Quickguide
SMI
Spiral Health
Staff.Care Manager Manual
V9 (17/04/17)
Software Medical Informatics Ltd
208 Queens Road
Beeston
Nottingham
NG9 2DB
Tel : 0115 922 9241
Email : [email protected]
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Contents
Managers configuration items ..................................................................... 2
Working on the current rota ....................................................................... 3
Change Shifts................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Agency staff............................................................................................................................................................... 4
Adding Leave ................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Sickness absence ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
‘Episode’ ................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Work Related ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
Add short-term Leave................................................................................................................................................ 5
Add long-term Leave ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Phased return............................................................................................................................................................ 6
Using Shift Colours ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Signing off the rota ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Autofill ...................................................................................................... 7
Running ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Preparation ............................................................................................................................................................... 7
Doing the run ............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Working with the outcome ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Fill options ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Fill priorities .......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Using staff hours ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Staff records .............................................................................................. 9
Changing details ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
Accessing staff records.................................................................................................................................................. 9
Events (Supervision etc) ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Reporting................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Updating Events ........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Managers configuration items
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Suggested configuration items to do on your own logon account in Unit -> Schedules (Wide)1. For each Unit (all of the
following settings will be retained after a Save). Click on the bold button at the bottom of the rota:

change Count settings as desired – suggested:

change Display settings as desired – suggested:

change Options settings as desired – suggested:
Note that the checkboxes on the left are designed not to Save – only the “Staff Sorting” section will Save.

in Rules check one or both of the Rules enabling options :
o click on “Apply On Save” (suggested)
o Apply
Working on the current rota
The current rota is the rota which covers today’s date and should be worked on in Day By Day -> Shift Control. The
kind of actions that you might do are:
1
note that only limited options are available in Units -> Schedules. If you cannot see Units -> Schedules (Wide) please contact
your Staff.Care administrator.
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Change Shifts
To do this:
 to add to a Shift that is already there:
o using contract hours2 - click on the Shift and then use the Z code (DZ normally) to put in the
extra hours
paying Overtime/Bank - click on the Shift and then click on the As Bank checkbox and use
the Z code (DZ normally) to put in the extra hours
to change the Shift that is already there:
o click on the Shift, click on Remove, click where the Shift was and then use the Z code (DZ
normally) to put in the extra hours
o

Agency staff
Agency staff should be added as follows:
 use the Options button (at the bottom of the rota) and check all of the checkboxes on the left then
Apply
 find either AgencyRN or AgencyHCA, as appropriate, and click on the day where you wish to
allocate a Shift
 click on ‘show more’
 click on the Shift Code as appropriate
 a new field will appear at the bottom of the screen where you can enter the actual name of the
Agency member of staff
Adding Leave
Sickness absence
‘Episode’
An episode is a series of back-to-back days of sickness. As such the following contains 4 episodes (as
these are not back-to-back):
Date
Original
Shifts
Time
Values
8
9
10
D
11
D
7.5
7.5
12
13
N
14
N
15
N
10
10
10
16
17
18
L
19
L
20
AL
7.5
7.5
7.5
21
22
E
23
E
24
E
7.5
7.5
7.5
25
26
27
The correct recording to make this a single episode would be by adding SL with 0 (zero) Time Value on the
days between the Shifts, as here:
Date
Leave
Code
Time
Values
2
8
9
10
SI
11
SI
12
SI
13
SI
14
SI
15
SI
16
SI
17
SI
18
SI
19
SI
20
SI
21
SI
22
SI
23
SI
24
SI
25
SI
26
SI
7.5
7.5
0
10
10
10
0
0
7.5
7.5
7.5
0
7.5
7.5
7.5
0
0
27
sometimes called Time Owing/Time Owed
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Work Related
When adding sickness absence using the methods below be aware of the ‘Work Related’ tab:
You should only turn this on for an episode of sickness absence if, for AfC staff, they are to be paid the ‘average’ of
their contract pay.
Add short-term Leave
To do this click either:
 on the Shift in question and then select ?->Leave and enter the type of Leave (Planned or
Unplanned)
 on the Shift in question and Remove. Then click where the Shift used to be, click “Show Full” and
then use the Planned or Unplanned tab
As above remember to ensure that you have added 0 (zero) Time Value SL days between any Shifts.
A more complete approach could be to, in Day By Day –> Shift Control:
a) remove any Annual Leave during this period (this will return the time to the AL Balance). The
easiest way to do this is to use the (+) tool next to the member of staffs name and then put a “-“
under the relevant cells and then click on the green tick button;
b) if the first date of sickness is before the first shift then:
o click on the first day of sickness – if the list of shifts comes up click on “Show Full”
o go to Unplanned Leaves then the SI Code and enter the correct Subcode and the Time
Value as 0
o
change the Date Range To field to the day before the first shift
c) click on each Shift during the episode:
o do ?->Leave and click on Unplanned Leaves then the SI Code and enter the Subcode
(reason)
d) in the period(s) between shifts:
o follow the guidance in (b) above
e) if the final date of sickness is after the last shift then:
o follow the guidance in (b) above
Add long-term Leave
The suggested method for this is to:
 use Day By Day -> Shift Control
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

