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How many hospitalists are satisfied with the flexibility of their work schedule? Shift scheduling in a fast-growing hospital setting can be very complex leading to high dissatisfaction levels in doctors. Although around 63 percent of hospitalists say they're satisfied with their career, physician scheduling is just one significant piece of the entire equation, according to a 2013 survey.
Schedule flexibility and having control over the hours worked are essential elements of the overall job satisfaction in hospitalists. Being able to avoid burnout and balance work life results in better recruitment, retention, and quality of patient care.
How Hospitalist Scheduling Software Helps
If you’re part of a large hospitalist group, emergency medicine scheduling can be a difficult process. You might improve this process with hospitalist scheduling software that could lead to less burnout and more physician satisfaction.
For instance, when it comes to the work schedule and schedule flexibility, 17.2 percent of hospitalists say they're dissatisfied with the flexibility of the schedule, while 19 percent say they’re dissatisfied with how many hours they work.
Fairness is often lacking in a physician schedule. Work schedules are cramped because of the high demand for doctors. Doctors are scheduled unfairly with some working several shifts in a row with little time off. This can lead to smaller opportunities for other physicians to pick up more shifts if needed to make more money unless they swap shifts. The number of requests for shift swaps can pile up on your desk.
On the other side of it, those hospitalists who are scheduled for 14 or more hours a day don’t have much time to do anything else like catch up on sleep or enjoy other activities in their life. In addition, things crop up in the personal lives of hospitalists, which is when the requests for shift swapping occurs.
A flexible hospitalist scheduling software can help automate the process. Doctors can decide how much they want to work, or how little. They can swap shifts as needed. This scheduling software accommodates the individual preference of each doctor to decrease burnout and allow them to change their schedule to fit the needs of their personal lives. And, while the team of hospitalists still has to work as a whole to meet the needs of their patients, the flexibility and fairness are at play with one doctor working more shifts as another works fewer shifts.
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