For EMS and ambulance services
EMS scheduling software for 24-hour crews
EMS scheduling software builds the rota for an ambulance service: which crew is on which truck for each 24-hour shift, on a rotation like 24/48 or Kelly, with every seat filled by somebody whose EMT or paramedic certification is current on the day the shift ends, and overtime counted on the hours the clock actually turned. MedAligna does that for private ambulance and EMS services, per location, from $99 a month.
From $99/month per location · No sales call · No card to start
At a glance
- EMS scheduling software, as this page means it, puts certified crews on trucks across 24-hour rotations and checks every assignment before it lands.
- 24/48, 48/96 and Kelly are built in: pick One 24-hour shift when you plan a week and every day gets a 07:00–07:00 shift per role per truck; the free generator lays any of the three onto real dates for three platoons.
- EMT, AEMT, Paramedic, NREMT, EVOC and driver's licence are in the credential library beside BLS, ACLS and PALS. Require one for a role and a lapsed or missing one blocks assignment.
- Crew minimums are set per truck and per role — one Paramedic and one EMT on the 24-hour — and Coverage shows each truck's crew every day with an empty seat named, even when its shift was never created.
- Hours are real elapsed time, so a 24-hour shift the night the clocks go back is 25 hours, and overtime can be averaged over four weeks for a 7(k) work period.
- $99/month for one location and up to 30 staff, $149 for up to 75. Fourteen days free, no card.
How do you schedule 24/48, 48/96 and Kelly rotations?
Pick One 24-hour shift when you plan a week, say how many of each role each truck carries, and every day gets its shift. The rotation decides which platoon works which day.
All three are three-platoon patterns of 24-hour shifts from 07:00 to 07:00, and all three put exactly one platoon on every day, so the shifts a truck needs are the same for each: one 24-hour shift a day, per role. 24/48 is one shift in three days. 48/96 is two consecutive 24s and then four days off, over six days. Kelly is 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, then four days off, over nine days. Plan a week creates the shifts for up to 26 weeks at a time and shows the exact count before anything is written; who works which day is decided on the schedule afterwards, with a suggested person on each shift for you to approve.
If you want to see a pattern before committing to it, the free rotating shift schedule generator lays any of the three onto real dates for three platoons, with your own platoon names, and emails you the CSV. An organisation that says it is an EMS or ambulance service at sign-up gets the planner opened on the 24-hour shape, with Paramedic and EMT as the example roles.
What setting does a 24-hour shift need?
Set Longest single shift to 25 hours on the work rules screen — 49 if you run 48/96, so two 24s back to back count as one tour rather than no rest. Twenty-five, not 24, because a 24-hour shift is 25 real hours the night the clocks go back. It is your organisation's setting; nobody else's limit moves.
How are crew minimums enforced on each truck?
Each truck is a unit, and its minimum is a floor per role on its 24-hour shift: two per truck, at least one Paramedic, is Paramedic 1 and EMT 1.
Coverage shows each truck's crew for the next seven days: how many are on in any role, the crew size the floors add up to, and which seat is empty, by name. A seat whose shift was never created reads as empty rather than vanishing, which is the mistake a per-role count makes. Two paramedics on a truck that wants a paramedic and an EMT is reported as both facts — two on, crew of two, EMT seat empty — because whether a medic can ride the EMT seat is your protocol's call, not ours.
A minimum is a fact to act on, not a refusal: nobody is turned away for trying to fill a short truck. What does refuse is the person check below — an expired certification, a double booking, no rest — and it refuses in words.
What happens when an EMT or paramedic certification expires?
If the role requires it, the person cannot be put on a shift that ends after the expiry date, and the schedule says which certification and when.
The credential library carries EMT (EMT-B), AEMT and Paramedic licences, NREMT certification, EVOC and a driver's licence, beside the BLS, ACLS and PALS it already had. On Team credentials you say which role requires which; each person keeps their own card, number and expiry date in their wallet on their phone, and the employer's copy follows it. The check is against the end of the shift, so a paramedic whose licence expires at midnight cannot be put on a 24 that starts that morning.
Expiring credentials are counted on the dashboard and on Team credentials ahead of time, so a renewal is a reminder rather than a sick call. The NREMT recertifies EMTs, AEMTs and paramedics every two years, ending March 31; state licences renew on the state's own cycle, and the expiry on each record is the one that counts.
How is overtime counted on 24-hour shifts?
On real elapsed time, against your own weekly cap — averaged over up to eight weeks when your overtime is counted over a longer work period.
Every rotation here averages 56 hours a week, and a calendar week holds two or three 24-hour shifts, so 48 or 72 hours. The schedule warns as a shift would take somebody past the cap you set, while it is still a decision rather than a line on a timesheet. A 24-hour shift across the night the clocks go back is 25 hours and is counted as 25, in the warning and in the hours export to your payroll provider.
Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act lets a public agency pay fire protection employees overtime after 212 hours in a 28-day work period instead of 40 in a week, and EMS staff qualify only where the regulations treat them as fire protection or law enforcement employees. Where yours do, set the averaging window to 4 weeks and the cap to 53 hours a week: 212 over 28 days. The window is the four pay weeks ending with the shift's week, checked for every shift, which is at least as strict as one fixed 28-day period. A private ambulance company pays on the ordinary 40-hour week, and that is the default.
Which weeks does an ambulance service actually struggle with?
A sick call at 05:30
The B-shift EMT on Medic 2 calls in an hour and a half before the 07:00 change. The supervisor works through a phone list, checking from memory who is certified, who is already past 56 hours, and who worked yesterday.
