Locum’s Nest announce new partnership with Rotageek

Accelerator alumnus, Locum’s Nest announce a new partnership designed to improve staffing across the whole of the NHS with Rotageek (which provides advanced rostering solutions).

The two platforms’ combined technology will allow NHS hospitals to build compliant rosters in just a few clicks, broadcast vacancies across the Locum’s Nest network, and then seamlessly allocate shifts directly onto the roster – freeing time for overstretched hospital administrative staff.

The first NHS Trust to use the integrated service is set to go live in the coming weeks with the live integration between the two software companies thought to be the first to reach the healthcare industry following a period of rapid innovation during COVID-19.

It is well-documented that the healthcare industry can suffer from understaffing and a high level of admin, this partnership tackles both issues directly. Locum’s Nest is leveraging its extensive network of over 30,000 healthcare professionals to help hospitals boost their contingent workforce and Rotageek is employing state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to efficiently roster even the most complex of organisations. A truly innovative solution.

Rotageek’s founder, Chris McCullough, and Locum’s Nest founders, Nicholas Andreou and Ahmed Shahrabani are all former clinicians who share the same mission: to help the NHS optimise its patient care through effective workforce management.

The vast experience from both companies, respectively in demand-optimisation with large enterprise retail, transportation (Rotageek) and healthcare organisations’ flexible workforce management (Locum’s Nest), meant it was a natural evolution to combine forces in a partnership that now synergistically brings their cutting-edge technologies to healthcare. Additionally, Rotageek and Locum’s Nest already work with a number of healthcare organisations across the UK and had both been offering their platform for free to platforms during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Chris McCullough, CEO of Rotageek, said, “It’s our mission to create a step-change in rostering to improve not only how businesses and organisations run their operations but to also positively and significantly impact the lives of shift-based workers. As a [former] doctor, I am particularly passionate about taking those benefits to the healthcare sector with as much success as we have achieved in the retail sector and Locum’s Nest are a perfect partner who shares our vision exactly.”

Both platforms are constantly developing new digital tools to respond to the evolving needs of front line colleagues in the NHS. Rotageek is currently working on a project with the NICU at St Thomas’ Hospital in London to apply the machine learning algorithm to schedule Junior Doctors over multiple months and ensure they adhere to staffing requirements, the safe-working rules and individual working patterns, preferences, leave and any other organisation rules.

Locum’s Nest Co-founder Nicholas Andreou says, “Our new partnership with Rotageek is designed to improve staffing across the whole of the NHS through interoperability innovation. Our combined technologies allow healthcare organisations to build compliant rosters in just a few clicks, broadcast vacancies across the Locum’s Nest network, and then seamlessly allocate shifts directly onto the roster.

“The ethos around collaboration and interoperability of systems is a vision I know we share with the DigitalHealth.London, whose work supports the pioneering of digital innovations by bringing together providers, experts and innovators to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our NHS. It is well-documented that the healthcare industry can suffer from understaffing and a high level of admin; our unique partnership tackles both issues directly.

“Through the continued support of Locum’s Nest from DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme, we hope that this will be the first of many partnerships we can implement to support healthcare professionals across our NHS.”

Last month Locum’s Nest launched its new Workforce Intelligence Navigator (WIN) analytics tool, which allows Trusts up and down the country to better predict their workforce needs enabling them to have the appropriate clinical cover in place when required. The platform triangulates Locum’s Nest user data with government released COVID-19 cases across the UK, and publicly available ICU data, therefore effectively matching demand with supply – a critical need during such a pandemic scenario.