Greenville County Emergency Medical Services was established as a county operated third service in 1975. Initially, it began operations with 6 van type ambulances and approximately 40 employees. The field staff was organized into 3 platoons that worked a 24/48-work schedule. Currently, GCEMS employs 167 full-time (admin, field staff, and communications) personnel and 70 part-time employees. The field staff is divided into 4 platoons working 12-hour shifts. There are 2 platoons that work day shifts and 2 that work night shifts. The work schedule is a 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off rotation. A Lieutenant commands each shift and there are 3 Sergeants who act as assistant shift commanders. GCEMS administrative personnel work normal office hours Monday through Friday. GCEMS staffs 14 ambulances, 3 rescue units and 5 quick response vehicles. In addition, the department provides specialty teams in the following areas; technical rescue (rope, confined space, trench), hazmat (tox medic support), tactical medics, water rescue (swiftwater and dive), helicopter rescue and critical incident stress management. GCEMS responded to over 50,000 calls during 2004.

Greenville EMS utilized a paper based scheduling system from its inception until 2001. Each shift had a designated scheduling officer, usually a Sergeant, who handled the entire daily scheduling needs. These Scheduling Officers were the collection point for leave requests, part-time employee availability, and making station assignments. In addition, the Sergeant also staffed a quick response vehicle and was frequently out of the station on calls when there were scheduling issues to resolve. The paper scheduling system had a number of flaws; some examples of them being, lost paperwork, missed communications, difficulty contacting full or part time employees with shift opportunities and was very manpower intensive. There was an inordinate amount of time devoted to working with the daily shift rosters. During a 12-hour day shift, it was not uncommon to spend the entire shift working only on the scheduling requirements when not responding to calls. This left little time for the Sergeant’s other administrative and supervisory responsibilities. This type of scheduling system also precluded having an effective data management system with regard to manpower utilization and associated costs.

GCEMS began researching computerized scheduling software during the spring of 2000. One company, PDSI, was identified as having a product, Telestaff, which could potentially meet the needs of GCEMS. PDSI was contacted and a list of references was provided. Demonstration software was obtained and evaluated. The PDSI sales staff conducted several on-line demonstrations and one on-site demonstration was held. After many hours of discussion, it was decided to move ahead with the purchase of the Telestaff scheduling software. This purchase was completed in September of 2000. The initial training on the software was held in October 2000. Following this 3-day training session, work began on drafting the configuration information and data that would be specific to GCEMS’ needs. Configuration was conducted in January 2001 and the result was a basic configured software system.

GCEMS went live with Telestaff on March 5, 2001. Since that time, we have been very pleased with the performance of this software system. It dramatically reduced the daily man-hours devoted to scheduling. Automated scripts are used heavily to automate as much of the scheduling process as possible. This change from manual scheduling allows the supervisors of each shift more productive time to assist with call-volume, supervise staff, and complete other necessary administrative functions. The administrative staff benefited tremendously from Telestaff as well. Prior to Telestaff, all payroll data had to be manually entered into the county’s payroll system. This was a task that took 3-4 hours on average. Since 2003, the payroll data from Telestaff has been exported directly into the payroll system. The time required to complete this task has been reduced by approximately 70%. Another benefit to the administrative staff is the ability to generate detailed reports regarding the scheduling operations of the department. This includes charts of overtime (full and part-time employees), leave hours utilized, part-time employee usage, and regularly scheduled hours. Telestaff also allows for limits or restrictions to be placed regarding the use of employee leave time.

Telestaff has been a winning proposition for Greenville County EMS. The complaints associated with a paper scheduling system have disappeared. Employees are assured that overtime opportunities will be distributed fairly without regard to favoritism. The time required for daily scheduling duties has been reduced dramatically. This system has enabled GCEMS to become more cost effective and more efficient in managing its staff. The most telling recommendation that might be noted is that the first year savings in overtime costs alone more than paid for its acquisition.

This case study was provided by John Stokes, Sergeant, Greenville County Emergency Medical Service.

Please contact an Account Executive at 1-800-850-7374 for additional information about TeleStaff for EMS agencies.