|
Shift scheduling is one of the biggest challenges of any functional emergency medical facility. However, meeting your emergency medicine scheduling needs with an adequate supply of physicians and support staff goes a long way towards maximizing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of any emergency medicine practice.
The Challenge with Emergency Medicine Scheduling
For most facilities, emergency physician scheduling software is the most effective tool for taming the beast the monthly schedule becomes – at least, this is the case when you purchase a scheduling program specifically designed to meet the demands of an emergency medicine practice.
An efficient emergency room operates like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, there are a lot of moving parts required to make an emergency department the model of efficiency that you want it to be. Scheduling software designed to specifically address the staffing needs of an emergency medical facility understands the needs -- shift by shift and hour by hour -- of an emergency medical department.
More importantly, it understands the complexities including union rules and accreditation requirements as well as the ebb and flow of emergency medicine practices. The scheduling program will remember critical things busy professional department schedulers with a billion other details on the brain may forget or overlook the importance of.
These common scheduling problems are part of the reason scheduling large medical staff positions proves so challenging.
• Special Requests
• Sheer Volume of Staff (it takes a lot of professionals to fully staff an emergency department)
• Shift Preferences
• Hour Preferences
• Last-Minute Replacements
• Schedule Trading / Shifting Methods
• Rotation Scheduling
• Adequate Shift Coverage for Physicians
• Scheduled Overtime among Physicians
As you can see, there’s a lot that can go wrong quickly when planning emergency departmentschedules by hand.
What Software Brings to the Shift Scheduling Table
Software not only helps with the scheduling process, but also the process of getting the word out about the schedules themselves to the people who need them most. Most modern scheduling programs include the ability for staff members to import their schedules to their mobile devices and/or home computers – or simply view online. This means fewer disruptions to your schedule among those checking or verifying their schedules from home.
Another great feature about software programs for scheduling your emergency medicine department is that they allow employees to make special requests for days off, vacation days, and even shift or schedule changes and exchanges.
This cuts out the middle man for many of these things and streamlines the process so that important information doesn’t get lost.
Finally, it provides for instant updates when changes are made. There’s no more worrying about someone failing to cover s shift when employees make changes or something getting lost in translation.
The truth is that there are many benefits involved when using scheduling software to handle emergency medicine scheduling needs. The bigger question isn’t “When are you going to bring this shift scheduling software into your medical practice?” Instead, it’s, “What’s taken you so long?” At least, that’s what it should be.
|