Changes coming to LocumsMart in 2021
LocumsMart recently rolled out electronic timesheets in version 2.5. You can now use LocumsMart to track Providers’ actual hours worked, and run KPI reports for things like hours worked by type (i.e. overtime, call, etc.) at a particular Facility over a given date range. Building upon our electronic timesheet functionality, LocumsMart will soon be introducing electronic timekeeping, which will allow Providers to clock-in and out from their mobile phone.
The traditional system for timekeeping is inefficient, and it’s limited in terms of the information recorded and the ability for either the Vendor or the Health Care Organization to verify the information. Traditionally, Providers log their hours by manually filling out paper calendars issued by the Vendor at the beginning of the assignment. The Provider has someone at the Facility sign-off on it and then faxes or emails it to the Vendor. The Vendor then manually keys the hours from the calendar into their accounting system so they can pay the Provider and send an invoice to the Facility. There’s a decent amount of time involved in these manual processes, not to mention the fact that each manual step is an opportunity for information to be accidentally omitted or recorded incorrectly. Quality assurance is practically impossible—how can anyone in the accounting department at the Vendor verify that the signature on the paper calendar is legitimate, or that the Provider was actually in the Facility for the hours? Furthermore, different Providers fill out their calendars in different ways, and the level of information provided often isn’t exactly clear and wouldn’t be sufficient for verification, even if you could establish some kind of internal QA process. The result is that if the client were to do an audit to verify that they were charged correctly on an assignment, the information recorded on the timesheets alone often isn’t enough to have a clear understanding of the hours the physician worked. In short, the traditional ways that locum tenens physicians’ record their hours while on assignment and how Vendors share those hours with Health Care Organizations are areas that are ripe for improvement.
Electronic timekeeping is the answer. LocumsMart Users can still input timesheet information manually, even as a backup, but they will now also have the opportunity to collect the Provider’s hours electronically, rather than via a paper calendar. The Provider can clock-in and clock-out from his or her phone with a single tap. The mobile phone time clock information then flows directly into the electronic timesheet in LocumsMart, which is tied to the Confirmation Agreement. Unlike the paper calendar system—for which every Vendor has its own unique form, and every Provider fills the forms out slightly differently—electronic timekeeping on LocumsMart standardizes the process. A Provider simply indicates what type of hours he or she’s working (e.g. regular, overtime, on-call) and taps a button to clock-in, and then taps to clock-out when he or she is finished with the shift. Using the same interface, Providers can also indicate any mileage driven on a given day. When they are ready to do so, the Provider taps a button to submit the timesheet for approval, and LocumsMart sends an email to the person who was set up at the beginning of the assignment to approve the Provider’s timesheets. That person can review the timesheet, and approve or reject it from a link in the email, without even needing to log into LocumsMart. It’s that simple!
In addition to the obviously increased convenience over paper calendars, electronic timekeeping on LocumsMart also allows for a much greater degree of quality assurance for both the Vendors and the Health Care Organizations utilizing the Providers’ services. LocumsMart verifies the Provider’s GPS location through his or her phone each time the Provider clocks-in or out, so we can pinpoint the Provider’s exact location, and verify he or she is where they are supposed to be while on assignment. Electronic timekeeping is an exciting feature that is demonstrative of LocumMart’s core mission to help our members save time and money.
About the author
Aaron Paul is co-founder and CEO of LocumsMart. His passion lies in creating new ways to move established workflow processes from the analog to the digital world. To learn more about Aaron and the LocumsMart team, visit our team page here: http://locumsmart.net/team
