In the fast-paced world of healthcare delivery, efficient workforce management is not just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Enter the platform Smart Square, and more specifically its implementation at ThedaCare—often referred to as the ThedaCare Smart Square system. By leveraging intelligent scheduling, analytics and automation, this system is helping care organisations optimise staffing, improve employee experience and ultimately support better patient care. In this article, we’ll explore how ThedaCare Smart Square works, the benefits it offers in a healthcare setting, key features that stakeholders appreciate, and what organisations should consider when adopting such a platform.
Understanding the Platform and the Organisation
Before diving into the details of the scheduling system, it’s worth placing it within the context of the healthcare provider using it.
ThedaCare is a nonprofit health system based in Northeast Wisconsin. It comprises multiple hospitals, clinics and care-services, all aiming to serve community health with integrated care and innovation. As the organisation has grown and merged (for example, a combination agreement with Froedtert Health effective January 1, 2024), it has emphasised scale, coordination and workforce efficiency.
On the technology side, Smart Square is a workforce-management and scheduling software tailored for healthcare systems. It offers features like predictive staffing, open shift management, integration with HR/time systems, mobile access for staff, and robust analytics. When ThedaCare deploys it, the solution becomes what many refer to as the ThedaCare Smart Square implementation.
Why Workforce Scheduling Matters in Healthcare
Healthcare staffing is unique. You’re dealing with shift work, variable patient volumes, regulatory compliance (over-time, licensing, credentialing), employee fatigue, and the need to match skills with patient needs. Manual scheduling or legacy tools often struggle to keep up, leading to inefficiencies, employee dissatisfaction, gaps in coverage, or excess labour cost.
ThedaCare’s adoption of Smart Square reflects a recognition that better tools are needed. Indeed, with the system in place, organisations like ThedaCare can:
Anticipate demand and align staff accordingly, rather than purely reacting.
Give employees more visibility and flexibility around shifts, which supports retention and engagement.
Capture accurate time/attendance and labour data automatically, reducing administrative overhead.
Achieve better compliance with labour laws and hospital policies.
Free up leadership to focus on care delivery rather than firefighting staffing issues.
In short, the ThedaCare Smart Square initiative is as much about organisational culture and operational resilience as it is about technology.
Key Features of ThedaCare Smart Square Implementation
Here are some of the standout capabilities and how they translate into real-world value:
1. Automated Scheduling and Shift Management
Smart Square supports automated schedule generation, taking into account staff availability, skill sets, certifications, and preferences. This reduces manual schedule building and lowers errors. Also, features like open-shift posting and trading shifts allow more agility when unexpected absences or demand surges occur.
2. Mobile Access & Employee Self-Service
For many healthcare workers, being able to view schedules, swap shifts, request time off or see up-to-date alerts on a mobile device is transformative. ThedaCare’s use of the platform puts schedule transparency into employees’ hands, increasing their sense of control and reducing last-minute changes.
3. Time & Attendance Integration
Tracking clock-in/clock-out times, break compliance, overtime and leave has historically been separate or semi-manual. With Smart Square, ThedaCare users report streamlined labour data collection, better payroll accuracy and fewer manual reconciliations.
4. Predictive Analytics & Reporting
One of the more advanced aspects is being able to forecast staffing needs (for example, 60 days ahead) and identify labour gaps proactively. This allows ThedaCare leadership to set staffing plans, manage costs and model scenarios rather than being caught off guard.
5. Compliance and Regulatory Support
Healthcare staffing must align with licences, accreditation standards, overtime/labour laws and credentialing requirements. The system supports rules enforcement and helps ensure that shifts are staffed by appropriately qualified staff, which is particularly important for ThedaCare given its breadth of services.
Benefits Delivered by the ThedaCare Smart Square Roll-Out
Based on both the system’s capabilities and what organisations like ThedaCare report, here are some of the major benefits:
Improved Staff Experience & Engagement: Allowing staff to view schedules early, swap shifts and manage their working patterns fosters autonomy and can reduce burnout.
Reduced Scheduling Conflicts and Gaps: By automating much of the process and giving transparency, fewer last-minute staffing holes, improved coverage and better patient-care continuity.
Cost Efficiency: Better alignment of staff to demand reduces over-staffing, overtime costs, and unplanned labour expense.
Operational Agility: With predictive planning and mobile tools, leadership can respond to changing conditions (e.g., surge in demand) faster.
Stronger Compliance: The system helps maintain regulatory adherence and ensures credentialed staff are used appropriately, reducing risk for the organisation.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Leadership gets access to labour data, scheduling statistics, time trends and staffing analytics rather than relying on fragmented spreadsheets or manual trackers.
These enhancements reflect why many healthcare providers are turning to advanced scheduling platforms—and why the ThedaCare Smart Square implementation is worth studying.
Considerations & Best Practices for Implementation
Deploying a system like Smart Square in a large network (as ThedaCare has) is not without challenges. Based on deployment insights and industry practice, here are key considerations:
Change Management & Stakeholder Buy-in: Staff resistance is common when scheduling systems change. Ensuring transparent communication, training, and early engagement helps.
Data Quality: Accurate input of staff credentials, availability, shift rules and patient-demand data is critical. Garbage in = garbage out.
Integration with HR/Payroll/EMR: For maximum value, scheduling data should connect with time-keeping, payroll and electronic medical records. ThedaCare’s version emphasises integrated systems.
Mobile Enablement: Since many healthcare workers are mobile, ensuring the scheduling system works smoothly on mobile platforms and that staff usage is encouraged is key.
Flexibility and Rule Customisation: Scheduling systems must reflect the specific rules and nuances of each department—ICU, OR, outpatient, etc. ThedaCare’s setup reportedly supports variable incentive programmes and open-shift management.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: The initial roll-out is just the beginning. Monitoring metrics (e.g., shift-fill rate, overtime usage, staff satisfaction) and optimising over time ensures the system remains aligned with organisational goals.
By taking these into account, healthcare systems can maximise the return on investment when implementing platforms like the ThedaCare Smart Square.
Future Outlook & Strategic Value
Looking ahead, tools like Smart Square are increasingly important in healthcare because of evolving demand dynamics—rising patient volumes, shortage of qualified staff, increased regulatory scrutiny and the imperative for cost-control. For ThedaCare, the platform is part of a broader strategy to become more predictive, preventive and value-driven—aligning with their organisational mission of promoting community health.
Moreover, as ThedaCare continues its integration with larger systems (such as Froedtert), workforce management platforms will play a critical role in supporting scale and operational efficiency across geographies and service-lines.
From a strategic perspective, the ability to optimise labour is no longer just a back-office support function—it’s a competitive advantage. Systems that can respond in near real-time to patient-demand shifts, manage staffing cost effectively, and improve worker satisfaction will define high-performing healthcare organisations in the coming years.
Conclusion
The implementation of the ThedaCare Smart Square scheduling and workforce-management system illustrates how healthcare providers can leverage technology to transform operations, empower staff and deliver better care. By combining features such as automated scheduling, mobile employee access, analytics and integrated compliance support, ThedaCare makes strides in aligning staff to patient need, reducing waste, and improving staff experience.
For any healthcare organisation considering a similar move, the key take-aways are: prioritise data quality, ensure stakeholder engagement, integrate systems, monitor metrics, and build flexibility into the solution. ThedaCare’s experience shows that when done well, a scheduling platform becomes foundational, not peripheral.
In an era where labour cost, staff satisfaction and patient outcomes all hinge on efficient operations, ThedaCare Smart Square stands as a valuable example of how workforce management can be elevated—and anchored in strategic organisational goals.
