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“Trauma season” is almost here, ushered in by warmer weather and outdoor activities. Using great scheduling software for emergency medicine can make the summer spike in ER patients a little less traumatic for your staff.
Warmer temperatures and outdoor activity can trigger a sharp rise in heat-related illnesses, which can translate to surges in emergency department visits. Other seasonal factors, such school recess and summer vacations, can compound these surges. In fact, emergency rooms can see a 20 – 30% jump in visits during heat waves.
Many of the ER visits during warm months are for heat-related illnesses, of course, but increasing temperatures also drive patients to the ER with complaints, such as injuries, poisonings, and even bacterial intestinal infections. Hot days can also change the demographics of ER patients, as children and younger adults are more affected by heat.
Summer is also hard on emergency medicine staff
Summer surges can be especially hard on emergency medicine professionals, with extreme heat waves potentially overloading health systems and pushing healthcare workers to the brink. ER physicians already experience the highest burnout rate of any specialty, with burnout frequently peaking during summer. June shows the highest rates of emotional exhaustion among physicians.
Scheduling is a hot topic in summer. All workers need to take vacations to avoid stress and burnout, and most prefer to take those vacations during the summer, when the weather is nice and their kids are out of school. Unfortunately, all this time off can leave gaps in the schedule, especially in institutions that use outdated scheduling systems.
Failure to address summer scheduling issues can have lasting consequences. Increased patient load, existing staffing shortages, and vacations can leave less-experienced staff members to handle the chaos, for example. Physicians may feel pressured to cut vacation time short, or take “pretend time off” in which they get catch up on overloaded EHR inboxes and emails.
Understanding which patient groups are most likely to be affected by heat, how heat affects them, and at what temperatures is essential to caring for these patients. Having scheduling software for emergency medicine professionals is critical to caring for these workers.
Having the Right Emergency Medicine Scheduling Software in Summer can Ease “Trauma Season”
When fun in the summer sun turns up the heat in the emergency department, the right physician scheduling software can keep things cool.
Flexibility and accessibility are essential in shift scheduling software. Schedules can change quickly for physicians trying to squeeze in a little family time, and emergency departments can experience sudden surges from multi-vehicle accidents, large-scale firework mishaps, and more. Fleet-footed online emergency medicine scheduling software helps physicians and emergency departments balance the need for time away with patient care. Accessibility helps physicians see their schedules from anywhere, swap shifts, and plan vacation time with family.
Introduced by an emergency physician in 1989, ByteBloc is a hot commodity among the physicians and emergency departments that use it. Features, such as flexible schedules with a variety of day types, multi-location schedules, shift definitions, shift relationships, and classifications, help keep the emergency department cool all summer long.
For more information, contact with ByteBloc.
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