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Healthcare organizations are always trying to attract physicians. Most of these systems have spent the past few years offering bigger salaries to lure the best doctors.
Compensation is important to physicians, of course, but it is no longer a major factor in why a doctor chooses an employer. Quality of life and a healthy life/work balance are important to physicians of all ages, as it reduces stress and burnout.
Autonomy is also important. In the CHG Healthcare’s 2025 Physician Sentiment Survey of 900 practicing physicians nationwide, 91% said that autonomy was important, but only 59% said they were happy with the amount of autonomy they had.
Healthcare organizations are listening. Becker’s ACS Review discusses recently published data by Jordan Search Consultants, which followed recruitment patterns of five major health systems. None of the health systems used salary as their primary recruitment strategy. Instead, they focused on flexible scheduling, reduced administrative burden, and transparent communication from leadership.
Autonomy and Flexible Schedules Begin with a Great Physician Schedule Maker
Physician scheduling software is the cornerstone of flexible schedules and autonomy. These systems should feature:
• Flexible schedules with a variety of day types
• Flexible 1-month, multi-week, or 1-15 week schedules
• Ability to define your shifts, such as Day, Night, Swing, Call, and Weekends
• Shift abbreviations for easy viewing
• Define what days should be counted as weekend days
• The ability to change shifts on a slow day to match a busy day
Shift scheduling software should be highly adaptable and support a wide variety of schedules. It should also allow for provider cycle scheduling, create several models for shift relationships, and feature automated shift relationships to help physicians avoid consecutive shifts. It should also empower providers to classify shifts as Prefer, Desire, Dislike, or Conflicts, and to record their more desired shifts, shift types, and sequence of shifts.For maximum autonomy and flexibility, shift scheduling software should have:
• Multi-location schedules packed with plenty of advanced features
• Simultaneous, coordinated schedules across all locations
• Highly customizable summary statistics by sites or providers
• Print schedules that look like a calendar
• Customizable print layout, fonts, and pages
• Payroll support for categories and rate variations
Up-to-date live online and mobile schedules are a must for flexibility
To be truly flexible, systems must give physicians online and mobile access to personalized schedules 24/7. These schedules should maintain accurate and up-to-date scheduling information, and provide automatic notifications when a new schedule has been published or changed. They should also offer reminders through email and text messaging, synchronized calendars across multiple devices, and detailed cumulative summaries. The best systems allow physicians to share information, documents, and messages.
Control over shifts
Perhaps the best way to attract doctors is to give them maximum control over which shifts they work. The best physician schedule maker allows physicians to:
• Request a shift on or off
• Request future time off
• View shift availability
• Use an online portal to request shifts, time off, and vacation
• Record shift preferences, such as “need off,” “wish off,” etc.
• Enter future shift requests and confirm requested shifts
• Swap shifts
• Split, trade, or give away shifts
When it comes to choosing a physician schedule maker system, look for a company that has decades of experience. Introduced for emergency medicine scheduling in 1989, ByteBloc Software now helps healthcare organizations in all 50 states, Canada, and other countries to attract and retain physicians. For more information on how physician scheduling software can attract doctors to your healthcare system, contact ByteBloc.
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