The versatility and flexibility of creating a schedule for clients/care workers is what sets OneTouch apart from all the rest. This section deals with how to create a schedule (primarily from client perspective).
Here, we're going to create a schedule from the viewpoint of client John Brown. We will go through the process step by step and explain the key points of each step.
Note: If you'd prefer to view a video demo of creating a schedule - scroll to the bottom of the page or else click here
Setting the Scene
For this scenario, we want to create the following conditions:
a) The event will occur from 2pm to 3pm
b) The type of work is Private Nursing (other examples would be physio, personal care, occupational therapy etc)
c) Certain tasks need to be completed for each event
d) Schedule is recurring until end of calendar year 2025 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Public Holidays are included as part of the service
e) Finally, we will choose a suitable (and available) carer for the event series
a) The event will occur from 2pm to 3pm...
First, we need to navigate to John Brown's schedule. Click on 'Participants' on the left hand navigational panel from the Main Dashboard:
A list of active participants will appear on the next page
As you type, the list will update to match the text you're inputting
Having clicked on the schedule icon, you will be brought to a calendar view (current month) of John's schedule.
A new event window will appear allowing you to define the conditions of the event we set out above.
The sliding bar can assist you with scheduling the correct time.
There is an option beside the timeline called "Over-night". Only tick this option if your event duration goes past midnight. For this event, the over-night option will not be necessary.
b) The type of work is specialist nursing..
Next we set the job type. The job type refers to the primary reason that care is needed for the client. The job type chosen here will subsequently deal with how pay and billing is calculated later on. We will deal with this in the next module.
To learn about creating new job types click here
c) Certain tasks need to be completed for each event..
Next up is creating tasks that need to be performed for the event. These can be as simple as "feed the goldfish" or "empty the dishwasher". You can add as many tasks as possible from the "Add Tasks" drop down or manually input new tasks in the "Enter Tasks" field. NB: these tasks are different from digital Tasks.
To learn about creating new tasks for the drop down, click here
d) Schedule is recurring until end of calendar year 2025 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Public holidays are included as part of the service..
By default, the event is set to be a once off single event. Click on "Recurring Event" to create a series of events for the pattern of every Mon-Wed-Fri until end of 2025.
Once you click on "Recurring Event", new options appear to create the event series.
e) Finally, we will choose a suitable (and available) carer for the event series...
Click on "Check Preferred Care Worker Available" to begin choosing suitable care worker for the double up event series
Note above, there are no preferred care workers set up for this client. The scheduler will immediately look to preferred care workers to be assigned. Failing that, use the search bar to add specific care workers to the list and view their availability. To learn more about preferred care workers, click here
By using the search bar to find a care workers and then clicking "Add", you will have a list of care workers who may or may not be available to take the event. Having added some care workers to the list, you should now see something like below. At first glance, there are some symbols which we have not encountered before. Lets go through them and determine their meaning.
1. Availability & Contract Hours
3. Conflict Status - No Conflict
1. Availability & Contract Hours - The first two symbols beside a care worker's name here refer to care worker availability and care worker contract hours. Note that these two symbols differ for each care worker, that's because each care worker has different availability and contract situations for the event in question. Lets take a closer look - in the case of Mark Lardner, the availability and contract symbols look like this:
The orange calendar symbol tells us that this event series does not 100% suit the availability set for this particular care worker. Hovering over the symbol gives you more detail on what the care worker availability actually is:
You are presented with a summary of the care worker availability. In this case, the care worker availability is set for 10am-5pm Tue until Saturday. The reason it is highlighted in orange is because the care worker is set to be unavailable for Mondays (which is part of the recurrence in this event series we are creating). This won't prevent you assigning the care worker to the series - it is just giving you all the information you need to make a decision on who is best placed to take the event series.
The '-' symbol refers to this care worker's contract hours. This is a 'minus' symbol i.e. this care worker is currently under his/her set contract hours for a given week. Hovering over the symbol will confirm how many hours under their contract threshold they are.
This care worker is currently 18hrs and 15mins under the contract threshold for the week. This tells the admin that the care worker is still well within their contracted capacity if they're assigned to this event series. On the other hand, if this was a '+' symbol - it would signal that the care worker would be breaching their contracted capacity if they are assigned to this event.
Note how other care worker have differing situations. Care Worker Jessica has the following symbols:
A green man icon indicates that there is no availability conflict for this care worker and this event. Contracted hours conditions are also being met.
Other care workers may not have any availability or contracted hours information inputted. An example of this is Care Worker Chris Turner from the screenshot. He has an 'x' symbol for both availability and contracted hours as a result
You're probably wondering "Where is the availability and contracted hours information being pulled from?" or "how do I set up a care worker availability and contract hours information?". For more information on setting up contract hours, click here. For more information on setting up availability for a care worker, click here
Hovering over the X will show contract hours , participant facing time and travel time
2. Time Off/Leave -
There are now 3 different symbols used to signify Carer leave. These are outlined below:
The palm tree is used to signify that carers are on Annual Leave at this current time:
The emoji with a thermometer is used to denote that Carer is off sick and cannot cover this shift:
The briefcase symbol is used to show the Carer has Training leave booked for this time period:
These features are available when creating and editing events on the Client schedule.
This feature will also highlight what time period a Carer is off on leave/sick leave/training when hovering the mouse over the respective symbol:
Carer Leave Conflict Checker:
This feature, when enabled, will block Admins from allocating calls to Carer who have leave during the time and date of the event. This will detect all of the above types of leave and is available when creating and editing events on Client schedule.
This feature can be enabled on the Location access set up menu by top level Admins.
Please see the Top Level: Location Based Feature Enabling article for more information on this.
3. Conflict Status - No Conflict. On the right hand side is an indicator of if there's a conflict for this care worker or not. Looking specifically at the first care worker, it states there is "No Conflict". You're probably wondering "Should that not show as a conflict given that he has a holiday booked and limited availability?"
The reason it doesn't show as a conflict is because the system looks for direct scheduled conflicts i.e. client events that occur at the exact times the event series is set for. The holiday and availability information isn't set in stone the same way. So while the system tells the admin that the care worker has a holiday booked and availability conditions set - it gives the admin the option of asking the care worker to work outside of their availability or as a last resort, postpone the booked time off in the event of an emergency.
4. Conflict Status - Conflict For this care worker, we see the system marking it as a conflict. Initially you can't see exactly where the conflict is occurring but if you click on the 'Conflict' button, it will open the calendar and show the events that are clashing with this series. See screenshot below with events marked with a blue 'x'. These are scheduled work events that coincide with this new event series and hence the system shows a conflict for this care worker's schedule:
5. Assign Later It may be the case that you do not know what care worker you assign in the end. If that's the case, you can buy yourself some time by ticking the "Assign Later" box.
The '+' and '-' button beside it gives the option of assigning more than one person at a later date. This allows you to create double up events but without having to assign anyone just yet. To learn more about creating double ups click here.
Now that we know what all these symbols mean - we can get down to assigning a care worker. To refresh your mind, we're looking to assign one care worker here, looking at the care workers in the list, it seems the most suitable care worker available is Nathan Chadwick. Note how Nathan is available for this series with no conflict and also has no contract hours limitation. Tick the box beside Nathan
Once you press Save, the view will revert back to the client's calendar with the new event series added:
To view a video demo of the above, see below:
In Creating a Schedule - Part 2, we will cover the colour coding, symbols and additional features within the calendar view of a client/care worker schedule. Click here to move onto Part 2