What do successful groups have in common? Although each Scheduling Group is unique, many have Implementation issues in common. The obvious #1 item that "ties" all the pieces together is communication. But what else is there?

We recently completed a review of our Call Scheduler of the Year submissions and found some common remarks beyond the obvious “detail oriented”. These are best summed up by the following statement from a physician regarding his Scheduler:

Where the “rubber meets the road”: the On-Call Schedule and the Patient.
I hear Schedulers everyday referring to rules, fairness, tallies, and pleasing the physicians. When we are up to our elbows “alligators”, sometimes we forget that the schedule is much more than a set of abbreviations in a date-square.

6 Advantages of using a MicroSite for on call schedules
According to a 2006 article in Physicians Practice Magazine by Pamela Moore, PhD, there are approximately 5 “on call models”, and I'll bet there are three times as many layouts, some with colored boxes and various symbols to convey the scheduling information. I've seen them on hand-written paper, hand modified word documents, complex excel docs with colored squares, and two-page legal spreads that would never print.

20 items that contribute to Scheduler BurnOut
Collected from the real-life stories from the frontlines of Scheduling, here is a list of what busy people do without thinking.

If you want to see your scheduler longing for the hammock, tryout some of the following items:

With 3 general steps, groups can benefit from call-sharing just like bigger practices.
Physicians are feeling the squeeze these days:  decreasing numbers of available on-call physicians, increasing mergers, on-call compensation issues, and the need to provide 24/7 on-call coverage is taking its toll on physician moral no matter the size of the group. The increasing use of hospitalists and technology such as EHR has great potential to alleviate stress for physicians in medium and large groups, but what steps can “smaller” practices take? Here are some ideas I have learned while training smaller on-call scheduling groups.

The Scheduler’s Axiom of “never publish an
on-call schedule you would not do yourself”, is even more relevant after recent episodes of Control Tower Operators being disciplined for napping on the job.  How does the way you schedule on-call affect next-day physician performance and patient outcomes? How much recovery time is needed after night on-call duty, and is it different depending on Specialty?

FAQ from Providers regarding getting Call Schedules, iCalendars, and SmartPhones
What is an iCal subscription?
iCal is an Internet Calendar Subscription link which you can use to subscribe to a calendar. Once in place, you can view that calendar in Outlook 2007 and various on-line iCalendars such as Google.

iCal links are great for Physicians who are constantly on the go. The iCal “feeds” are periodically updated according to the frequency set in the "target" calendar application (such as Outlook) so the views are always current.

Show them benefits they will love and can start using right away.

 As a trainer, I occasionally hear “This is great for me, but what about my doctors? If they would just use this, we would all save even more time!” Fortunately, I also hear from many schedulers who share how they were able to bring their Providers “on board” by doing a few simple things within their organization.

The quickest, easiest way to learn new physican scheduling software is working one-to-one with an expert. Your "personal trainer" can guide you to be sure everything is covered and can interactively answer questions unique to your situation. There is no need to scour manuals to point you in the right direction for your particular questions.