The shift goes out as open to the people who can take it. Whoever claims it is checked for certification, rest and hours before the claim lands, and the truck's crew on Coverage fills in.
Moving from 24/48 to Kelly
The service wants four days off in a row for its crews and nobody can see, on paper, what a nine-day cycle does to the next three months.
The free generator lays Kelly onto real dates for your three platoons. When it looks right, Plan a week creates the 24-hour shifts on each truck and the platoons are put on them.
A paramedic licence runs out mid-rotation
The renewal date is in a binder. The medic keeps running calls for two weeks past it and the state audit finds it first.
Paramedic Licence is required for the Paramedic role. The dashboard counts it as expiring, and from the day it lapses the medic cannot be assigned until the renewal is recorded.
The night the clocks go back
Medic 1's crew works 07:00 Saturday to 07:00 Sunday on the first weekend of November, and the timesheet says 24.
The shift is 25 hours on the schedule, in the overtime warning and in the hours export, because hours are computed on the instants rather than the clock face.
How to choose EMS scheduling software
The questions the trade-press buying guides ask, answered for this product.
01Does it run 24-hour rotations without a workaround?
A tool built for 8- and 12-hour shifts treats a 07:00–07:00 shift as zero hours or as two shifts.
Where MedAligna lands: 24/48, 48/96 and Kelly are built in, and a 07:00–07:00 shift ends at 07:00 the next morning, 25 real hours at fall-back.
02Does it track EMT and paramedic certifications, and block a lapsed one?
A certification report nobody reads before the rota is published is not a control.
Where MedAligna lands: EMT, AEMT, Paramedic, NREMT, EVOC, driver's licence, BLS, ACLS and PALS are in the library; a required one that is missing or expired blocks the assignment.
03Can it hold a minimum crew per truck?
Two per truck with at least one Paramedic is the rule a short-staffed morning breaks first.
Where MedAligna lands: A floor per role per truck, and a crew view on Coverage that names the empty seat.
04How does it count overtime?
Weekly hours on a 24-hour rotation swing between 48 and 72, and some public agencies count over 28 days.
Where MedAligna lands: Against your cap, on real elapsed time, averaged over one to eight weeks.
05Can crews trade shifts and request time off from their phones?
A trade agreed in the day room and never written down is how a truck ends up uncrewed.
Where MedAligna lands: Yes: swaps, open-shift claims and time off from the phone, each checked before it lands, with you approving.
06Does it export hours to payroll?
Retyping a month of 24s into payroll is where a 25-hour shift becomes 24.
Where MedAligna lands: Hours export in Gusto's and ADP's import layouts, and as a plain CSV. We never run payroll itself.
What is a 24/48, a Kelly schedule, or a 7(k) work period?
- 24/48
- Twenty-four hours on, forty-eight off: one 24-hour shift every third day, three platoons, 56 hours a week on average.
- 48/96
- Two consecutive 24-hour shifts, then four days off, on a six-day cycle with three platoons.
- Kelly schedule
- A nine-day cycle of 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, then four days off, worked by three platoons.
- Platoon
- One of the three crews that take turns covering the 24-hour post; called a shift or a team in some services.
- 7(k) work period
- The FLSA exemption that lets a public agency count fire protection or law enforcement overtime over a work period of 7 to 28 days; 212 hours in 28 days for fire protection.
- NREMT
- The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, which certifies EMTs, AEMTs and paramedics on a two-year cycle.
- EVOC
- Emergency Vehicle Operator Course — the driving certification most services require to drive an ambulance.
Questions people actually ask
- Does it schedule 24/48 and Kelly rotations?
- Yes, and 48/96. Plan a week offers One 24-hour shift, which creates a 07:00–07:00 shift every day for each role on each truck; the free rotating shift schedule generator lays 24/48, 48/96 or Kelly onto real dates for three platoons. Set Longest single shift to 25 hours (49 for 48/96) so the shifts can be assigned.
- How do I set a crew minimum of two per truck with at least one Paramedic?
- Make each truck a unit, and on Coverage set two minimums on its 24-hour shift: Paramedic 1 and EMT 1. Coverage then shows each truck's crew every day, with the empty seat named.
- Which EMS certifications does it track?
- EMT (EMT-B), AEMT and Paramedic licences, NREMT certification, EVOC, a driver's licence, BLS, ACLS and PALS, plus any type you add yourself. A required one that is missing or expired before the shift ends blocks the assignment.
- How does it handle FLSA 7(k) overtime for a 28-day work period?
- Where your service qualifies for 7(k), set the averaging window to 4 weeks and the weekly cap to 53 hours, which is 212 over 28 days. Hours are counted on real elapsed time, so the fall-back 24 counts as 25. Private ambulance services keep the 40-hour week.
- Can crews swap shifts from their phones?
- Yes. Crews see their own rotation, propose a swap with a colleague, claim an open shift and request time off from their phone. You approve from yours, and every swap and claim is checked against certification, hours and rest before it lands.
- What does EMS scheduling software cost here?
- $99 per month for one location with up to 30 staff, $149 for up to 75. Per location, not per crew member, so hiring does not raise the bill. Fourteen-day trial with every feature, no card.
Sources
- 29 CFR § 553.230 — Maximum hours standards for work periods of 7 to 28 days (section 7(k)) — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (e-CFR mirror), checked 2026-10-21.
- Recertification Handbook — Important Dates & Time Periods — National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, checked 2026-10-21.
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