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DEMO/TUTORIAL
For New Users: Information and Signup
Introduction to ActiveSchedule
ActiveSchedule is a web-based scheduling program for emergency medicine personnel. Our experience with scheduling software has led us to believe that software is much better and much faster than humans at certain scheduling tasks. These include compiling stastistics about the schedule such as shift totals, checking for errors in the schedule, setting up the schedule template, highlighting relevant information, and reminding users about shifts. Where scheduling software has often been disappointing is in its ability to actually create the schedule. In this area, humans still outperform the computer. Therefore, we have taken out the failed functionality and kept in all the useful tools to create a program that will hopefully save you hours every month.
What does ActiveSchedule do?
ActiveSchedule performs the following tasks:
Automatically fills the dates in the schedule when you enter the starting date for the month Checks for errors, such as scheduling someone for two shifts that are too close together, or on the same day. Highlights names to facilitate appropriate scheduling for each individual. Highlights names to facilitate each individual's reading of the schedule, thus avoiding "blown shifts". Calculates and displays totals for each individual for each of the different shifts, totals for the number of weekend shifts worked, and the total number of shifts each individual works in the month. Automatically emails reminders regarding upcoming shifts! Allows password-protected viewing and editing of the schedule from any web-connected computer in the world.
What does NCEMI get out of this?
NCEMI receives no funding or reimbursement whatsoever for this project. NCEMI was created to fulfill its mission to be the premier center for informatics in the field of emergency medicine. This is a small part of fulfilling that goal. In addition, the institutions at which the NCEMI principals are affiliated (Northwestern University Medical School Division of Emergency Medicine and MedStar Health Corporation/Washington Hospital Center Department of Emergency Medicine) like to see their faculty providing useful service to the medical community. Also, as academic emergency medicine informaticists, we would like to expand the knowledge base in our field. Therefore, the only thing we ask of you is participation in a study of this site's effectiveness. In order to sign up for ActiveSchedule you must complete a study data sheet, and from time to time we may ask you to answer additional follow-up questions. This is purely an academic research endeavor. No identifying information will ever be published -- merely survey results and usage statistics. Your signup on this site implies consent for us to use, publish and present this information. The final reason we made this site is so that we could use it ourselves, of course!
How long will you keep my stuff?
NCEMI will keep your schedules for at least six months, unless we notify you otherwise. If you want a copy of the schedule archived for longer than 6 months, then be certain to save a copy of it locally on your own machine!
What if there is a hard drive crash at NCEMI, or some other bug and I lose all my data?
NCEMI is not responsible for anything! Therefore, you would be out of luck in this instance unless you saved all your data. Therefore, we strongly suggest that you keep a copy of all your data on your own machine!!! This is most easily done from the editor page, where you can click the "File" on the menu of the browser, then "Save" whenever you have done work on the page. If the work gets lost, just open up the page on your own machine and resubmit the form to recover! If the server goes down permanently, or NCEMI goes defunct, or any other problem occurs, you will have to recover your data from your saved files, and then use some other method for doing your schedule.
What are the liabilities of NCEMI in this endeavor?
Absolutely none whatsoever. Your signup and use of the site indicates your understanding that use of this site is strictly at your own risk. You also indicate that you are the agent for all others at your institution using this site and that they also agree with these terms if they choose to use this site.
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Your department's daily set of shifts One shift per line For example: 6a-2p 2p-10p 10p-6a
