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ER scheduling software is a tool that helps to ensure your emergency department is properly staffed for the needs of your organization. But it also has to account for the fact that physicians and staff for your ER have lives, scheduling preferences, and needs of their own. These tips will help you maximize your emergency medicine scheduling in a way that is efficient, affordable, and practical for the needs of your facility and the people who make it work.
Schedule Ahead
This helps to eliminate the need for last-minute adjustments, scheduling conflicts, etc. By scheduling ahead, it also allows physicians and other medical support staff the ability to plan time with their families without worrying about conflicts with their schedules. The further ahead you plan your ER doctor schedule, the happier your ER physicians will be.
Avoid Short Turnarounds
In order to keep your emergency medicine physicians and staff fresh, alert, and rested enough to operate efficiently, you should avoid short turnaround times between shifts. Do this by never scheduling less than 12 hours between physician shifts.
Use ER Scheduling Software
When software handles physician scheduling, it frees up valuable staff time to dedicate to other pursuits, avoids scheduling conflicts, automates requests for days off and shift exchanges, reduces overtime, while eliminating potential union conflicts and more. Shift scheduling software helps to eliminate unnecessary absenteeism and contributes to a happier workplace with less stress and employee turnover.
Ask Physicians for Their Preferences
While you can’t always give each physician the shift he or she most desires, you can improve loyalty by accommodating these requests when possible. You can often accommodate the types of shifts physicians prefer, however, such as shorter work stretches with short breaks in between, longer work stretchers with longer breaks, no more than a certain number of shifts per week or in a row, etc.
Be Fair with Holiday Scheduling
Your first best bet is to ask for holiday scheduling preferences. You might find that some might want to work the holiday, but have the eve of the holiday off, while another staff member preferences the opposite.
Send Automated Schedules to Each Physician and Confirm Receipt
This helps to avoid physicians claiming they didn’t know they were scheduled to work a specific shift and helps to reduce confusion that could result in overtime or bringing in costly temp physicians. Another way to accomplish this is with early schedule releases, at least one month in advance.
These things may not eliminate all scheduling problems and conflicts, but they can help to reduce them, keep your staffing costs down, and improve overall morale and loyalty among your physicians. An added benefit of using ER scheduling software is that it can help reduce burnout, which is an all too often condition ER physicians can experience.
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