Edgewater Gardens x StaffScheduleCare

• Equivalent of ~1 FTE saved (8–10 hours/day across scheduling + admin)
• SSC contributed to an 80–90% reduction in agency shifts
• Zero scheduling grievances since go-live
• Significant reduction in paper, interruptions, and frontline desk traffic
• Faster, more flexible reporting to meet evolving ministry requirements

From 2006 to 2025, Edgewater managed scheduling entirely on paper. A full-time scheduler — plus after-hours staff — handled call-outs, shift changes, and timekeeping manually. The volume of interruptions was constant.

“There were times where we thought we needed to give our scheduler a different office space because it’s too busy where he is.”

Frontline staff frequently left the floor to submit forms or ask questions, creating inefficiency across the day. Meanwhile, agency use was unpredictable and expensive:

“Some months were mind-boggling, the costs of agency use."

Ontario’s Integrated Technology Solutions (ITS) funding finally created a path to modernize scheduling.

Greg considered several systems, but SSC stood out because it handled the full scheduling workflow, including time cards and payroll preparation.

“Other programs do scheduling, but they don’t do time cards and payroll preparation quite so well… this did all the pieces of scheduling in one software.”

From the demo, it was clear SSC was built specifically for long-term care — but what Edgewater discovered after go-live went far deeper.

A Nice Surprise: Uncovering the Depth of a System Built for Long-Term Care

During implementation, Greg and his team kept discovering capabilities already built into SSC that they didn’t know existed.

“Once you get into the system, it’s so much more in-depth. We kept uncovering things we didn’t even realize it could do.”

Reporting was one of the clearest examples. Before SSC, pulling ministry-required data meant digging through schedules or relying on payroll. With SSC:

“You can build reports… not just run the ones that exist. Now we can create the report and pull the data.”

And with ministry requirements changing year to year:

“Next year the ministry will release a different report… now I can make a couple clicks, or have the help desk help me make that new report.”

Greg also appreciated that SSC’s complexity is intentional — necessary to support the realities of long-term care:

“If you made it really easy, it wouldn’t be as adaptable. It has to have all these rules… without that background functionality, you can’t do the things staff need.”

What began as a scheduling project became an ongoing realization that SSC had layers of LTC-specific functionality ready to support Edgewater’s operations.

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Rolling out a digital scheduling system after 18 years on paper required thoughtful change management — and consistent support.

Hands-on guidance at every step

“The support was excellent. We always had someone guiding us through each step — we were never left to figure things out on our own"

When instructions felt complex, SSC walked the team through it:

“There were times where I misunderstood a step and tried to do it myself, then learned we were supposed to do that together. That made it much easier.”

Frontline adoption grew quickly

Any initial hesitation wasn’t about SSC — it was about changing habits:

“If any issue, it’s just the pushback you get from a change. Not that people didn’t like the system… they just didn’t like doing it a different way.”

Once staff used the mobile app, adoption accelerated:

“When one person learns how to use it… the other nine learn from that one.”