Caregiver Availability and Status

One of the most important things that you need to know from a Caregiver in order to schedule them is when they are available. The Scheduling System helps you keep track of each Caregiver’s availability and status as it changes over time.

When you first add a new Caregiver, they have a default Status of Active and full Availability (Mon-Sun, 12a-12a, starting today). If you wish, you can leave this as it is, and the Caregiver will be fully assignable, starting today. If you want the system to help you know who is available for any given shift, you’ll need to set the times of availability. To do this, click on Availability & Status on the Summary tab of the Caregiver’s form. This opens up the Availability for Caregiver form (see the figure below). Note that you can also get to this form from the Availability menu on the Planner by right-clicking on the Caregiver's schedule line.

Figure 29: New Caregiver form, Summary tab

Figure 30: Setting up a new Caregiver’s availability

You can either alter an existing entry or click on Add a Copy to enter a new one. This example shows the original “Mon-Sun” entry, as well as a new one. In this case, the Caregiver can work 9a-9p during the week, and Saturday after noon, but not on Sunday.

Setting up Caregiver Availability is almost identical to setting up Times for Service. One big difference is that you can enter entire days for Caregiver Availability, without the need to specify the time. For example, if a Caregiver is available anytime during the week, but won’t work weekends, you could simply type in “m-f”. The system would interpret that to be Monday 12a to Friday until midnight, and display “Mon – Fri”. To see more about shortcuts for entering times, see Entering Time Patterns.

Changing Availability from the Planner

A Caregiver’s availability is always clear to see any time they are entered on a Planner. In the next figure, you can see a single line from a Planner, showing one Caregiver’s availability during that week. The white areas indicate availability; the gray areas mean the Caregiver is not available during that time. To see how a Caregiver’s status and availability interacts with the Planner, see Possibly Available in the chapter on Scheduling.

Figure 31: A line from a Planner, showing a Caregiver’s availability

You can make specific changes to the Caregiver's availability right on the Planner. If you point to a place on the Caregiver's line (that is NOT on top of an existing Shift) and right-click, you will get an availability menu.

Figure 32: Menu of a Caregiver's availability.

The first two lines tell you the Caregiver's current availability for the day you clicked on, both when they are and when they are not available. Clicking on either of these lines will take you directly to the Caregiver's Availability & Status form.

Below that are two lines each for setting the availability for that day. To make them fully available on that day, click the line that says, for example, "Available Wed 2/18". If you want to specify times, click on the "for times..." line below that. To make them fully NOT available on that day, click the line that says, for example, "Not Available Wed 2/18". If you want to specify times, click on the "for times..." line below that.

Figure 33: Menu of a Caregiver's availability showing what each line means.

1 - Current availability. These two lines indicate the times that the Caregiver is Available and Not Available, respectively. Clicking either of these lines takes you right to the Caregiver's Availability & Status screen.

2 - Available all day. Clicking here will give them full availability for the day you clicked on.

3 - Unavailable all day. Clicking here will make them unavailable all day on the day you clicked. Especially useful when a Caregiver is asking for a day off.

4 - Set available for specific times. Clicking here will bring up a prompter where you can type in the specific times they are available.

5 - Set unavailable for specific times. Clicking here will bring up a prompter where you can type in the specific times they are NOT available that day.

Remember that times set on individual days like this do not change the ongoing availability. You can use the Availability menu to setup a Caregiver's availability, then make that the on-going availability by deleting the subsequent pattern in the Availability for Caregiver screen.

Caregiver Status

A Caregiver may have one of the following statuses: Active, Inquiry, Inactive, Discharged, Quit and Applicant. If you set the Status to be anything other than Active or Inquiry, any times that have been entered will be cleared.

A Caregiver’s Status can change over time. It is sometimes tempting to simply change the status of an existing entry, rather than adding a new one. However, it may be useful in the future to know the history of a Caregiver's Status & Availability. For example, it might help to know that a Caregiver who is complaining about not being given choice assignments has been extremely erratic in her availability in the past.

You also have the option of entering a Reason for the change of status. That way you can record why a Caregiver was fired, for example.

In a Caregiver List, the Caregivers Status as of today is used to determine how they will be displayed.

In a Planner, the Caregiver’s Status as of the week of the Planner is used.

Figure 34: Caregiver's Status showing reason for Discharge.

Inquiry and Applicant Caregivers

You can keep track of Caregivers who have not yet been hired by giving them a status of Inquiry. You can go ahead and enter times of availability, but they will not show up on any Planners until they have an Active status (unless the Include Inquiry option on the Planner is checked). Even if you do not enter an explicit Inquiry status, a Caregiver will have an effective status of Inquiry if you give them a future date for their first Active status.

When a potential caregiver fills out a job application using the Rosemark Web App, they are automatically entered into the system as a caregiver with a status of Applicant. By default they will have no availability and you will have to change their status to enter times of availability. The Applicant caregiver status is intended to make it easier for you to make hiring decisions by gathering all the information provided by potential caregivers in one place. This allows you to review and organize this information more effectively.