St. Paul, MN - The Great Minnesota Get-Together is spread over 320 acres and attracts over 1.5 million people throughout it’s 12 day run. Heat exhaustion, dehydration, slip and falls and even heart attacks can be expected at what is one of the countries biggest, and best attended, state fairs.
Scheduling a staff large enough to deal with the medical issues of the daily crowd, ranging from 100,000 to over 200,000 people, requires a pool of 71 personnel - including RN’s, paramedics and EMT’s. Creating and managing the schedule, which is made up of 24 - six hour shifts per day, is the responsibility of David Radatz, EMS Specialist, Regions Hospital EMS, St. Paul, Minnesota. “We use Aladtec, an online employee scheduling and workforce management system, to schedule and communicate with our medical crew. The scheduling component offers extreme flexibility for both the administrators and the staff and it’s a great system for making last minute changes to the schedule.”
Raditz explains that ongoing schedule changes tend to be frequent during the fair. People who have been scheduled for a particular shift often need to give up their shift or make a trade. “When a shift opens up, it’s easy for me to alert staff of an open shift and when a trade request is submitted, I can easily approve or deny it from my computer, laptop or phone. It’s just a one click process for the most part,” states Raditz.
The Aladtec system’s Schedule Configurator allows administrators to add shifts as needed, which is a necessity for any unforeseen issues that come up. “My manager called me the other day, in the morning, and said that we were going to need more EMT’s that evening because there was likely going to be a mosh pit during the Linkin Park concert. At that point we only had four EMT’s scheduled for the show, we needed to be up to six, so I had to add two slots. I simply went into our Aladtec system, picked the grandstand position, and added two EMT’s for the times that we needed them. I then sent out a fill request, and the shifts were picked up in short order,” shares Raditz. “It was actually really easy, and very efficient, to make the adjustment.”
Since Aladtec is an online system, it’s accessible at any time from anywhere via the Internet, which is particularly helpful when working at an event. “From my perspective the mobile aspect of the Aladtec system is really great. It gives me a chance to keep my thumb on the pulse of what’s going on with the schedule wherever I happen to be - whether I’m at my office, at home or at the fair. As an administrator, when I get schedule change requests, I can approve them immediately from my phone,” indicates Raditz. “As for the staff, the system allows them to put in shift trade requests right from their mobile device.”
Besides using Aladtec for scheduling, Raditz uses the Discussions section to communicate with his personnel at the fair. “We use the Discussions area to share pertinent information regarding various issues, such as parking and uniform policies. Any of those types of topics we like to incorporate into the Discussions section because it allows us to open up banter back and forth between the administrators and the staff,” Raditz adds. “All in all, with the flexibility that it offers, the Aladtec system is awesome for scheduling and managing staff at an event like the Minnesota State Fair.”
About Regions EMS: Regions Hospital EMS provides medical oversight for more than 35 ambulance services and EMS agencies in the Twin Cities East Metro area and Western Wisconsin. They employ more than 1,300 first responders, EMTs, paramedics and nurses to support the medical needs within the communities they serve.
About Aladtec: Aladtec is the proud provider of online employee scheduling and workforce management software. Well over 1200 organizations, from a variety of industries, count on Aladtec every day to help them save time and improve efficiency. For information about Aladtec’s affordable industry specific options, or to try a free trial, please visit www.aladtec.com.