify where clinicians are not available, and clinicians can more effectively manage the bid offers open to them.

Default Views

As the amount of information added to Medirota and CLWRota continues to grow, we recognise the importance of only displaying information pertinent to each person accessing the rota. To facilitate this we've added in default views for Guest and Rota Master logins, which allows for rota filters to be set by default when logging in (e.g. a particular site or sub-specialty). We hope this will reduce clicks and save time, whilst still allowing for users to access other parts of the rota as necessary.

User Admin

This feature allows Rota Masters to add in new non-clinical users such as Guest Users or other Rota Masters. All Rota Masters will have the ability to add in Guest Users, and the additional setting for Rota Masters to manage other Rota Master users can be configured via the Super User login. As well as managing prospective users, this feature also makes it easier to ensure access rights are kept up to date.

Annotations

The Annotations feature provides a framework for clinicians to annotate any session they're working on the rota. These annotations can be private or public; private annotations are only viewable by the user who made them and public annotations are viewable to by the clinician as well as Rota Master users.

The Annotations feature initially came about as a way to facilitate exception reporting, which is one of the default annotation types in the system. Any annotation type can however be added, with clinicians and Rota Masters then being able to run a report on annotations that have been made (Rota Master can only see public annotations).

Clinician private notes and exception reporting are potential use cases for annotations, although the feature can be personalised for anything the department would like clinician feedback on (e.g. a session overrun).

Please see our Annotations article to find out more information.

An example of a clinician making an annotation to a session

The video below shows a clinician making en exception report on their phone

External Recipients

The External Recipient feature provides a way of communicating planned leave to non-Rota Master colleagues.

When leave is booked for a particular clinician, or over a particular location/activity, automatic notifications can be sent out to any email address, regardless of whether or not they have access to Medirota/CLWRota. This might be useful to alert Clinic Coordinators or Medical Secretaries who work closely with the department, but not directly on the rota.

Richer Profiles

We're currently updating clinician profiles in quite a few different ways. Recently we added the ability to add in GMC numbers and we're also looking at adding ESR assignment numbers. Plans are also underway to add more extensive and personalisable app notification settings.

Public API

The API (Application Program Interface) has been extended to include leave for CLWRota and ported over in its entirety to Medirota. The API facilitates the sharing of rota or leave information with other systems that the department or trust might use.

The API is already in use by several organisations, for example to communicate staff assignments with theatre management tools, on-call cover with switchboard tools and leave bookings with leave management systems.

Please see our Public API documentation to find out more information.

The Overview

Expanding on our Mapping feature, we have recently created a new tool to display a read-only shared view of all live CLWRota and Medirota department rotas in the Trust. As more specialties start to take on CLWRota or Medirota, a Rotamap Overview can offer a live dashboard which could be useful for utilisation and capacity management. This is a natural byproduct of every department organising themselves and could make current processes more transparent and streamlined.

If you’re interested in starting to use any of these features or would like any more information please get in touch via support@rotamap.net