Creating transparency with digital time tracking

Medical practices suffer from paperwork chaos

Thomas Mersmann runs a dental practice in the Münsterland region, offers treatment for the whole family and is supported by nine dental assistants. He and his team have specialised in modern treatment methods and advanced equipment in order to offer patients 21st-century dentistry.

Medical practices today are weighed down by a great deal of bureaucracy, Mersmann says. A lot of data and information has to be managed – and all of it in line with data protection rules.

"There is so much information that can only really be handled with software: patient data, daily schedules, accounting, bookkeeping, quality management … all of that really only works with good software."

In his view, that can only be done simply and efficiently with proper digitalization. For him, working time tracking is one part of that digitalization process.

Time tracking was previously all but non-existent

Of course overtime was recorded at the Mersmann dental practice before as well. But it was cumbersome and neither effective nor transparent: with the good old note pad and biro. Staff would come to Mersmann when they wanted to take the hours back, and then entered it by hand in the calendar. No digital tools were used in this process.

"You hear the same from other medical practices," Mersmann reports. "Notes get written, every few months they are handed to one member of staff, who then every few months passes them on to the boss. Too much gets lost along the way. And that can't be right, nobody wants that, neither my staff nor I."

Digital processes established with ease

Thomas Mersmann came across clockin through a report on the German public broadcaster WDR. "Rolling out the app was actually relatively simple": he familiarised himself with the interface using the support routes clockin offers him. YouTube videos explained how to set his staff up in the software, and for tricky matters he calls support or uses the chat function on the website. That way he was able to roll clockin out effectively in a very short time.

He recruited two members of staff to test the app with him. That made establishing it across the whole team easier in the next step, and he got direct feedback from another perspective.

The plan is to get the paperwork chaos out of the office and have more time for patients, the business and the family. "As a dentist I try to keep everything in one place. Namely in my office, with software I can access from my PC here in the practice, but also from home," says Mersmann.

A solution not just for the boss

For Thomas Mersmann and his team, clockin primarily solves the problem of correct time tracking. His staff clock in when they arrive for work in the morning and clock out again for the lunch break and at the end of the shift. Correct recording matters a great deal to Thomas Mersmann: "In a dental practice we never work to the exact minute. Someone always ends up working five minutes into the lunch break. And that simply has to be recorded so that everything runs correctly."

All staff have access to their data through the app. That not only brings order to the enormous bureaucracy, it also creates transparency, because there is always room for corrections or questions. It is easy to use, nothing has to be organised with spreadsheets or slips of paper any more, and the processes are clear.

When it comes to emergency cover at the weekend in particular, clockin takes a fair amount of stress off the team: "The shifts fall in the middle of the night, or in the morning, in the evening, on Saturday, Sunday – we can record all of that beautifully with the app."

More time for what matters thanks to digital time tracking

The app is also very helpful for him as the boss. With one click he has every overview of his staff's working hours, overtime and negative hours in front of him. If someone has a question about their working hours, he can look them up and correct them with a few clicks. Sick leave notifications can be submitted via the app and approved by him in moments.

The vacation function is important in his industry too. Especially where there is a large practice management team. Vacation requests can be submitted digitally and processed digitally as well.

In future Thomas Mersmann also wants to hand over payroll accounting entirely with the help of clockin. That saves him a good deal of time while also letting him access important information much faster than before. With the DATEV integration his entire HR management now runs digitally and he can do without ring binders.

"Thanks to clockin I now have more time for my core work, my team and my family," says Mersmann. "In my opinion an app like clockin simply belongs in every modern medical practice. Not only to keep up with the times, but also to stay attractive to younger employees."

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