Best Practices- Summer Scheduling
This month Samantha Kurtzer has written an article on best practices for summer scheduling.
It’s time to start thinking about the ever-important summer schedule. While it might feel a bit early, it’s a good time to start planning.
Here are some tips for putting together the summer schedule:
1: Build the Summer Months Together
Over the years, we’ve seen many strategies for building the summer schedule. Our favourite, and the one our team likes to use, is building the summer months together. Doing this allows you to approve vacation requests equitably, while ensuring you still have adequate coverage across the board.
Building the months together gives your team line of sight and the ability to make plans, while having confidence that your department has enough staff available to keep the department running smoothly. You will be able to see any red flags in availability far in advance and have them sorted before they become an issue.
2: Plan for Long Weekends
There are essentially four long weekends over the summer and it’s important to plan and communicate expectations for time off around these desirable days. Most sites agree that all physicians get to select two long weekends to take off, and two long weekends to work.
One of the first things we do when prepping to build the summer schedule is to check availability over the long weekends. Our experts are quick to spot potential issues and start a dialogue with the group to make sure all weekends are covered.
If you’re using our tool to build your own schedule, you can check your roster screen to identify potential shortfalls in your group’s availability as determined by their preferences.
You can also use the ‘Remaining Availability’ option in ‘Overlays’ to see how many people can do every shift. Below see April 4th at 23:00. You can see by the “0”, in the right-hand corner, that Dr. Laura is the only physician available to work this shift. This sort of colour-coding is great information for the start of a build, to help you get out ahead of your lean days.
3: Expect Vacation Requests
As vaccines roll out, everyone is starting to think about their much-needed vacation. Frontline workers have been grinding to meet the needs of their patients and this summer will be a key time for a little R & R.
If you have adequate staff, our best strategy for minimizing vacation request conflicts is to allow physicians to take off a maximum of 14 consecutive days or two, 7-day blocks over the summer. This doesn’t mean they can’t take a random day off, but it will help ensure that there is adequate coverage.
4: Communicate
Before the summer schedule preferences open, ensure your team knows:
· Your strategy for building the schedule, including important dates
· The expectations for time off requests, how much time can people expect to take off
· What you plan to do if there are shortfalls in coverage
While the schedule is being built, let the team know if issues come up so there are no surprises.
Reach Out Early, Reach Out Often
Whether we build your schedule, or you use our tool to build your own, we are here to help and answer your questions. If you run into a roadblock, our team will support you and offer suggestions to keep you on track.
Want to learn more? Reach out to us any time on our support channels;
Toll-free: 844-529-5577