Clinical messaging

On-call scheduling

Who is the on-call RN tonight? Rounds answers that for you. The schedule grid makes Rounds the record of who holds each clinical role right now.

In a home-health or hospice agency, "who is on call?" is the single most-asked operational question — and the answer too often lives in a paper grid, a shared spreadsheet, or one person's memory. The Schedule puts that answer inside Rounds, where the rest of your messaging already happens.

It is also the foundation for two other v1.2 features: routing a message to a clinical role and escalation policies both look up "who is on call" from this schedule.

Three things the schedule tracks

Clinical roles

Named positions your agency defines — "On-call RN", "Charge Nurse", "Hospice MD". A clinical role is a routing target, not a Rounds account permission.

Shifts

A time window on the calendar — a Friday night, a weekend day. Each shift can carry a short label.

On-call assignments

The row that ties it together: "this person holds this role for this shift." That assignment is what Rounds resolves against.

Open the schedule

The schedule is reached straight from the chat workspace — there's a calendar icon at the top of the channel list.

Start in the chat workspace

Sign in to Rounds; you land on the chat workspace. Look at the Conversations header at the top of the channel list on the left.
Click the calendar icon

In the icon row beside Conversations, click the calendar icon (titled "On-call schedule"). The schedule grid opens.
Read the grid

Clinical roles run down the left, days run across the top, and each cell shows the staff member assigned to that role for that day's shift.

Step 2 — the highlighted calendar icon at the top of the channel list opens the schedule.

The Agency administration section of Rounds Settings, with the On-call schedule card highlighted. — The admin path — in Settings, the highlighted On-call schedule card opens the same grid.

The Rounds schedule grid with clinical roles down the side and on-call assignments in the day cells. — The weekly schedule grid — roles down the side, on-call assignments in the cells.

Any staff member can view the schedule. Knowing who is on call is not a secret — it's the whole point. Only an admin or a delegated scheduler can change it.

Tiers: primary, backup, and beyond

An assignment carries a tier. Tier 1 is the primary on-call; tier 2 is the backup; tier 3 and beyond continue the ladder. Tiers are colour-coded in the grid so you can see coverage depth at a glance.

Tier 1 — primary. The first person reached for the role.
Tier 2 — backup. Where an escalation climbs to if the primary doesn't acknowledge.
Tier 3+ — further backup. The rest of the ladder, for agencies that want more depth.

Setting up the schedule

Setup happens in two places: clinical roles live on their own settings page, and shifts and assignments live in the grid itself.

Create your clinical roles

From the schedule grid, click the Roles button in the top-right (admins only) to open the Clinical roles page. Define the roles your agency uses — start with the ones you'd actually page, like "On-call RN".
Add a shift

Back on the schedule grid, click Add shift and set the window you're covering — a Friday night, a holiday weekend. Give it a label so the grid reads clearly.
Assign someone on call

In the grid, click + Assign on a shift, then pick a clinical role, a staff member, and a tier. That's the on-call assignment — the row everything else resolves against.
Delegate scheduling if you want

On the Clinical roles page, the Scheduler access section lets an admin give a trusted staff member the scheduler capability — so they can manage shifts and assignments without being a full agency admin.

The Rounds schedule grid with the Roles button in the top-right highlighted. — Step 1 — the highlighted Roles button on the schedule grid opens the Clinical roles page.

The Agency administration section of Rounds Settings, with the Clinical roles card highlighted. — The Settings path — the highlighted Clinical roles card opens the same page.

The Rounds Clinical roles settings page, listing roles and the scheduler-access toggles. — The Clinical roles page — define routing roles and delegate scheduler access.

"On call now" in the chat sidebar

You don't need to open the full grid to see who's covering right now. The chat sidebar shows a compact "On call now" strip — the live list of each role and the person currently holding it. It updates as assignments change and as shift boundaries pass. Click it to jump straight to the full schedule.