Dr.JOY Attendance Management System Surpasses 51 University Hospitals in Japan

Dr.JOY Corporation, led by CEO Dr. Hiroaki Ishimatsu, has achieved a significant milestone with the adoption of their Attendance Management System by 51 university hospitals across Japan. This marks a 62% market share among universities with medical departments, showcasing the system's effectiveness and demand within the healthcare sector.

Launched in 2019, the Dr.JOY Attendance Management System utilizes beacon technology to facilitate efficient attendance tracking in healthcare institutions. Currently, it has been deployed in over 170 medical facilities nationwide, reflecting its widespread acceptance and utility in addressing the pressing needs of healthcare providers in Japan.

The Need for Improved Labor Management

With the upcoming enforcement of the Labor Reform Act in April 2024, regulations will significantly impact the work conditions for physicians, limiting overtime and holiday work to a maximum of 960 hours per year. Hospitals must also implement measures such as working intervals between shifts, compensatory time off, and interview guidance to ensure the health and wellbeing of medical professionals.

Despite these regulatory changes, many institutions are struggling to align their labor management systems with the act's requirements. Consequently, key issues have surfaced in managing physician work hours accurately. Activities such as patient consultations, rounds, and on-call responses are often erroneously categorized as 'self-study,' leading to discrepancies between actual working hours and recorded data.

Moreover, clerical staff are overburdened by administrative tasks related to attendance management, including record-keeping in Excel and paper formats, compiling departmental rules, and managing complex schedules. This concentration of duties on administrative personnel has increased their workload significantly.

The increasing complexity of work patterns for healthcare professionals, such as night shifts, on-call duties, and external work, necessitates a robust attendance management system that can accurately reflect these conditions. Manually tracking these diverse work scenarios is no longer viable, highlighting the urgent need for a comprehensive data management system.

Features of Dr.JOY Attendance Management System

The Dr.JOY Attendance Management System is a cloud-based platform designed specifically for healthcare facilities, providing a streamlined approach to attendance regulation and compliance. Its key functionalities are tailored to meet the unique demands of healthcare providers:

- Automated Time Tracking: The system captures complex working hours through automation, ensuring accurate recording across varied roles, including physicians, nurses, and administrative staff. With multiple input methods, such as beacon-based automatic logging, web entry, app usage, and IC card swipes, it creates a unified attendance framework for all employees.

- Automated Compliance Checks: By integrating automatic checks for working intervals and compensatory time, the system helps ensure compliance with labor regulations while managing hours worked, both at their primary and secondary jobs, effectively reducing the burden on HR personnel.

- Seamless Workflow for Interview Guidance: The system automatically aggregates information on overtime and holiday work, notifying relevant physicians and coordinating mentoring sessions with supervising doctors more efficiently, facilitating a structured approach to interviews.

- Inspection Preparedness: Dr.JOY produces necessary reports and documentation compliant with the Medical Service Act quickly, simplifying the audit process and ensuring readiness for inspections.

The Dr.JOY system has already demonstrated its value in various university hospitals, with many of them reporting significant advancements in their labor management practices. For example, Okayama University Hospital has praised the system's ability to easily extract necessary compensatory time for physicians, enhancing their operational efficiency.

Conclusion

Dr.JOY is committed to supporting the transition to a more efficient healthcare environment. The CEO, Dr. Hiroaki Ishimatsu, emphasizes the importance of distributing limited physician resources effectively and ensuring a balance between clinical and non-clinical responsibilities. The significant adoption rate among university hospitals signals a growing recognition of the value in utilizing data to enhance the working conditions for physicians.

As a future goal, Dr.JOY plans to present anonymized aggregated data that can contribute to discussions around medical labor practices and aid institutions in improving their systems. The ongoing dedication to refining structures that enable both physician health and high-quality medical service delivery will remain a central focus for Dr.JOY.

Governor of Dr.JOY, Eiichi Nakajou, expresses gratitude for the support from numerous healthcare facilities across the nation. Addressing the complexities of labor reform involvement requires not merely adapting to regulation changes but also engaging deeply with each institution's operational realities to foster sustainable improvements in medical service delivery.