From paper sheets to AI tools 

The story of how the AI scheduling app got here into being involves some forward-thinking hospital executives, a Swiss company that focuses on health-care scheduling software, the staff at LUKS, Microsoft technology experts and Andri Puorger, a Microsoft Switzerland Account Technology Strategist for Healthcare. 

Puorger became eager about working in the sector of health care from his partner, a station lead within the intensive care unit at a Zurich hospital. From her, he learned in regards to the shortage of nurses, the difficulties in retaining them due to the heavy workload and the outdated way many hospitals schedule staff.

“I said ‘it will probably’t be that you just work like this,’” he says, “I didn’t understand why a station lead has to take a position three to 5 days a month for planning while, with the assistance of technology, it may very well be done far more efficiently.” He knew a couple of Swiss company, Polypoint, that focuses on health-care scheduling software, and wondered if a collaboration could deliver something faster and more efficient.   

Thomas Buerdel, the Head of Innovation at Polypoint, recalls the early conversations with Puorger and Senior Program Manager Teams Paul Cherbin.  

“We had quite a number of questions in our minds,” Buerdel says. “Now we have about 90 employees, and yes, now we have about 1,000 customers in healthcare, but we usually are not that big.”   

Andri Puorger, left, Account Technology Strategist for Healthcare, Microsoft, and Thomas Buerdel, right, Head of Innovation, Polypoint AG.

Puorger reassured Buerdel that Microsoft recognized that Polypoint had a depth of data in Swiss laws and regulations, the peculiarities of the Swiss health-care system and 36 years of experience.   

Puorger proposed that Microsoft could help Polypoint reach more clients if its system, which uses AI to calculate one of the best outcomes in complex schedules, was available in a Teams app, making it accessible to anyone on hospital staff with a smartphone.  

“I assumed we could make a big impact working together,” Puorger recalls. “So I asked LUKS and I asked Polypoint if we could bring this concept together, they usually each said yes. I assumed it may very well be a win-win-win situation.”  

Buerdel says that that Microsoft’s respect for Polypoint’s expertise in the sector led to an environment of trust. “At that time the sentiment modified,” he says. “The collaboration with Microsoft is sort of cool, and it helps us as a small company to have a bit little bit of awareness, and it’s a positive impact on our image, too.”