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While television’s portrayal of the emergency room is accurate when it comes to the drama, it rarely depicts the intense pressure faced by emergency physicians. Yes, medical providers that work in this department of the hospital are often faced with many challenges. After all the ER manages, admits, and discharges patients in a swift and heavy rotation. Therefore, ER physicians have to be quick on their feet and able to make decisions at the drop of a dime.
Efficient ER scheduling using medical scheduling software can help tackle some of the major challenges that ER physicians are often faced with including:
High Burnout Rate
Physician burnout is a very real occurrence and it affects more medical providers than you think. The intensity and demand of the job can lead to extremely high levels of stress. Eventually, a physician can become so overwhelmed that they experience burnout characterized by fatigue, anxiety and a host of other emotional and physical manifestations.
Implementing an ER scheduling process can ensure that physicians have time off to rest and that they are also given an assigned break to so they can have some time to rejuvenate throughout the workday.
Improve Work-Life Balance
ER physicians have a life outside of their stressful careers. No doubt, spending time with their family, friends and engaging in hobbies are important components of their lives. Schedulers need to have a fair shift scheduling process in place that ensures that employers are rotated. This includes the scheduling of vacations and holidays, taking into account physician preferences whenever possible.
Meeting Patient Demand
Meeting patient demand can be a major challenge in some emergency departments. Typically, this is due to a lack of qualified ER doctors on the schedule. Some ER departments are busier than others but on average a doctor might work with one to four patients an hour over the span of a 12-hour shift depending on the night. When patient demand hasn't been met, it can impact the quality of the care administered and it leads to physicians that are overworked. That’s why emergency medicine scheduling needs to be effectively streamlined so that there is always enough doctors assigned to each shift, especially during periods where the department experiences an influx of patients.
Overall patient wellness greatly contributes to the care that an ER physician administers. While a measure of stress comes with the job, stress all the time isn’t healthy for anyone ― particularly for doctors who are tasked with saving the lives of others. That’s why it’s important for managers to employ an efficient physician scheduling process that provides days off, breaks during a shift and adequate staffing.
Take a good, hard look at ByteBloc scheduling software for emergency physicians and providers to see what it can do for your ER department and physicians. It’s specifically designed to meet the complex facets and many challenges of scheduling the work for emergency providers.
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