Top 10 Call Scheduling Tips for Newbies (part 2 of 2)
In my last blog post I revealed the first 5 of my top 10 scheduling tips for new physician call schedulers. This is part 2 of a 2 part series.
Listed below are the last 5 tips that will help get you off to the right start.
6. Manually schedule the tough or repetitive stuff first. When beginning to create your schedule be sure to prioritize the “jobs” in the order of toughest to easiest to fill. The reason for this is to be sure that you have the proper resources for the most difficult work. For example if you only have a small number of providers that can work a specific job (due to skills or other reasons) manually schedule this first. This will ensure that you have providers available to perform this mission critical function. This also applies to “patterns”, for example if Dr. X works every Wednesday doing a certain job, manually enter this first, this will guarantee that he/she is “available”.
7. To auto schedule or not to auto schedule. This is a question of how much manual work do you want to do? If the answer is a lot, then manually schedule the entire thing. If you need more flexibility and want to take advantage of computer processing power than I would consider software that has a schedule engine that can assist you. Remember that most scheduling engines that exist are “random”. If you require certain things to happen be sure that you investigate how rules can benefit you. Most users who switch from manually scheduling to scheduling with software will save upwards of 50% of the time it takes to create, maintain and publish.
8. Tally reports and fairness. Most providers demand a fair schedule. Fair is determined in a number of ways; total days scheduled, total weekends scheduled, and # of times scheduled on a certain day of the week. Be sure to keep track of this using Excel or if you are using software it should automatically do this for you. Most providers will want some proof that the schedule is not only fair but equitable for each partner.
9. How long to schedule for. A good rule of thumb is to schedule long enough so that every provider works through a “Friday/Saturday” weekend at least twice. The larger the number of providers in your group the further out you should schedule. Do not make monthly schedules if you can at all help it. Most schedulers will create 3-6 month schedules.
10. Make your schedules available online. Almost all Doctors today have a smart phone with access to the Internet. Long gone are the days of a provider carrying around a paper schedule folded up in their wallet. Be sure to post the final schedule online and or make it available to the providers on their phone via Google calendar. This will not only eliminate calls to you asking “when am I on”, it is also a great tool for the providers to use when they are trying to arrange a swap with a partner.
For more information regarding call scheduling and physician and doctor scheduling software check out our blogs about call scheduling.