Manage Staffing

📚 Table of Contents

• Overview
• View Staffing by Role
• Assign Staff by Room or Case
• Predict Staffing Needs
• FAQs

Overview

Coordinating OR staffing throughout the day requires constant visibility into who is assigned where — and how that changes as cases progress to keep rooms running smoothly.

Staff are color-coded by role, making it easy to quickly understand coverage across rooms. You can view staffing by room or by case and make updates directly within Schedule view. These enhancements are especially valuable when Apella is displayed on a central hallway monitor or touchscreen, giving the entire team a shared, up-to-date view of who is assigned where.

View Staffing by Role

Staffing originally assigned within the EHR can be viewed directly within Apella’s Schedule view.

Staffing by Room

Staffing can be viewed by room, making it easy to quickly scan which rooms are fully staffed, where assignments may be missing, and how coverage changes throughout the day.

In Schedule view, each OR room appears as a row. For each room, you will see the staff assigned to the current case or the next case (if the room is in turnover).

• Different staff roles are color-coded and grouped by role for easy visual reference.

• You can collapse or expand the staffing section to view full staffing details.

Staffing by Case

Staffing can also be reviewed at the case level. This is particularly helpful when coverage differs between first-start and later cases or staff rotate mid-day.

You can access in two ways:

• Toggle between cases in the same room to view how staffing changes between cases

• Or click directly on a case to open a details blade and view staffing information for that specific case.

Assign Staff by Room or Case

On the day before or the morning of, you may want to plan how to staff your rooms within Apella. Apella allows you to update staffing directly within Schedule view.

To assign or modify staff:

Click on the blue room name to open the room details blade. Navigate to the Staff section.

To add staff:

• Search and select staff members from the role drop-down menu.
• Select Update selected cases. The newly assigned staff will immediately appear in Schedule view.

To add additional roles:

• Select Add Role
• Choose the appropriate role from the drop-down.
• If you want the assignment to apply only to certain cases, check or uncheck the cases you would like the change to apply to.

📲 If staff are assigned to a case and subscribed to Apella notifications, they can receive notifications about their room assignment.

⚠️ Note: Staffing updates made in Apella will not automatically update back to your EHR

Predict Staffing Needs

Apella can also help you validate if how much staff you need by role and hour of the day. Within Schedule view, click Staff management in the top right corner.

The Staff management page automatically calculates hourly staffing recommendations based on your organization's staffing ratios and Apella's predicted schedule for how many rooms will be running per hour.

Adjust Staff Ratios

To use this feature, you must first set your staffing assumptions.

1. Click Staff management.
2. Within the Staff Management page, select the gear icon under each staff role.
3. A configuration window will open on the right side of your screen.
4. Enter the number of staff members required per room for that role.
5. Estimates will update automatically—even while the window remains open.
6. Click the “X” to close the window and return to the full view.

⚠️ Important: Editing staffing ratios updates them for your entire organization. Make changes carefully and ensure alignment with your perioperative leadership team.

FAQs

Are staffing colors by role customizable?

Not at this time. If this is important to your team, please share feedback with your Apella CSM.

Can I hide the staffing section?

Yes.

• Select X to hide staffing.
• Select the people icon to reopen.
• Select the expand icon to fully open the case by case staffing view.