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Emergency medicine is anything but predictable – on any given day and at any given time, an emergency department can go from quiet to chaos in a matter of minutes. In fact, the word “quiet” is often banned from the ED, as the mere mention of the word can trigger an influx of patients. Having the right number of top-notch physicians can help smooth out the highs and lows of a shift, but emergency medicine scheduling can be tricky for a number of reasons.
Physician Scheduling for the Emergency Department is Complicated
Scheduling multiple employees is never easy but shift scheduling for emergency medicine is especially challenging for a number of reasons.
Emergency departments offer care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Emergency rooms are open 24/7, including holidays and during inclement weather. While doctors in other specialties usually work on call after hours, emergency physicians expect to work during nights and weekends. Working these odd hours can disrupt work/life balance and take its toll on emergency physicians.
Because of their 24/7 nature, emergency departments require 8760 hours of physician staffing to ensure that there is just one emergency physician in the department. The number of doctors in an ED varies greatly according to the size and location of the emergency department, of course, with many emergency departments needing several physicians per shift.
While most shifts follow a predictable ebb and flow of ED usage, schedules must be flexible enough to accommodate surges and “less busy” times. When it comes to emergency room physician scheduling, though, flexibility is a lofty goal – while a schedule might look good on paper, it may leave an emergency department dangerously understaffed during busy times or allow costly overstaffing.
Use of locum tenens
Many emergency physicians enjoy working as locum tenens because it allows them to have greater control over their work/life balance. Scheduling locum tenens can be challenging, though, in that they may not be able or willing to fill in certain shifts.
Other factors complicating shift scheduling
To complicate things even further, shift scheduling must take several factors into account. These factors include:
- Patient safety and satisfaction – prolonged wait times are associated with lower patient satisfaction and a higher risk of adverse events
- Cost-effective care – having too many physicians can increase unnecessary spending
- Historical patient census – using previous patient census can help guide scheduling for most, but not all shifts
- Physician satisfaction – even for the most seasoned doctor, emergency medicine is stressful; smart scheduling provides a sufficient workforce in the ED along with a healthy work/life balance
If you want to make emergency medicine easier, consider turning to ByteBloc. We’ve been scheduling emergency providers since 1989, and are constantly enhancing our scheduling system and adding new features to make your life even easier.
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