At Clipboard, we are creating a marketplace that benefits healthcare professionals, facilities and the patients they serve. As we’ve learned more about the needs of all of our users, we have put in place terms that help ensure the best possible experience for everyone on the marketplace. One example is our terms relating to shift cancellations. We sat down with Bo Lu, our Chief Operating Officer to learn more about these terms and why they exist!

Q: Can you explain how Clipboard’s platform works? As a marketplace, what do you feel your role is in helping both healthcare professionals and facilities achieve success?

Clipboard is a marketplace that enables healthcare facilities who have staffing needs to connect with healthcare professionals in their community in order to provide patients with better care.

Healthcare facilities can go onto the Clipboard app and post open shifts. This might mean they need two more RNs for a shift tomorrow morning or that there are two shifts open for CNAs in a week. These shifts then become available for healthcare professionals to book.

Healthcare professionals use our app to find shifts nearby that meet their preferences and needs.

Once a professional works a shift, the healthcare facility acknowledges that within our app, and we can then instantly send payment to the professional.

In order to maintain the quality of our marketplace–and ultimately enable healthcare professionals and facilities to provide quality care for patients in-need–healthcare providers and healthcare facilities can provide feedback on each other.

Q: Can you explain the rationale for the Attendance Score feature that applies to healthcare professionals (like nurses)? Why are points deducted from a professional’s score when they cancel a booked shift? Sometimes cancellations can’t be predicted ahead of time–if I am sick, I typically don’t know 48 hours in advance.

Attendance Score is just one example of our continual efforts to balance the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities. And we know that we don’t always get this balance perfect, so we’re always thinking about how we can improve, and making adjustments.

We have cancellation terms in part to create a reliable marketplace for facilities so they can ensure the best care for their patients. When a healthcare professional cancels a booked shift or“no call, no show,” the healthcare facility often has to scramble. It’s not just the facility administrators that suffer; it also becomes harder for the facility to provide quality care to patients. And other professionals working at that facility feel the effects, too.

The Attendance Score feature we created uses a point system that’s capped at 100 points.Points get deducted for cancellations of booked shifts, with more points getting deducted as the cancellation gets closer to the shift’s start time. We understand that things come up and life happens, which is why every healthcare professional starts with 100 points, and can add points(up to the 100-point maximum) by completing their booked shifts and arriving on-time.

Q: Do healthcare facilities using Clipboard’s marketplace face consequences when they cancel shifts?

If a facility cancels at the last minute, in most cases we charge them a fee. In turn, we facilitate a payment to the healthcare professional who booked that shift and had planned on working that shift.

Q: Ultimately, how do you think you will continue to improve the experience for those using Clipboard?

Several studies have concluded that healthcare provider staffing ratios have a clear impact on patient outcomes. Unfortunately, healthcare facilities are struggling to bring in enough professionals to care for patients. This is why an important goal of our marketplace is to help healthcare facilities fully meet their staffing needs to provide the best care for their patients.