Change working patterns
Redesign shift structures to support changes such as removing 24-hour duties, introducing new day and night arrangements or changing on-call models.
Workforce — Roster Design Services
Design better clinical rosters
When working arrangements, staffing levels or service requirements change, the existing roster structure may no longer be the right one. MedModus helps healthcare organisations design and test alternative roster models — understanding what works, what doesn’t and the staffing required to make change possible.
Sometimes the roster itself needs to change
Better roster management or optimisation can solve many scheduling problems. But sometimes the underlying roster structure needs to be reconsidered. We work with clinical and operational teams to redesign complex rosters around the realities of service delivery, staffing availability and workforce requirements — from changing an on-call model to bringing multiple clinical activities together within a more workable structure.
Align staffing with service need
Understand the staffing required to provide appropriate clinical cover across days, nights, weekends and different service areas.
Balance complex requirements
Bring together service coverage, working hours, rest, leave, skill requirements, fairness and individual constraints within a workable roster.
Protect clinical activity
Design roster arrangements that recognise the interaction between on-call, inpatient, theatre, outpatient and other clinical responsibilities.
From roster design to a workable roster
Don’t just design it. Test whether it works.
Roster designs that appear workable on paper can become difficult when applied to real staff, services and constraints. MedModus combines healthcare workforce experience with roster modelling and optimisation capability, so proposed structures can be built and tested before they are adopted.
We model different shift arrangements and staffing levels, generate representative rosters and identify where competing requirements make a proposed design difficult or impossible to deliver.
Questions we help answer
- 01
Can the service eliminate 24-hour shifts?
- 02
How many staff would the alternative model require?
- 03
Can appropriate rest and working patterns be maintained?
- 04
Can on-call commitments be better aligned with elective activity?
- 05
What compromises are required when every constraint cannot be satisfied?
Our approach
From service requirements to a practical roster design.
01 — UNDERSTAND
Understand the problem
Review the existing roster, staffing profile, clinical requirements and the issues driving the need for change.
02 — DEFINE
Map the requirements
Identify the clinical, contractual and staffing requirements the roster must accommodate — coverage, leave, rest, skills and working patterns.
03 — DESIGN
Develop alternative models
Design potential roster structures, shift patterns and staffing scenarios that address the agreed objectives.
04 — MODEL & TEST
See how they work in practice
Generate representative rosters to test feasibility and identify staffing gaps, conflicting requirements and trade-offs.
05 — REFINE
Develop a workable solution
Review results with stakeholders and refine the design around what is achievable in practice.
Roster design is often the beginning, not the end
A redesigned roster may solve a specific workforce or service challenge. In other cases, it establishes the structure and rules needed for ongoing roster optimisation or e-Rostering. Roster design capability is also an important part of many of our larger rostering engagements.
Roster design
Establish the right structure
Design and test roster structures around service requirements, staffing and workforce constraints.
You are hereRoster optimisation
Generate complex rosters
Use optimisation to automate complex recurring roster production while balancing coverage, fairness and workforce constraints.
Explore Roster Optimisatione-Rostering
Manage the roster day to day
Use RMS to publish and manage rosters, leave, changes, swaps, offers and staff communication.
Explore e-RosteringRoster design in practice
Solving different rostering problems — from removing 24-hour shifts to protecting elective activity.
Anaesthesia
Quantifying the staffing needed for a safer anaesthesia roster
St. Vincent's University Hospital needed to understand the workforce impact of removing 24-hour shifts for anaesthesia NCHDs while maintaining theatre and ICU cover.
- doctors for a rules-compliant model
- +2doctors for a rules-compliant model
- normal service available
- 90%normal service available
General Paediatrics
Designing a Fair, Integrated Paediatrics Roster for a New Hospital
Three hospital services will combine in the new children's hospital. MedModus designed a greenfield General Paediatrics roster covering inpatient, on-call and outpatient commitments.
- one approved 13-week roster
- 48 staffone approved 13-week roster
- individual constraints
- 100+individual constraints
Surgical SHOs
Protecting theatre training and elective activity
On-call allocations were clashing with General Surgery theatre lists and outpatient clinics. MedModus redesigned the call roster to favour lower-impact days.
- allocations on the best days
- 58% → 86%allocations on the best days
- allocations on unsuitable days
- 26% → 4%allocations on unsuitable days
Roster Design Services
Have a roster that needs to change?
Whether you’re reviewing shift structures, changing an on-call model, assessing staffing requirements or struggling to balance competing clinical commitments, we can help you understand the options.
Send us an example of your current roster and tell us what you’re trying to change. We’ll help determine whether roster design, optimisation or e-Rostering is the right next step.
- Review of your current roster structure and staffing profile
- Alternative shift and on-call models designed around your service
- Representative rosters generated to test whether the design works