Medical practices today are under increased pressure to cut costs without sacrificing on quality of care of the services they offer. One method many practices are surprised to learn about is using scheduling software to help with all the shift scheduling needs of a busy medical practice – especially when it comes to scheduling physicians.
Doctor scheduling software is about much more than making sure there is a doctor on hand at all times. It’s about ensuring that there are adequate doctors to keep up with patient demands. Sometimes, this means including additional physicians, as a sort of emergency medicine scheduling plan. This is ideal for meeting increased demand during peak seasons when medical offices are generally overflowing with patients.
Here are a few of the financial benefits your practice stands to enjoy by making the move to doctor scheduling software today.
Invest Less Time in Administrative Tasks Each Month
The more staff you have in your practice, the more time it takes each month to properly plan schedules for all doctors and patients alike. There are inevitable requests for days off, vacations, sick days, medical awareness days, and more that need additional coverage in order to ensure that the needs of patients are properly met. If interns and residents are involved, there are additional compliance issues to consider as well.
Planning these schedules is a time consuming and often thankless process that takes days, if not weeks, depending on how far out you make your schedules, to complete. Even then there are often tweaks, changes, and traded shifts to account for along the way. Imagin the difference to your bottom line it would make to cut the process down to mere hours rather than days?
Reduces Overtime Hours
Overtime hours in medical practices are costly. Yet that’s exactly what happens when someone is scheduled too many hours or busy shifts are inadequately staffed. It means that replacement workers need to be called in at premium price tags in order to make up the difference.
Reduces Overscheduling
The flipside of having too few doctors reporting to work is having too many. Not only does that bring premium labor hours on the job, but it can also be an indication of shortages elsewhere.
Eliminates Vacation Confusion
Doctor scheduling software allows everyone to enter their vacation days into the system so that those days are reserved for them and the system configures those requests automatically when planning schedules. This means that people are likely to get the vacation days they’ve requested and the needs of the medical practice will still be covered.
Avoids Penalties and Fees
Failing to meet union or government requirements for medical staff, interns, and residents can be extremely costly, not just financially . Doctor scheduling software factors these requirements in the scheduling process so you can rest easier that you’re making the right scheduling calls for your practice and the people who keep it running.
Saving time and money is a win for any medical practice. It gives you more of both to invest in your patients and the treatment process. Using software to help schedule physician and support staff shifts is an incredible means for saving both time and money.
|