remove any Shift(s) in question – this is easily done by click on the yellow (+) next to the name of
the member of staff and then entering “-“ (subtract/minus key) under all of the Shifts and then
clicking the green tick button
for every week:
o click on the area for Monday, click “Show Full” and then change to the Unplanned tab and
then click on the Leave Reason and enter the Time Value as the whole weeks’ contract
hours e.g. 37:30
o click on the Tuesday, click “Show Full” and then change to the Unplanned tab and then click
on the Leave Reason and enter the Time Value as 0 and change the End Date to the Sunday
of that week
As above remember to ensure that you have added 0 (zero) Time Value SL days between any Shifts.
Phased return
Is normally done by adding the non-worked time using Leave Code AA (Authorised Absence) every week for the time
that is not being worked.
Using Shift Colours
The main Shift Colour in use is to indicate the Shift Leader / Nurse in Charge. To do this:
 when the Shift is already there – click on the Shift, click Edit, drop-down the list of Shift Colours
at the bottom of the screen and then Apply
 on adding a new Shift – click where the Shift is to be added, click on Show Full if appropriate, at
the bottom of the screen drop-down the list of Shift Colours then click on the Shift Code in question
Signing off the rota
In order to sign off the rota:
 use Day By Day -> Shift Control
 load the rota that you wish to sign off
 click on the “C” button for the day you wish to sign off up to3
 Save the rota and accept the warning message
You should do this for up to the end of each calendar month by around the end of the first week of the following
month.
3
if there is no “C” button at the bottom there might be days on the previous rota which still need signing off
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Autofill
Running
Preparation
You may wish to:
 allocate Shifts to the following staff:
o Night Shifts for some staff?
o Shift Leaders Shifts / allocate clinical manager Shifts (so that these Qual staff hours are near
0 and therefore they aren’t used)
o use the hours for any staff on specific arrangements (return to work, maternity return etc)
so that their hours are around 0
o if staff have AL towards the end of the rota period then you may wish to allocate Shifts
 ensure that staff are starting with the correct ‘rolling contract hours’ i.e. they are not carrying/losing
too many TOIL hours – you may wish to review the rolling hours at the end of the previous rota to
make sure that these look correct
 ensure that AL in Approved (doesn’t affect the Autofill though)
 ensure that the following are added (these are around when staff cannot work i.e. Flexible Working
Policy etc):
o Time Off Patterns
o Unavailability
 check the Rules – see above for how to do this – if you wish to remove a Rule then:
o click Rules at the bottom of the screen
o uncheck the Rule(s) in question as well as the “Apply all Rules” checkbox
Doing the run
To run the Autofill:
 load Units – Schedules (Wide)
 you may wish to click on Rules and uncheck Rule(s) in order to improve the fill rate
 click on Fill at the bottom and select the following options:

click on FILL (at the bottom)
Working with the outcome
The Autofill will run and allocate shifts according to the Needs – it will always respect the Need requirements (Bands,
Skills etc). Once it is done you may wish to:
 disregard the Autofill output – you can click on the UNDO button (or press ‘go’ at the top-right and
then Cancel)
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


Save the rota (accept the Autofill) – click the Save button at the bottom of the rota
change the shifts – as per your usual rostering processes
allocate a Shift (ignoring the Need requirement) – you can allocate any Shift to any member of
staff and it will show:
o in the Count (at the bottom of the rota) as being filled (green/other)
o in the Rota Needs screen (click on the day of the month i.e. 8) at the top of the rota – the
Need will still show as unmet
After the Autofill you are likely to be entering a few Shifts manually. Not that a useful function allows you to fill a day
at a time. To do this:
 for the day in question click on the “2” directly below the day name of the week:

in this screen you can use the “autofill for current day” option:
Fill options
Fill priorities
Needs/Autofill priorities which govern the order that Shifts are allocated allocate:
 most staff to all Shifts
 then fills the remaining Needs:
o weekends first
o weekdays
Using staff hours
The Autofill will not exceed staff’s contracted hours i.e. it won’t push staff hours into negative figures. This can be
overridden by clicking on Options before the run and checking the bottom-left option (Allow Negative Time Balance).
This will still use staff hours fairly but may push them over their contracted hours in order to complete the Fill.
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Staff records
Changing details
Staff detailed must still be changed using the Change of Details form.
Accessing staff records



logon to Staff.Care
go to Staff -> Staff Maintenance
find the member of staff
Events (Supervision etc)
Reporting
You will receive regular Reports by email which will contain staff who are expiring in a range of Events such as
Appraisals, Supervision etc.
Updating Events
Follow the instructions above then:
 click on the Events tab
 scroll down to find the Event i.e. Appraisal
 edit the existing Event (Appraisal etc) entry by changing the Start and End Dates
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