Let’s Talk

CASE STUDY

Patchwork

AI workforce optimization platform for healthcare providers that enhances shift fill rates and reduces costly agency spend.

Industry Healthcare Workforce Management / HealthTech

Solution AI-Driven Workforce Planning & Shift Optimization

Engagement 6 Months

Services AI & Full-Stack Development

Talk to Us

Client Context

Patchwork Health is a United Kingdom-based healthcare workforce management platform co-created with NHS clinicians to address staffing challenges faced by healthcare organisations. Its suite of solutions enables flexible rostering, staff bank management, collaborative workforce deployment, and data-driven decision making for staffing teams across NHS trusts and health systems.

The platform is trusted by over 200 healthcare organisations and supports tens of thousands of clinicians with mobile and web-based tools that reduce reliance on agency staffing, improve flexibility for workers, and enhance overall workforce stability. Patchwork solutions have helped the NHS save millions in agency spend while improving staff fill rates and operational workforce outcomes.

UK Healthcare Workforce Platform

AI-Assisted Staffing Insights

Operational Cost Reduction

The Challenge

Create an AI-enhanced workforce planning and scheduling solution capable of forecasting staffing demand, prioritising shift allocations, optimising fill rates for internal staff, reducing dependency on agency staff (which are costly and variable), and aligning recommendations with real-world workforce availability and NHS policies.

Demand forecasting & variability

Real-time availability matching

Optimization under policy constraints

Integration with scheduling & payroll APIs

Our Solution

We built an AI-centric workforce analytics and optimisation engine that consolidates historical shift data, real-time availability, and staffing outcomes to forecast demand and recommend optimal shift assignments. The solution was integrated into scheduling workflows to prioritise internal staff, reduce agency staffing costs, and provide actionable insights in dashboards for workforce managers.

Historical Data & Feature Engineering

Ingested and normalised shift, availability, and fill outcome data across departments.

Demand Forecasting Models

Time-series predictive models to anticipate staffing needs.

Optimization & Recommendation Logic

AI-driven prioritisation of internal staff banks to open shifts.

Analytics & Dashboard Integration

Real-time insights and reporting for workforce teams.

How We Delivered

Discovery & Alignment

Mapped workforce planning workflows, shift data sources, and key performance metrics with Patchwork’s operational stakeholders.

Architecture & Planning

Designed secure, scalable data pipelines and AI model infrastructure.

Engineering & Integration

Built forecasting models, inference services, and UI components for scheduling integration.

Testing & Validation

Validated performance of forecasting and optimisation algorithms in simulated and live scenarios.

Deployment & Support

Rolled out production features with monitoring loops, performance dashboards, and retraining workflows.

Outcomes Delivered

22% Increase in Internal Shift Fill Rates

AI-driven forecasting and prioritisation improved internal staff coverage across NHS trusts.

30% Reduction in Agency Spend

Optimised scheduling significantly lowered dependency on costly external agency staffing.

40% Faster Shift Allocation Decisions

Real-time optimisation models accelerated staffing decisions for open shifts.

£120M Cumulative Cost Savings

Platform deployments contributed to substantial workforce cost reductions across partner healthcare organisations.