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Administrators and managers of busy emergency medical facilities have a lot of things going on at any given time. One of the things that weighs heavily upon their minds, a good portion of the time, is emergency medicine scheduling. Unfortunately, knowing that you need shift scheduling software and understanding which is the best scheduling program for your needs are two entirely different things. These are the qualities you should look for when purchasing scheduling software for your busy emergency department.
User Friendly
These two tiny words make a world of difference in effectiveness. If you’re pulling out your hair to try to make the program work for you, the odds are good you’ll return to doing schedules by hand. However, if you find a program that is intuitive, easy to use, and scalable to meet the demands of your practice, whatever size it may be, then you have a real winner on your hands.
More importantly though, you want a scheduling program that’s not only easy for you to use as an administrator and scheduling coordinator, but also for the appropriate people on your staff to access and navigate to learn the ins and outs of their schedules and change shifts if necessary. The more flexible the scheduling software program is, the more benefits it has to offer your practice.
Awesome Live Support
No matter how great emergency medicine scheduling software is, there is a bit of a learning curve at the very beginning. When questions arise you do not want to have to wait around several days to hear back with a canned email response. You want live, responsive customer support when you need it. Make sure the scheduling program you choose offers it.
It’s not enough to have someone there to answer the phone. It needs to be someone who is responsive to your needs and can help you work through your issues efficiently so you can get back to other important tasks.
Web Access
Internet access is critical when it comes to scheduling for today’s busy emergency medicine practices. You specifically want to look for programs that allow employees 24/7 access to their schedules online. It’s even better if it allows them to request shifts, arrange time off work, or notify you about vacations. The best programs to consider are those that allow users to split, trade, or relinquish shifts to other employees.
Mobile Device Support
This may be one of the most important features of your emergency medicine scheduling program for the sake of your sanity. You want your staff members the opportunity to import their schedules to the mobile devices of their choice so they can add them to their calendars and access them on their own terms. Otherwise, you may be fielding calls all day, any day, to try to avert scheduling disasters six weeks down the road.
The right scheduling software can make your job as an administrator infinitely easier to do. Take care in selecting the right shift scheduling program for your practice and it will serve you well.
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