How to Fill Vacant Shifts Faster with Comm.care Push Notifications
It's Friday afternoon. A support worker calls in — they can't make tomorrow morning's shift. The participant still needs care. You need a replacement, and you need one fast.
What happens next at most organisations? A few texts. A WhatsApp message to the group chat. A couple of phone calls that go to voicemail. Eventually someone says yes — but there's no record of who you contacted, when, or what was agreed. If anyone asks later, the answer is on someone's personal phone. Maybe.
There's a better way.
In our previous post, we looked at how push notifications keep care teams in sync — why having one communication channel inside your care management system matters for compliance and coordination. This post is the practical companion: here's exactly how to fill a vacant shift in Comm.care, step by step.
The workflow: five steps, one record
1. Open the vacant appointment
Find the shift that needs cover. You can get there from My Organisation > Calendar (the organisation-wide view) or My Circles > select the Circle > Calendar (the participant's calendar). Click on the appointment to open it.
2. Add a comment and @mention available staff
Scroll down to the Comments section on the appointment. Type your message and use @ followed by a staff member's name to tag them. You can @mention as many people as you need in a single comment.
For example:
@Sarah @Tom — the Saturday 8am shift with James is now available. Are either of you free to cover it?
3. Each @mentioned worker gets a phone alert
Every person you tagged receives an instant push notification on their phone — even if the Comm.care app is closed. The notification shows your name and a preview of the message. No separate app. No group chat. Just a direct alert to the people who need to see it.
4. Workers tap the notification and reply
The worker taps the notification, and the app opens directly to the appointment. They can see the shift details — time, participant, location — and your comment, all in one place. They reply in the same thread, @mentioning you back:
@Jo I can cover this — confirmed for 8am.
Or if they're not free:
@Jo Sorry, I'm not available Saturday morning.
5. Assign the shift — the conversation is already on the record
Once someone confirms, update the appointment's attendees to assign them. The full conversation — who was asked, who replied, and when — is captured on the participant's appointment record. No screenshots needed. No chasing up who said what.
What this replaces
Most care providers we talk to are running two systems: one for care records, one for team communication. Comm.care holds the participant data. WhatsApp, SMS, or phone calls handle the coordination.
The problem isn't the communication. It's that it happens outside the record. A shift swap negotiated over text doesn't show up in the participant's file. A WhatsApp message about a medication change doesn't appear in the care plan. When an auditor asks who was contacted about a particular shift, the answer depends on whether someone kept their messages.
With @mentions, the conversation is part of the record from the start. You don't need to document it separately — it's already there.
The compliance angle
NDIS providers are expected to maintain clear records of communication around participant care. When your team coordinates shifts through @mentions on Comm.care records, every exchange is:
- Attached to the right participant — not floating in a group chat.
- Visible to authorised staff — anyone with access to that record can see the thread, now and later.
- Time-stamped and attributed — who said what, and when, is part of the audit trail automatically.
You're not doing extra compliance work. You're just communicating where the records already live.
Getting started
Push notifications are available now on iOS and Android for all Comm.care organisations. Here's what your team needs:
- The Comm.care mobile app — download from the App Store or Google Play.
- Notifications enabled — staff need to tap Allow when the app prompts them on first login.
- Start using @mentions — in comments on appointments, Circles, incidents, or any record where you need someone's attention.
For a detailed setup guide, see our tutorial: Filling vacant shifts with push notifications.
For general push notification setup, see: Enabling and using push notifications.