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You may have a handle on scheduling your physicians and nursing staff during an average weekday or weekend, but there are certain times of the year when the emergencies and urgent medical situations can create a much different scenario. From car accidents to cooking injuries, the holiday season is one of those times of the year when you will see a lot more emergencies that you then need to take care of. Luckily, there is shift scheduling software to help you handle it.
How the Holidays Change Your Schedule
You can’t always avoid accidents during the holiday season, but you can definitely prepare better for it with proper physician scheduling. Whether you have a small medical practice, are an urgent care center, or manage doctor schedules in a hospital’s emergency room, emergencies from your patients are going to fill up the waiting room.
It is important that you think ahead and consider how many physicians you might need on call for the influx of people. During the holidays, family and friends are visiting, people are heading off to parties, and there are more cars on the road. This may cause anything from an accident due to intoxication or one due to heavy traffic or slick roads.
What the Scheduling Software Can Do For You
When it comes to holiday scheduling specifically, there is a lot that scheduling software can provide you with that you wouldn’t be able to have with more traditional or manual ways of scheduling medical staff. Here are some of the ways emergency medical scheduling software can help with emergencies around this time of year:
You know right away who is on call. First, the software can provide you with a list of doctors, nurses, and other medical staff that are on call when the emergencies start coming in. This allows you to contact them right away and see if they are able to come into the office or hospital to help with the waiting patients.
Doctors can request time off ahead of time, which they will likely want to do during the holiday season. Not only can they do that through the program on their own mobile devices, but you will see clearly who is taking time off so that you can move on and contact someone else to handle the last-minute emergency situations.
You can use past years’ data to see the busy days. The software continues working year after year, since you can look back at the data and see what days and times were the worst. Your practice might have seen more vehicle accidents on Thanksgiving evening or more trips and falls on New Years’ Eve, for example.
Make Sure Physicians Are Trained to Use It
When you set up the new software program, ensure all physicians and other medical staff know how to access it, request time off, and check their schedules. Also see if the program has a way for physicians to confirm their schedule so you know they are aware of when they are scheduled or on call.
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