Why Physicians Should Turn to Automated Scheduling

Scheduling physicians is complex. There are many rules, guidelines and personal preferences that need to be considered. Manually creating the physician schedule can lead to an unbalanced workforce and general unfairness which can lead to turnover. Using a robust scheduling tool that can accommodate a multitude of input factors can help ensure a more equitable schedule with much less effort.

Healthcare IT Today sat down with Justin Wampach, Vice President at TigerConnect responsible for their scheduling product, to learn more about the intricacies of physician scheduling and how an automated solution can help.

Physician Scheduling is Hard

There are many rules that must be respected when it comes to physician scheduling. For example:

  • Physicians must be given enough time to rest between shifts
  • There must be sufficient clinical coverage across the organization on each shift
  • Physicians must be qualified and capable of filling the role they are being scheduled for

At the same time there are many organizational guidelines that must be worked into the schedule. For example:

  • No back-to-back weekends on-call
  • Maximum 1 holiday weekend on-call
  • No day shifts after an over-night shift

Finally, there are personal preferences for each physician that need to be accommodated.

Keeping all these factors in mind while creating a physician schedule is a monumental task. Yet according to Wampach, many healthcare organizations are still relying on a single individual using paper or spreadsheets to create their schedules.

“We still see paper schedules, where people have printed a calendar and are manually writing names in the boxes,” shared Wampach. “It’s not as common as it was 20 years ago, but we are still seeing it. Nowadays, we see more people using tools like spreadsheets.”

Spreadsheet Based Physician Schedules are Problematic

Wampach sees three critical problems with physician schedules created using spreadsheets:

  1. Spreadsheet schedules are static and represent a point-in-time. Any changes made to the schedule are not reflected and the schedule must be redistributed in order for everyone to get the updated information.
  2. Spreadsheets are isolated applications and are not integrated into any hospital or clinic systems
  3. They must be manually manipulated

“The people that you’re scheduling deserve better,” said Wampach. “They just deserve something more”

Automated Physician Scheduling

There are software solutions that can make scheduling much easier and are much more robust than spreadsheets. These solutions typically allow users to input all the rules, guidelines, and preferences that must be incorporated. Complex algorithms then match the best available physician with each open slot based on the combined set of factors.

“Automation doesn’t mean just pushing a button and having everything done for you,” said Wampach. “It’s an iterative process. A lot of our customers use our scheduling assistant to automatically schedule people as the on-call layer. Then they use our template scheduler for clinic assignments and for daily assignments. Then they may do some manual scheduling for adds, moves, and changes. Automation is usually just a layer of the schedule.”

How would a physician practice, medical group, hospital, or health system know if they needed scheduling software? Wampach cited the following symptoms to look out for:

  1. Physicians incorrectly called when not scheduled for “on-call”
  2. Complaints from physicians about the “unfairness” or “unbalanced” nature of the schedule
  3. Calls to the scheduler with requests to swap spots on the schedule

If any of the above happen frequently or consistently, it’s a sign that a better physician scheduling solution might be needed.

TigerConnect’s physician scheduling solution offers custom rule building, easy swapping, time-off request management, personalized calendars, and more. The solution is also integrated with their clinical collaboration and communication platform which makes for more efficient operations – especially with role-based connections (ie: the ability for anyone to instantly connect with the “cardiologist on-call” without actually knowing who that person is).

Watch the interview with Justin Wampach to learn:

  • The unexpected impact that a scheduling error can have on an organization
  • Why physician scheduling is hard and how automation addresses complexity
  • Who is likely doing the scheduling at an organization and why you don’t want that person doing it

Learn more about TigerConnect at: https://tigerconnect.com/

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TigerConnect is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

About the author

Colin Hung

Colin Hung is the co-founder of the #hcldr (healthcare leadership) tweetchat one of the most popular and active healthcare social media communities on Twitter. Colin speaks, tweets and blogs regularly about healthcare, technology, marketing and leadership. He is currently an independent marketing consultant working with leading healthIT companies. Colin is a member of #TheWalkingGallery. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

   

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