Doctor call scheduling like a superhero generates good results

There are 7 simple things that someone who creates maintains and publishes physician on-call and work schedules can do to impress her/his providers.

1. Understand what it is like to be on call.  In my opinion I think that anyone who creates schedules better have a clear understanding of what it is like to be the person on the schedule.  Sit down with some of your providers over coffee and have them explain what it is like.  The more empathetic that you are, the more care you will put into creating the schedule.
2. Automate the process for requesting vacations, days off and swaps.  I occasionally hear that schedulers (especially Physicians) will create a 3 month schedule without considering any provider requests for time off.  After the schedule is published it is the provider’s responsibility to then swap with someone if he/she wants/needs time off.  I will admit that it is easier to create a schedule without taking this into consideration, but easier is not always better.  I think that schedulers should provider its doctors, the doctors assistants, and the doctors spouses with a simple, easy to access and easy to use provider request area. This way all of the requests can be considered before the schedule is created.  It also allows the providers to plan a vacation, or promise their kids that they will be there for the piano recital.  By using doctor scheduling software taking this information into account before you create the schedule is actually preferable.
3. Create simple rules to accommodate special circumstances.  For example, if you have two clinic locations and they are 60 miles apart you might want to consider what the provider can and can't do before and after working this job.  You probably do not want to be on call the night before having to travel 60 miles to get to work the next morning, especially if you are an OB/Gyn and had a late night delivery with complications.  Understand what each job is and what the requirements are and create rules to try to level the playing field.
4. Generate tally reports to prove fairness (to yourself).  As you are creating the schedule be sure that you have some mechanism to keep track of how many times each provider has worked each job on each day.  Also be sure to do keep a tally of each day of the week.  It is not only important to have a fair tally number at the end of each scheduling period, it is equally important that the number of individual weekdays and weekends are fair.  No one wants to be scheduled every Thursday or to have an uneven share of weekends.  Although these are great reports to share with your providers, it is even more important for the scheduler to understand the "fairness" of each schedule they create.
5. Easy access to the schedule.  Make sure that however you create your schedule you can make it available online for the providers and their family.  I hear stories all the time of the doctor’s spouses calling the clinic to see when their better half is on call.  Give each provider and their spouse access to this information online.
6. Use Software.  Although this is part shameless promotion because I would like you to try and use Call Scheduler first, I can tell you without any hesitation that using software to create, maintain and publish your call schedule will allow you to produce it faster, with less mistakes and better results.  It does not matter if you use us or someone else, just use something.  There is a reason why everything else in the clinic or hospital has gone from manual to electronic, its better.
7. Let the doctors view their schedule on their smart phone.  Since almost every provider has either an iPhone, Android or Blackberry it is important to give them access to their schedule on their phone.  This is a simple feature, but is used most often by the providers.  In most provider owned groups this is the incentive to the owners of the organization to spend the money to automate the call schedule creation.  They want and need their schedule with them at all times.

If you give thoughtful consideration to each of these 7 items you can and will be considered a superhero by your providers.