The Battle Between Rules vs. Preferences in Oncall Software

As you may or may not have noticed I have been consistently publishing weekly Blog articles since about March 2011.  Anyone that has ever written a Blog knows how difficult it is to create content that will be valuable to its readers.  In a recent audit of my work by a seasoned professional I was told that I need more of an insider vs. expert point of view.  Please bare with me as I try to find my new style :).

Do you know what the difference is between a rule and a preference as it relates to call scheduling?  I bet you don't.  I speak with all types of people who create, maintain and publish on-call schedules I find it interesting how may people talk about their need for rules.  Everyone needs rules.  What we find more often than not is that unless you have been using on-call software you probably have a lot of preferences and a few rules.  Whats the difference, lets find out.  According to our friends at Wikipedia, a rule usually refers to standards for activities.  Preference on the other hand refers to evaluative judgment in the sense of liking or disliking an object.  Preference can be notably modified by the decision-making processes.  Do you see the difference?  One is a standard (that happened every time) and the other is an evaluative judgment (may or may not happen). 

Now that we understand the difference between rules and preferences how does it relate to oncall software?  As I stated above, most prospects come to us with a list of what they consider rules.  They consider them rules because when you are using something such as Excel to create and maintain your call schedule, it (Excel) will allow you to put whatever text you want in the cell.  Although you may call it a rule, unless it happens every time it is a preference.  For example, in Excel 2+2 will always equal 4.  Always. 

Examples of Rules:

1. If Doctor "A" is oncall Friday, then he is also oncall Saturday and Sunday.
2. If Doctor does not have "Ob/Gyn" skill than he will require a back-up
3. If Doctor works oncall Saturday and Sunday then he is off-call for 7 days.

Examples of Preferences:

1. Dr. Smith prefers to work oncall on Mondays
2. Dr. Green prefers to work with Dr. Brown oncall Fridays
3. If I am doing Outreach of Thursday I would prefer not to be oncall on Friday.

As call schedule creators continue to migrate away from Excel into other oncall scheduling specific software they will need to convince their providers to become more aware of the difference. 

What the big deal, right?  Well the big deal is that most computer programs are programmed a certain way.  Most of the call scheduling software that exists today is rule based and will not accommodate preferences.  Your providers will need to decide between automation and accommodation.  The more you accommodate every one of your partners specific needs, you will be sacrificing automation.  whether this will be acceptable or not will be determined by the power and position of the person creating the schedule. 

The long and short of it is that if you are looking for a low cost, easy system, ditch the preferences and focus on the rules.  If you have a lot of money to spend and time I suggest customizing a solution or purchase an existing one and wait hours while it runs.  The choice is yours.