Doctors: 10 Reasons to Manage Your Schedules with PetalMD

Here are 10 reasons to join the 37,000 doctors who create, manage or consult their schedules with the PetalMD platform.

1. Automated Scheduling

The more complex the schedule is, the more automated planning can save the scheduler a significant amount of time in the planning process, while providing members of the group with a more equitable distribution of shifts. In order to automate schedule creation, PetalMD’s solution uses an algorithm that relies on planning constraints, such as: physician absences, minimum on-call coverage, shifts that can only be performed by certain subspecialists or equity targets.

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2. Respect for Doctor Availability

The system ensures that all requests sent to the scheduler are considered and respected as much as possible. If a request is incompatible, the solution highlights the conflict, and schedulers can adjust the schedule manually. They can also automatically give priority to certain rules based on what matters most to the members of their department.

3. Fair Shift Distribution

PetalMD’s solution can be configured to ensure certain shifts are distributed fairly, for example night shifts and weekends. The calculation of this equity factor can consider exceptions, such as: part-time doctors, gradual returns after parental leave, contracts with the hospital, preferences or shifts that can only be assigned to specific doctors. The system is designed to encourage fairness and help remove any complaints of favoritism, while producing equity reports to visualize the results.

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4. Reduced Communication Errors

All schedules created with the PetalMD platform are cloud-based and up-to-date, which means that people always share a single version of the truth. Changes are applied in real time and notifications can be sent to the people concerned, which reduces communication errors between doctors, assistants, schedulers and the administrative staff of the health institution.

5. Centralized Absence Requests

With PetalMD’s schedule management solution, absence requests sent by doctors are not scattered over multiple systems, such as: voice messages, paper documents, emails, electronic documents or oral requests from assistants. Doctors enter their absences directly into their calendar and knows for sure that the scheduler has all the correct data. As for the scheduler, he or she can easily access all the absence requests without having to group them one by one manually.

6. Schedules that Meet the Requirements of the Health Facility

Requirements of the healthcare facility regarding coverage or contracts can be configured in the PetalMD platform as mathematical rules, so that the algorithm ensures that they are met at all times. Hence, when a request for shift change is incompatible with those rules, for example because two doctors with the same expertise plan to be absent at the same time or because the on-call coverage becomes incomplete, the PetalMD solution highlights the conflict and the scheduler can correct the situation.

7. Medical Service Schedules Synchronized with External Calendars

By using the solution developed by PetalMD, doctors can see their work shifts on external calendars such as: Google Calendar, iCal and Outlook. This means they can easily share their availabilities with other people, for example, their administrative assistant or even members of their family.

8. User-Friendly Mobile App Dedicated to Your Work Schedule

Available on iOS and Android, the PetalMD mobile app has been designed with the latest user experience practices in mind, so that personal and group calendars are always displayed optimally. In addition, when it comes to improving features and interfaces, the PetalMD team is always listening to doctors and healthcare providers. For these reasons, the application is constantly improving and always adapted to the reality of the users.

9. Simple and Quick Shift Exchanges

To reduce the time required for a replacement, the solution developed by PetalMD allows physicians to exchange or transfer shifts among themselves, without having to go through an intermediary. As for the scheduler, he or she can choose to approve the changes made by the doctors before they become effective, depending on the types of shifts or on the doctor(s) who initiate the request. It is important to note that the solution considers the skills of the exchanges, making sure only doctors who qualify for the shift offered can accept it.

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10. Easy Transition When a Scheduler Changes

With PetalMD, the rules and procedures associated with each physician group are saved, centralized and do not depend on one person’s knowledge. The solution produces templates that considerably speed up the creation of future schedules. By ensuring that the rules governing the optimal management and distribution of shifts are safely maintained, physicians increase the likelihood that their requests, preferences and agreements will be honoured even when the scheduler changes. As for future schedulers, their work will be both easier and faster.

So now that you can clearly see the advantages of using one scheduling system, find out how to implement the PetalMD solution in your healthcare work environment.