Physician scheduling can be very challenging, and hospitalist scheduling can too. You need to make sure all shifts are filled accurately to ensure quality patient care and keep your staff happy as well. And, if you're the one responsible for the scheduling task, you know this doesn't come easy. To create a satisfactory work atmosphere, you need to be able to attract and retain providers to meet the needs of your patients.
According to an SHM survey, scheduling's effect on lives of hospitalists is a huge issue. In fact, 42 percent of hospitalist medicine group (HMG) leaders reported balancing personal life and work hours is problematic. Twenty-nine percent had concerns about their everyday workloads, 23 percent increase in the demands and expectations on hospitalists, 15 percent were concerned about retaining providers and career sustainability and 11 percent reported scheduling was a challenge.
So how do you make emergency medicine scheduling or hospitalist scheduling simpler?
How a Hospitalist Scheduling Program Helps
A scheduling program works with you to configure a scheduling algorithm and create test schedules. After you generate and publish a schedule, your hospitalists and other healthcare providers can then make time-off requests, provide shift preferences, initiate shift swaps, request open shifts and more.
This provides doctors easy access to their schedules. It also takes the mundane, daily scheduling task out from under schedulers, freeing their time to manage expenses and analyze trends.
Not only this, but shift scheduling software, along with your experience, will yield the best schedule possible. If slots can't be filled by the algorithm, there are scheduling tool options for addressing the open shifts, saving you time in the process.
Benefits of Physician Scheduling Software Here are some key benefits to using software for your schedules:
- Allows for more complex settings and set of parameters to configure any rotation combination or template.
- Optimizes schedules with variable or uniform continuity of care, set specific work week shifts on the days or weeks a doctor starts a rotation.
- Schedules rotations first to reduce open shifts, then backfill with staff flexible rules (night or call shifts).
- Builds certain targets based on various shift type and staff ensuring doctors are meeting their contractual numbers.
- Tracks the number of worked shifts based on each doctor's contracted amount of time
- Decreases costs on moonlighters and locums by providing providers the opportunity to grab extra shifts to catch up on quotas or for extra pay.
A hospitalist scheduling program provides continuity of care while it balances hospitalists’ needs. Not only does this allow for more optimized schedules, but it also keeps healthcare providers happy with their jobs and their employer. If you’re not using a hospitalist scheduling program, it’s a great time to look into it.
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