Further boost for NHS interoperability goals crucial for safeguarding of healthcare’s safety and efficiency
16 November 2020 – Allocate Software is pleased to announce a new ‘Allocate Connect’ partnership with absence management provider FirstCare.
Effective absence management has come into sharp focus in 2020, particularly as health and care organisations grapple with managing the impact of increased absence rates related to the pandemic. Allocate has been at the forefront of helping organisations, regional and central bodies with accurate absence recording and live views of absence for the purpose of reporting and responsive rostering.
FirstCare helps large organisations, including many NHS Trusts to reduce the personal and financial cost of lost working days and over the years have supported over 700,000 ‘Member’ employees.
The service has evolved to focus on understanding the root causes of absenteeism, signpost appropriate interventions and manage safe returns to work.
FirstCare combines 24/7 nurse-led support with digital tools to improve workplace wellbeing, increase productivity and provide leadership teams with real-time insights about their people.
Ian Caminsky, FirstCare’s CEO said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Allocate, the world’s largest health and care workforce management software provider. Our combined capabilities will provide demonstrable benefits to our colleagues in the NHS.
In essence, FirstCare is a hybrid of clinical expertise and management information.
“Speed and reliability are paramount for both. When an employee is unable to work, swift intervention is proven to be in their best interests.
“Similarly, leadership teams are increasingly expected to make crucial decisions quickly.
“When these decisions directly affect the wellbeing of their people, it’s vital that robust data is available ‘on demand’.”
By linking its database to the Allocate HealthRoster solution, via an API, FirstCare customers can now base resourcing decision-making on accurate, real-time data.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one such FirstCare customer to use the connection between its absence reporting platform and the Allocate HealthRoster for sickness absence:
“The automated link between the two systems is invaluable”, explained Rebecca Mawer, HR Business Partner and Attendance Improvement Lead at Oxford University Hospitals.
“Employee absences reported to FirstCare are instantly populated within HealthRoster – anytime, day or night. By bypassing manual input, we know the data is 100% accurate, so we can make faster, better-informed decisions in our rostering – enabling us to instate temporary cover or redeploy staff as appropriate.
“The data helps to ensure our ESR and payroll systems are correct too. But crucially, it minimises the risk to services, helping us to maintain the highest standards of patient care.”
Nick Wilson, CEO, Allocate commented: “We have seen how important it is that technology supports the real-world challenges that organisations face at this time and how vital it is that technology vendors work together to help the organisations we serve solve these issues . We developed Allocate Connect to do just this and I am certain that the interoperability and partnership with FirstCare will make a material difference to our joint customers.”
-ENDS-
Notes to editors
About Allocate Software
Allocate Software is a leading international provider of Human Capital Management solutions, supporting the operational and administrative needs of health, care, defence and commercial sectors.
In the health and care sector, Allocate is enabling the delivery of safe and effective care at optimal cost, by helping organisations to have the right people in the right place at the right time. With over 800 clients and over a million staff rostered daily, Allocate serves the largest public and private sector institutions around the world. Its Optima, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), platform including HealthRoster and HealthMedics, optimises the complex staffing requirements of large health and care organisations. Alongside automating sophisticated scheduling and ensuring accurate pay for staff that have complex pay rules, it is unique in providing additional benefits to improve the safety of staffing given changing patient needs, the management of contingent workforce, and the engagement of staff through the dedicated app. Optima is used to plan the working lives of half million staff across all workforce groups including doctors, nurses, therapists, care staff, operational staff and administrators.
Allocate Software is headquartered in the United Kingdom, with nearly 700 employees, including over 200 in research, development, and product management functions. It provides services and support to its international customer base through regional offices in the UK, Sweden, Germany and Australia.
About FirstCare
FirstCare provides a unique service for the UK’s larger employers. Since 2004, it has supported more than 200,000 staff at NHS Trusts around the country.
It helps them to reduce the number of lost working days by understanding and responding to the needs of employees.
When they unexpectedly need to take time off due to illness, injury or care for loved ones, FirstCare helps staff to get the right support. And, when the time is right, helps them return to work – safely.
Combining clinical expertise (24/7 nurse-led telehealth) with digital tools (proprietary software, real-time notifications, reporting and benchmarking), FirstCare improves wellbeing, boosts productivity, and gives leadership teams the insights they need to make the right decisions.
About Allocate Connect
The Connect Programme brings together Allocate workforce technology platforms with other digital technology innovators and service providers into an ecosystem of forward-thinking partners that are committed to a collaborative approach.
Working openly and constructively with other providers enables our customers around the world to enhance the functionality of their Allocate solutions, optimise their workflow and streamline processes via the seamless integration with their other chosen suppliers.
