Demanding medical practices need every edge available to remain competitive. Physician assistants are critical contributors to the success of any thriving medical facility. Getting a handle on the management aspect of shift scheduling, on call medical staffing coverage, and dealing with emergency medicine scheduling is quite the challenge.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 86,700 jobs for physician assistants in the U.S. in 2012. And the belief is that by 2022, there will be 33,300 more physician assistants in the medical marketplace. That represents an increase of 38 percent for the industry.
Understanding PA Demand
Physician assistants are used in a wide range of medical practices today. From emergency rooms and urgent care clinics to private physician offices and more, there aren’t many practices that cannot and do not do well be adding qualified physician assistants to the staff.
You’ll find them in many fields including:
• Gastroenterology
• Women’s Health
• Orthopedics
• Internal Medicine
• Family Care
• Primary Care
• Psychiatry
• Pediatric Medicine
And many more…
The busier the practice, the greater the need for the specific kind of help PAs bring to the table.
The Challenges of Scheduling Physician Assistants
With so many practices making use of PAs, it’s no wonder that scheduling conflicts often arise. It makes sense since so many PAs are also full time employees. This means they work a regular 40-hour work week (albeit sometimes via shift scheduling) and expect to have vacations, holidays, and even some weekends or nights off work.
Unfortunately, medicine is a field that doesn’t really respect the nine-to-five lifestyle in most instances. Babies are born on holidays, weekends, and in the middle of the night. Heart attacks and car accidents follow the same inconvenient scheduling, making getting the right professionals in the right places at the right time a scheduling nightmare in many practices that lack heavy-duty scheduling software, like emergency medicine scheduling.
Physician assistants do not always follow the work schedules of nurses who often work 7:00 to 7:00 or more traditional eight-hour shifts depending on the facility and their job duties. PAs may work 12-hour shifts, but it’s often at odd hours like 1:00 pm to 1:00 am or 3:00 pm to 3:00 am. Even then, schedules may need to shift from week to week in order to accommodate vacation days, requested shift variances, sick days, or even seasonal needs.
Medical office managers may not know what’s going to walk through the doors from one day to the next. These are the things that present unique challenges of the medical staff on hand.
As a medical office manager you do, though, understand the importance of having the right people on hand to meet any challenges that arise. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you find the right physician assistant scheduling program to meet the ever evolving needs of your practice.
|