ARTICLES

Medical staff schedule is most complicated because of the vast number of rules and policies they have to follow. For example:

-          Each employee has to have minimum rest after certain shifts and longer rest after other shifts.

-          Some shifts can be combined and other shifts cannot follow certain shifts.

-          Some shifts have higher priority while some shifts can be filled on a standby basis.

-          Overtime control to limit the amount of overtime.

-          Allocating employees with specific skill set to specific shifts.

-          Assigning trainees to shifts without taking away other staff.

Accommodating to all these rules, policies and limitations takes time and a lot of skill and can be assisted by some software, but only the ones who can handle the task. 

Not every software can deal with a complicated schedule like the one of medical staff, when choosing your software you have to look for some crucial features. First, the scheduling software should be able to manage complex rules and the combination of policies, you should be able to apply the rules, together or one at a time, on groups of employees, shifts and the entire schedule. Another important feature is your employee details, you should be able to define different skills to different employees and to be able to assign more than one skill to each person. Finally, your staff availability should be managed by the software. On top of telling you which day they can work, your employees should be able to choose specific times or shifts, while you can control the limitation they are allowed to submit.