Spitex Glattal: This is how task management works in the care sector

About Spitex Glattal

Spitex Glattal supports people of all ages who need help and care at home due to illness, accident, disability, birth and postpartum, or psychological and social reasons. The association is an amalgamation of the Swiss municipalities of Dietlikon, Wallisellen, and Wangen-Büttisellen, which merged their respective Spitex services in 2013 to meet the challenges of care. Today, the website counts more than 175,000 online patient registrations. Together with the nursing and care staff, the individual project teams and departments, such as HR, accounting, and IT, form the approximately 85-strong team.

The initial situation

To this day, the care teams at Spitex Glattal have been using an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system which has given them the best possible support for their care services. In areas such as human resources, IT, or administration, the initial situation was somewhat different: Tasks here were communicated cumbersomely by email or between doors. A clear overview was missing and open tasks had to be searched for in full mailboxes or meeting protocols. Especially for project teams and department heads, the necessary organization did not exist at that time, says Albulena Mehmeti, IT manager at Spitex Glattal.

Initially, her predecessor Hans Ruedi Menzi had tried to solve this challenge with various Microsoft apps: OneNote with templates linked to Outlook tasks, Excel lists for rough planning, and numerous other approaches. However, he quickly realized this approach was far too time-consuming and completely unusable for collaboration with another person, let alone an entire team. A collaboration tool was therefore needed that would allow any number of people to work together productively and that could be used to manage tasks in a targeted manner. Furthermore, the software needed to be hosted safely and securely on a server in Switzerland or the EU.

Why Stackfield?

While searching for a suitable tool, Menzi, the former IT manager, tested his way through several providers: Open source software with its own hosting, and software as a service (SaaS) offerings from the U.S. and Germany. Right from the start, he was convinced by Stackfield: In his view, the software was unbeatable in terms of simplicity, clarity, sensible integrations, and data security.

"He tested the tool beforehand and was impressed straight away. The fact you were able to communicate with each other via videoconference and share the screen. Projects could be set up and user rights could be managed and restricted centrally," says Mehmeti. Stackfield seemed like the perfect way to finally bring order and clarity to the email chaos.

After Menzi involved everyone at Spitex Glattal in his evaluation and trial phase, the decision was ultimately made in favor of Stackfield. Today, the tool has become an indispensable part of everyday work for many reasons.

Turning email chaos into targeted task management

Spitex Glattal quickly experienced improvements, particularly with task management. Instead of communicating to-dos clumsily via email, tasks are now easily created in the respective rooms in Stackfield. Each task is given a responsibility and a clear due date - this way, the status remains traceable for everyone. The team also divides individual work steps into subtasks as needed to ensure that no tasks are missed.

Rooms that are used particularly often and contain several tasks can be pinned as favorites in the sidebar and accessed much more quickly - all in the spirit of clarity.

Saving time through optimized knowledge management

Especially the correct use of the individual modules is valued at Spitex Glattal: For instance, the "IT Manual" room contains all information that could be relevant for IT again later. Using the pages module in Stackfield, content can be stored according to a topic. This way, a knowledge database is created step by step that can be viewed at any time. For known topics or problems, there is no need to conduct complicated searches or research all over again - which saves time and nerves.

Always up to date with 'My Week'

Whenever multiple tasks arise at the same time, it is often difficult to keep track of them all. To ensure no to-do gets left out, every task and subtask at Spitex Glattal is given a clear due date.

The dashboard My Week then reminds users of open tasks - kind of like a daily to-do list. As a result, the head is left with more space for other important things. "You can trust Stackfield," Mehmeti praises.

Realization of projects on Stackfield

Spitex Glattal plans and realizes individual projects with the help of project rooms. Each project gets its own room and all involved parties are added as participants.

Via the project portfolios in Stackfield an overview of the status of the project over time and potential disruptive influences that need to be addressed by the team can be seen at a glance. Employees who only passively participate in projects are added as observers and can easily follow the process via the project portfolios. This way, the management remains up to date and keeps track of developments at Spitex Glattal.

Ms. Mehmeti, as the IT manager, is included in many rooms as an observer and notices progress every day, "From what I can see, the project rooms have helped a lot in collaboration."