There’s an old saying that “The greatest wealth is health.” Essentially, that phrase means that one can live without good wealth but without good health, it’s impossible to survive.

Which is why, perhaps, on average, more than 36.3 million people enter US hospitals each year, according to recent statistics from statista.com in order to achieve good health. That number of people entering a hospital’s entrances each year does not include patient’s families, in addition to staff, vendors, and other visitors. Clearly, hospitals, with their “open” environment, are busy and demanding facilities.

People are a vital part of a hospital or medical facility’s ability to provide good health and medical care. Can you imagine showing up for a scheduled medical procedure and learning that your medical team wasn’t there? They all had the day off, and no one informed the scheduling department?

The challenges of managing time and attendance in a busy healthcare environment are numerous. Many employees, such as maintenance and cleaning personnel and vendors, do not have “standard” schedules. They all work around the clock, 24/7, to assist the medical teams with providing continuous, safe patient care.

In addition, doctors and nurses need to manage multiple teams while maintaining a high level of patient care. There’s little time to ensure that an employee is correctly clocking in and out and not “buddy punching” or “tailgating,” for example.

Staffing teams also cannot allow attendance errors, as they need attendance records to track sick leave, paid leaves, and holidays. If a nurse is out sick, his/her shift needs to be covered.

Beyond a major medical facility is the need to ensure that its remote medical and clinical facilities, with their shift work, are supported and staffed properly, as well.

Overall, hospitals and medical facilities need an employee time and attendance solution that can track employee hours, schedule shifts, and even process payroll. Also required is the ability to track sick and vacation days and allow employees to clock in at a wide range of locations. Managers and administration need to be able to track which employee is working at which site and where they need to go, approve shift swaps, and be able to check hours online.

Manual procedures are error-prone, and they can often involve people resources that can be used elsewhere.

Here’s where an electronic time and attendance tracking solution help. Time and attendance solutions can be tailored to meet the unique needs of hospitals and medical facilities. They can track and automate all time and attendance functions with the click of a button and across multiple facilities. These systems can ensure that the right staff is on hand to serve patients, reduce administrative and operating costs, have protocols in place to protect employees and the facility, and ultimately, ensure a high level of patient care.