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It takes a lot of attention to detail to keep an active ER operating like a well-oiled machine. Whether your emergency department operates in a busy city center or in one of many suburbs and small towns across the country, chances are good, that shift scheduling is a bit of a problem for your emergency room. ER scheduling programs can help ease that burden.
The Challenge of ER Scheduling
Scheduling is one of the biggest challenges a busy emergency room faces most months. The challenge of providing adequate staff to meet the needs of medical emergencies within the community and other cases that come through emergency doors while avoiding unnecessary labor costs looms enormous for staff admin members tasked with this responsibility.
Add in the complexities of managing shift preferences, avoiding excessive overtime, meeting educational requirements for residents, juggling vacation days and requests, and avoiding union issues, and it seems more like navigating a minefield of potential problems than planning out staffing schedules.
The right scheduling software, designed with busy emergency medical departments in mind, can remove that burden. The best part, is that it frees up hours, if not days, every month for the staff member tasked with the delicate, but vital responsibility of scheduling to work in a more engaging manner with staff members and/or patients.
Which ER Scheduling Programs Work Best?
It doesn’t take long to discover that there are many different kinds of emergency medicine scheduling programs available. It’s important to remember, though, that there are distinct differences from one brand or version to the next. It’s important to know what your needs are in order to find the right software to meet them.
Of course, there are a few important features that most emergency room scheduling staff will appreciate, like these.
- Easy Learning Curve. Choose ER scheduling programs that are simple to use and can be put into play immediately. Your staff will rebel at complex or complicated software that requires weeks of training to master.
- Cost Effective. Purchase software that offers online scheduling through a subscription. Most ERs find that a service like this pays for itself quickly.
- Free Support. Buy a program that offer free support when you need it. If you’re going to have to pay for support every time you have a question about the software, it eliminates the cost effectiveness of the scheduling software completely.
- Internet Based. Moving to an Internet based system allows physicians and other emergency department staff members to view their schedules online and at any time. They can even load them onto their mobile device calendars. More importantly though, it allows them to trade schedules when necessary without wasting precious shift time searching for the right staff member to make the trade happen.
When you choose the right emergency medicine scheduling software, it simplifies the entire shift scheduling process. Keep these things in mind as you explore your options so you can find the program that best fits the needs of your emergency room.
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