Enterprise-Wide Scheduling: 3 Benefits to Hospitals and Health Systems

Historically, the approach to provider scheduling can best be described as “divide and conquer.” Using this tactic, physicians are often clustered by practice group or by specialty. For example, physicians from a particular radiology group have one call schedule and anesthesiologists from a different group have another. When each independently sends its schedule to the emergency department, staff are forced to consult multiple schedules when trying to reach the right physician. In other words, the divide and conquer approach may seem efficient at first glance, but ultimately it causes more problems than it solves.

In today’s healthcare landscape, enterprise-wide scheduling delivers greater efficiencies to hospitals and health systems. The benefits are threefold:

1. Single source of truth: Enterprise-wide scheduling software allows all stakeholders to determine which providers are scheduled today and in the days and weeks to come. Schedules and contact preferences can be updated in real time, providing accurate information at a glance. This is especially helpful when providers are caring for patients across multiple locations or have both teaching and clinical roles.
2. Increased visibility: With a siloed approach to scheduling, it can be difficult for administrators to clearly see which providers are working at which locations and how many shifts per month each provider is working. In contrast, reports generated as the result of enterprise-wide scheduling enable increased visibility into the workforce, greater scheduling equity that lowers physician burnout, and even insights that can help inform contract negotiations.
3. Proper coverage: When hospital patient censuses fluctuate, so does the demand for providers. When schedules are siloed, it’s difficult to adapt to fluid demand. In contrast, enterprise-wide scheduling software makes it easy to adjust coverage to accommodate historical variations and real-time needs. As a result, patients are seen in a timely manner, increasing patient satisfaction and improving patient outcomes.

In many ways, enterprise-wide scheduling is the missing link that hospitals and health systems need to ensure that administrators, providers, and schedulers are on the same proverbial page. Having that single source of truth across multiple departments and locations creates a seamless approach to personnel deployment that the “divide and conquer” approach will never achieve.

MDsyncNET’s cloud-based enterprise-wide scheduling software delivers four advantages: low set-up fees, simple to learn, a single source of truth, and painless scheduling swaps. Call 888-506-5061 to see how MDsyncNET can help you streamline your organization’s provider scheduling.