When Sherri Tomchick worked at Health Sciences North as a nurse on the surgical floor, she learned first-hand the importance of effective scheduling.
“I learned from working at the hospital that it gets really hard to give high-quality care when there are not enough people working,” she said.
Tomchick later went on to teach nursing at a career college, where she often scheduled placements at long-term care facilities for her students.
Working with the long-term care homes, she noticed staff often used terms like 'plan B' and 'plan C' to describe their staffing levels when they were understaffed.
“I thought, 'We've got to keep these homes in 'plan A' and give this vulnerable sector the care it deserves,'” Tomchick said.
To help solve the staffing problems at Sudbury's long-term care homes, she started Plan A Health Care Staffing Solutions Inc.
Tomchick spent hours on the phone each day to schedule registered nurses, registered practical nurses and personal support workers when their colleagues called in sick, or were off on holidays.
She worked out a deal with nurses at Health Sciences North who were interested in picking up extra shifts at long-term care facilities on their days off.
Many nurses jumped on board to make extra income and add some variety to their work schedules by dabbling in a different part of the health-care system.
Plan A's database of health-care workers quickly expanded, and even with new employees the 24/7 demands of health care meant Tomchick and her staff were constantly on their phones booking shifts.
“I was spending seven or eight hours a day on the phone,” said Mel Morin, Plan A's first employee.
For Plan A to expand Tomchick needed another solution to keep up with a growing list of clients and health-care professionals to fill vacant shifts.
The company collaborated with Sudbury-based Sunwire Inc. to build a software-based staffing solution.
The end result was StaffStat, a web portal that allows clients to list available shifts, and health-care workers to accept them.
StaffStat was incorporated as a separate entity, and had its official launch party Nov. 6.
Once an employer posts a shift, using a calendar application and drop-down menus, the software automatically sends out a notice to any staff members who qualify for that shift.
Staff can log in to the web portal, and choose if they want to receive their notice through an email, a text message, an automated phone call, or any combination of all three.
The program can also be used in a unionized environment, said Morin, who is now StaffStat's CEO.
If a workplace is unionized, employers can choose which employee who responded to a shift gets to work, based on seniority or other factors.
Morin said the next step for StaffStat and Plan A is to expand to other sectors, such as education, where substitute teachers could benefit from an automated staffing solution.
Last May Plan A won the people's choice award at inaugural Sudbury Pitch event, organized by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT).
The award came with a $25,000 prize package in services geared to startups, including services from DiBrina Sure Group, Freelandt Caldwell Reilly, MaRS Discovery District, NORCAT Innovation Mill, Norton Rose Fulbright and Personal Energy Coaching.
Next year, the company plans to apply to the HealthKick pitch event in Toronto, organized by the MaRS Discovery District.
Morin said it would be a first step toward expansion in the Greater Toronto Area.
“We're putting in an application for that and keeping our fingers crossed,” she said.
