|
Perhaps one the biggest challenge that hospitals and other medical facilities face is ensuring that there is adequate coverage during the holidays. After all, each holiday is different and each physician has they're own shift scheduling preferences. But, when it comes to creating the holiday schedule, all shifts must be covered.
Emergency physician scheduling software can be beneficial when it comes to forecasting the holiday schedule for all seasons. How can you use physician scheduling software to ensure that you have a full staff on holidays?
Improving Shift Scheduling
When creating the holiday schedule, there are some ground rules you should establish.. First, the scheduling has to be fair. Therefore, it’s likely you’ll have every physician in your emergency room expecting to work a holiday or two throughout the year and some of the time leading up to the holiday.
You may need to have the scheduling of a week or two off during the last two weeks of December off limits because it can become especially difficult to have full coverage. Also, as previously mentioned, every shift has to be covered.
While each physician group has a different way of accomplishing their ER scheduling during the holidays, it has to be done. The risks of burnout or dissatisfaction among physicians is too great. The good news is that through the use of emergency medicine software, the scheduler can easily choose to slightly extend shifts to free up a doctor if the volume decreases.
Some choose to split the holidays up into groups, whereby two physicians may be on during one holiday weekend while the others are off and vice versa. Holidays can be granted off in exchange for working other weeks such as Ramadan.
Often, getting input from physicians can also be helpful when making the holiday schedule. Allow them to prioritize which holidays they rather have off. For instance, some may choose to have Memorial day or New Years off and allow physicians with small children to enjoy Christmas with their families.
Using Online Emergency Medicine Scheduling Software
Of course, you’ll always want to make sure that holiday coverage is fair. Online scheduling software can help keep track of who worked the last holiday last year and the current year. While some physicians may use the pay it forward method by opting to let their colleague enjoy a holiday it shouldn’t be expected for them to do the same the following year.
Creating the holiday schedule several months in advance will allow for efficient coverage. Shift scheduling software can help you easily create and store schedules for the upcoming holidays months in advance. It provides ample time to find where there may be a lapse in coverage and to identify alternative solutions.
|