Scheduling Software for Large Organisations?

DrCJM asks: "My wife works for a large hospital here in Australia, where her main role is building, managing and (where needed!) enforcing a schedule for all the junior doctors. This schedule covers several campuses, different specialty streams, different expertise levels, and so on. I'm sure there's a scheduling software package out there that can do all of the basic scheduling much faster than their current method of sitting down with very large bits of paper and lots of coloured pens. What software have Slashdot readers encountered that might do the job? Open Source would be great, but commercial efforts are acceptable too."

Comments

I doubt it

[rduke15]

I'm sure there's a scheduling software package out there that can do all of the basic scheduling much faster than their current method

I seriously doubt it. This is one area where I can't imagine a computer beating a big board holding pieces of (colored) cardboard and a few whiteboard pens. If it needs to be viewable over the web, then set up a webcam in front of it! :-)

One reason why computers are so bad at it and the old way so good (aside from the mere ease of use and reliability aspects), is the size. You just cannot see and understand as much interrelated information in one glance on a computer scren as you can on a big board on the wall.

(How are these specialised boards for planning called in English, anyway?)