Enterprise Physician Scheduling 2021
Who Delivers Best For Enterprise Customers?

For True Enterprise Scheduling, QGenda Advanced Scheduling and Lightning Bolt Are the Most Proven

For organizations to realize the full potential of enterprise physician scheduling, they must use their solution across multiple departments and facilities. QGenda Advanced Scheduling and Lightning Bolt have demonstrated the ability to scale in this way. QGenda offers two primary physician scheduling solutions: Advanced Scheduling and Shift Admin (recently acquired; detailed later in report). Advanced Scheduling has the largest market share and some of the broadest deployments, most often used in very large organizations and academic medical centers. Adoption is deep for anesthesiology, family medicine, radiology, and surgery and is notably above average for ICU and OB/GYN, where adoption is typically lower. Broad deployment is supported by the system’s rules engine—described as complex enough to handle breadth of deployment—and QGenda’s deep knowledge of scheduling. Lightning Bolt, a PerfectServe Company, has grown in recent years and proven their ability to scale across departments—KLAS has validated them in large organizations, and respondents report particularly deep deployment in EDs, hospital medicine, and pediatrics. This breadth is supported by the following factors: front-to-back scheduling across inpatient and outpatient settings, solid scheduling templates that help customers succeed quickly, willingness to integrate with other third-party systems (e.g., timekeeping and payroll), and baked-in service agreements with customers that drive ongoing communication and effective customization.

Lightning Bolt Drives Broad Outcomes Most Consistently

Across all measured outcomes, Lightning Bolt customers report the most positive impact—most notably in scheduling transparency and physician satisfaction. The system’s high flexibility enables effective configuration for organizations’ goals. Respondents also praise Lightning Bolt for the simplicity of their solution, allowing all relevant parties to easily access and navigate schedules. Lightning Bolt also has the highest percentage of respondents say the solution has a very positive impact on physician satisfaction; often physicians receive fewer wrong calls because of highly accurate scheduling data. For other vendors, the biggest opportunities for outcomes improvement are physician satisfaction and data management. For UKG (Kronos) customers, the biggest user experience gains are seen by those doing the scheduling, not necessarily the physician users, who appreciate access to their schedules but report no additional experience benefits. In some instances, lower physician adoption also impacts potential benefits. QGenda Advanced Scheduling physician users like easy access to updated schedules; customers would like more change management support from QGenda to foster better physician understanding and use of the solution. Data management is an opportunity for both Advanced Scheduling and Shift Admin. Shift Admin customers say they would be able to make more gains in data management if they had better integration with payroll and thus had to do less data manipulation. Advanced Scheduling respondents say the ability to track scheduling information is a benefit; however, the full value of data management is limited by lower overall usability—only a limited number of individuals can access and use available tracking data. These customers would also like more guidance on how to use the data they gather.

More Complex Deployments Result in Greater Difficulty with Reporting & Dashboards

UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group, formerly Kronos) has fewer true enterprise deployments than competitors, and those KLAS has validated cover fewer departments and facilities. Enterprise customers feel their deployments are aided by the simplicity of Kronos’ reports and dashboards; these tools provide valuable insights that drive outcomes like efficiency and data management, and they are user friendly and easy to navigate, requiring little help from UKG. For more complex deployments, the system is not seen as robust enough to meet customers’ needs. QGenda Shift Admin customers, whose deployments are broader but somewhat shallow, heavily involve Shift Admin to get reporting and dashboards functioning well. Customers report the vendor is responsive, willing to help, and quick to turn changes around. QGenda Advanced Scheduling customers, who have done some of the broadest and deepest deployments in the market, feel that while reporting and dashboards are highly functional, gleaning insights is difficult because of the system’s complexity. Understanding the data requires deep knowledge of both the system itself, which is not always intuitive, and its underlying rules and methodology. Customers who receive thorough training are more likely to gain value from reports and dashboards. Organizations that purchased QGenda’s add-on analytics package see more outcomes, though they are frustrated by the extra cost.

Most Vendors Seen as Partners; UKG (Kronos) Less Consistent

Lightning Bolt and QGenda (both products) are generally perceived as effective enterprise partners. All QGenda Shift Admin respondents call the vendor a strong partner; most specifically point to the vendor’s responsiveness and willingness to make customer-requested customizations. The vendor is also praised for meeting customers’ needs as they grow—adding new modules, departments, and facilities based on organization readiness. The reputation of Lightning Bolt as a partner is driven in large part by their all-inclusive sales approach. While the solution is seen as somewhat expensive, the cost covers the implementation, training, support, and development hours required for customer success. QGenda, whose Advanced Scheduling solution is the most widely deployed in the enterprise market, shares their deep knowledge and understanding to the benefit of large, complex customers with large deployments. Respondents also say QGenda listens to customer needs and incorporates suggestions into their development road map. Customer perception of UKG (Kronos) as a partner is varied. Some provider organizations have had a lot of strategic communication with UKG and see them as a trusted advisor who understands the market. Others feel their relationship with UKG is more transactional; for example, one customer feels UKG isn’t aligned with their organization’s goals. These customers want UKG to more proactively work to understand their needs and then provide more ongoing guidance.

Vendor Bottom Lines

Non-Enterprise Physician Scheduling

This report focuses specifically on physician scheduling solutions used to build schedules, not just view them, in an enterprise context (i.e., across multiple departments). To see performance data for all physician scheduling vendors, including those used in non-enterprise deployments, visit the KLAS website.