Dr. Sarah Inman: Hi, everyone. I am Dr. Sarah Inman. I'm the Senior Vice President of Healthcare at Improv, your implementation partner. And I've been working alongside the San Juan team on the UKG Advanced Scheduling Project. I'm the executive sponsor on our side, but also have been involved just top to bottom, making sure that the team's ready, and most importantly, you all are ready for go-live.

So, really appreciate just the opportunity to talk for a few minutes today. And what I want to cover is pretty simple. It's what's actually going to be changing for you all on September 21st, which is our official go-live date.

So, why I think this is genuinely good news for you all and not just another system to learn is one of the things I want to talk through from a very unique perspective, and I'll go into my background in a minute. But I think what's most important is everyone here is so excited to have the opportunity to lean in and support you.

So, I'm hoping just hearing my story and what my experience has been really helps build your own excitement as well, and I really look forward to the opportunity to potentially meet some of you in person when I'm on site to support the go-live. So, I don't want to start with the software because you all are going to be hearing enough about that.

Going to give you just a quick rundown of my background and why this is so important to me. Because before I did any of this, my role at Improv or the seven years that I spent at UKG, I was a customer of the solution. I'm a former clinical staffing manager. I've done the role that many of you do today. So, I've been on both sides of the fence when it comes to not just implementing the solution, but also being someone who is having the solution implemented at my hospital. I had almost 400 per diem clinicians that reported up to me at one time. I ran a clinical staffing office. So needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the scheduling solution.

I had RNs, LPNs, medics, patient care techs, you name it, they reported up to me and my team. And every single morning, I sat down and I loaded the UKG solution. So again, not only did I experience that through our implementation, but as somebody who has used it every single day before I even joined UKG.

So when I talk to you about what this system does, I'm not talking about anything that's theoretical. I've lived on your side of it. I know exactly what it feels like to have your phone go off at 5:00 AM because somebody's called out, and now you're left trying to fill that shift with nobody to pull from. So, using that as sort of the framing is the best way that I know to explain what advanced scheduling is actually going to give you and what the value is behind this for you and your caregivers.

Right now, most scheduling anywhere is basically a static grid. So, it got built for what a unit needed at some point in the past, then it got patched and patched and patched over and over again. And what this solution does differently is it's going to let you build your schedule to your actual demand. So that, way your coverage is going to line up with the shifts that genuinely need it, not getting spread across different shifts that may not look anything alike or have a different patient population.

This is the safety mechanism that's built in, and I want to be really clear that this is the reason that we do this work, why I do this work. Safe staffing saves lives. Nobody listening to this is surprised by that statement. You all live it every single day. And that's not just a slogan for us. It's really the meaning behind why we do what we do and why we feel that this solution is so valuable for you all. I wouldn't put my name or my experience or my reputation behind it if I didn't truly believe that and have experienced it on my own.

So, the second piece that I really want to talk to you about, and this is something that I cared about as a manager and think you all are going to care about, is the ability to see gaps in the solution weeks out. So instead of that 5:00 AM phone call that you're getting woken up and told that you've had a call-out and now you've got to find a solution, you now have the ability to see out into the next several weeks or even into following months what's going on with your schedule. And when you can see that three weeks ahead, then you have some options. Whether you're going to fill that with agency, without mandatory overtime, without calling in a favor from somebody who probably has already picked up two or three times this month when you called them emergently for help. You're able to see it. And when you see that hole, you can do something about it in advance.

So, third thing that I really love and I think is going to be hugely valuable for you and your teams is the autonomy that this is going to give to your staff. Your caregivers are going to be able to do things for themselves and really put that responsibility of planning their life in their own hands. They can see their schedules on their phones. They can request a swap of a shift with one of their peers. They're able to pick up open shifts, and every single one of those used to probably come through you or a member of your team, probably on your day off or by text message or a Post-it note that was slid under the door. And now, you actually have an electronic record and a mechanism for everybody to be able to use this solution in a way that makes sure that it's clear and transparent with what's going on and what's happening.

So, one last thing that I love to talk about that I think is really important, and it really matters, I think, more than people expect it to. It's that fairness and transparency piece. Open shifts are going to be visible to everybody instead of quietly just going to whoever happens to answer the phone first.

People are able to see that the shift's been offered to them, and they can make a decision about whether or not it works for them. The example that I love to use is if somebody happens to be walking through Marshalls or HomeGoods or doing some shopping and they get a text message that a shift's available, they're able to then make that decision right there on the fly because, "Hey, actually, I might want that new couch," or "You know what? I've been looking for a new refrigerator," or "This outfit is probably something that I want to pick up for the summer," and you have the ability to reach them where they are so they can make that decision in the moment. And that's a big thing that we know staff are asking for.

Any hospital I go to across the country, nurses and clinicians are looking for that level of autonomy to choose the shifts that work the best for them around their life. So, this helps you not only explain why certain people got a shift, but also maybe why somebody didn't. It protects you as much as it protects them and gives that necessary paper trail. Scheduling has always been my passion, so it's certainly an area that I like to lean into. And what that means is I've watched a lot of these projects go-live, and I know the difference between what actually goes wrong and what people are afraid are going to go wrong, and those are not the same thing. So, the pattern I usually see is folks have not leaned in and done everything possible to learn how they need to leverage the solution before go-live.

Because once they do and they see how easy the system is and how well it works for them, go-live tends to go off without a hitch. So, that's why I wanted to make sure to take the opportunity to really encourage you all to lean into everything that's available, the support that we have to offer you, and everybody who is lining up to make sure that you have exactly what you need for you and your teams to be successful. That includes me and members of my team.

So as I mentioned at the start, I'm really, really excited to get the opportunity to meet some of you in person during that go-live week of September 21st. I will be on site alongside members of the project team and members of the Improv team to, again, make sure you've got that shoulder to shoulder, hands-on support to make this as seamless and as smooth a transition as possible for you. Because really, what we're all doing here at the end of the day is making sure that your caregivers have a schedule they can count on and that your units are staffed safely. That is mission critical for all of us.

And I really appreciate you all having me, giving the opportunity to speak to why that's such a passion of mine, and really want to thank everybody for all the work and effort that they've put into this.

I know it's not been easy. I know it's a lot to ask of everyone on top of your day job. This team has moved mountains in a really short period of time to make this happen. But again, I can tell you as your peer, someone who's been right where you are, that it absolutely will be worth it at the end of the day.

So, can't wait to see you all at go-live. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions along the way, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with everybody a little ways after go-live just to see how well things are going for you all. Thanks again, everybody.