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There's nothing worse than the employee scheduling system being messed up. When mishaps occur, it not only interferes with the flow of your hospital, clinic or ER department activities, it also makes things more tedious for you, the scheduling manager. Certain mistakes are made when coming up with the schedule that if avoided, can make things run more smoothly.
1. No Contingency Plan
You'll have employees taking vacations, calling in sick, quitting or changing their availability throughout the year. Some may even forget their schedule to work that day. You want to have some type of contingency plan in place so you can cover these last-minute changes.
2. Repeatedly “Losing” Time off Requests
You're human and things get lost, however, your employees value their time away from work and when they request a day off and they're accidentally scheduled, it can frustrate them. Even though your employees should understand that their time off requests aren't always guaranteed, it's always a good idea to do your very best to accommodate requested time off.
3. Taking a “one size fits all” Approach
One size doesn't always fit all and when creating the emergency medicine scheduling system, you'll need a combination of shift types. You have to balance the amount of flexibility your ER department requires with that of what your employees need, therefore, it's a good idea to have a system with a wide-range of shift solutions. Some examples include:
- Full-time
- Part-time
- On-call
- Overtime
- Fixed shifts
- Trade-off shifts
- Rotational patterns
There are others to consider when coming up with your shift scheduling system.
4. Not Double-Checking Schedule
You may think this is obvious, but you'd be surprised how often scheduling managers don't double check schedules which lead to schedule mishaps. It's easy for you to get confused when coming up with the physician schedule. You may schedule a physician who is already out for leave which results in understaffing. Double checking the schedule will help you detect any errors and give you a chance to fix them.
5. Not Using Physician Scheduling Software
Employee scheduling is much easier these days, thanks to technology. Shift scheduling software makes it easier for you to evaluate the entire week. You also minimize the potential for making a mistake to the physician schedule.
This software automatically sends alerts to your employees if there are schedule changes. You're alerted if physicians request changes to the schedule, to employees' availability and more. Software makes it easy for your physicians to swap schedules through an online portal without you having to come in and make the changes.
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