Dental practices and Papershift shift planning: a perfect match!

Zahnwelt Vier Linden, a dental practice in the picturesque German town of Hildesheim, has been in operation since 2003. It has since grown to have 15 dentists and over 60 employees across two locations. In 2014 a children’s dental practice, Zahnzauberwelt, was also opened, and has gone on to be a great success.

David Bertram, a dentist at Zahnzauberwelt, told us in an interview about the special measures required in pediatric dentistry practice. Working with children every day requires a great deal of empathy, and these young patients have to be handled very carefully on account of their fear and unknowns of dentistry.

The locations in Hildesheim are also training practice centres where new trainees are recruited every year. With the different locations, different areas of responsibility and different types of employees, workforce and rota planning can be very challenging.

Behandlungsraum Zahnwelt Vier Linden

Challenges in Workforce planning

  • The 60 employees work across two locations
  • The two locations are divided into two practises for adults and a pediatric dentistry practice
  • Maintaining an overview of the workforce across the practice locations
  • Guaranteeing flexible working hours
  • Ensuring every shift has qualified employees
  • Assigning nurses to dentists in different surgeries

Different working hours for the individual dentists guarantee that patients can be offered appointments from 7 AM to 8 PM on Monday to Friday throughout the year. The rota  has to be constantly adjusted to accommodate short term changes through holiday or other types of leave. Flexibility always plays an important role here.

Papershift became necessary because the growing workforce could no longer be managed with a mix of handwritten notes and practice planning software, which only created confusion.

Papershift solves the puzzle

At Zahnwelt Vier Linden, staff planning requires scheduling nurses to individual dentists in specific rooms. This is characteristic of planning in medical practices. Time off like absences (illness or childcare) or leave (vacation) can be requested directly by the employees in Papershift.

Time tracking plays an important role in practice management. Since a time tracking tool was already in use before Papershift, it made sense to integrate the existing tool into Papershift, and also use our time clock app. The biggest advantage of this solution is that the recorded times are available directly in Papershift software.

Particularly noteworthy is employee integration. All employees have a login and actively use Papershift to see their shifts and request leave.

Of course you have to always differentiate between the user from the “Internet generation” and a slightly older user. Basically, Papershift settled in very well and is also very well used by our employees.

David BertramDentist, Zahnzauberwelt Hildesheim

Finally, of course, we wanted to hear a little summary. According to David, the biggest plus points are “the elimination of paperwork and the confusion it brings, the availability and visibility of workforce planning from anywhere and on any device & finally the clarity and the integration of employees”. 

Hundreds of dental & medical practices use Papershift every day to simplify their staff planning. If you would like to learn more about how Papershift can help your practice, simply request a demo with our sales team.