According to an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) 2017 report, life's stresses and pace impact from overwhelming information overload, multitasking, and electronic medical record expectations have resulted in a lack of motivation and a certain degree of emotional and physical exhaustion among many OB/GYNs.
Doctors are experiencing twice the rate of burnout of other working adults. And, 40% to 75% of OB-GYNs also experience some type of burnout as well (i.e. conflicting demands of time, losing control, or reduced sense of worth).
Challenges of the OB-GYN Scheduling System
The OB-GYN physician scheduling system can cause many challenges, particularly in departments that have a large OB-GYN staff. Some of the challenges are:
1. Ensuring Proper Coverage for Patients
Care continuity is very important for OB-GYN doctors and their patients, especially in an era of extreme patient load. Not only do OB-GYN doctors need to ensure their patients stay healthy beyond just general well care, they also need to build trust with their patients that comes with continuity care as patients often see the same OB/GYN for extended periods of time, from their fertile years through menopause.
2. Manage Multiple Subspecialties and Locations
OB-GYN doctors need to bounce back from hospitals to clinics during the week and the shift scheduling process needs to efficiently work accordingly. Different subspecialists might be required for performing a number of procedures, therefore you need to ensure you schedule your OB-GYN doctors to ensure the safety of your patients.
3. Minimize Doctor Burnout
As you've learned above, many OB-GYN doctors experience burnout, so it's imperative you provide your physicians with some type of work-life balance. When OB-GYN doctors are working too many hours, it can lead to harmful doctor fatigue.
Ways OB-GYN Doctor Scheduling Software Can Overcome These Challenges
Fortunately, emergency medicine scheduling software for the OB-GYN department schedules, can help overcome these challenges in various ways, including:
1. Improved Operations
Physician scheduling software will help you manage your OB-GYN doctor schedules easily across multiple care settings.
2. Operate Your Practice Professionally
You can create your OB-GYN physicians' schedules through various complex requirements and rules. You can perform things such as:
• Create effective OB-GYN doctor schedules automatically based on the requirements of your practice
• Set up automated time-off request processes
• Work from real-time, centralized mobile calendars
• Analyze and export schedule data to compare different facilities' performance and improve operations
• Integrate your schedules into highly secured messaging systems
3. Increase Retention
Support doctor satisfaction with flexible and fair schedules which will help increase retention.
When it comes to scheduling your OB-GYN doctors, you have many factors to consider since there are so many different potential shift schedules. However, when you can optimize your physician scheduling process, it will help streamline the process, make things run more smoothly, and keep your doctors satisfied.
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