Debunking Common Hospital Scheduling Myths

Canada has a pretty strong healthcare system, which is often viewed as a point of pride for the country. However, it, too, has its fair share of challenges and hurdles, a lot of which have to do with managing hospital scheduling. 

Let’s take a look at a few myths about hospital scheduling in Canada and how they’re creating more hindrances for the healthcare industry. 

Manual Scheduling Can Be Used In Hospitals 

Many hospitals and healthcare organizations still use a manual scheduling system, believing it to be an effective and efficient way to track on-call schedules. However, this is hardly ever the case as most healthcare facilities have a large staff. 

Manual scheduling may work for private practices where the number of employees ranges from 2–5 individuals, but for larger or growing organizations, it simply won’t do. On the contrary, it can actually be quite stress-inducing and inefficient, resulting in a loss of productivity. 

Manual scheduling isn’t scalable. This means that the method isn’t equipped to handle an increasing amount of data and has more room for errors. If you adhere to manual scheduling practices in larger healthcare facilities, you’re putting yourself in a position that not only adds your work across multiple levels but also increases your chances of making mistakes. 

You’ll have to process several employee requests and applications, schedule work hours and shifts, and do multiple calculations. This will result in confusion, wasted time, and inefficiency, along with the possibility of errors. 

Time-Off Requests Can Be Addressed Via Email

In an ideal situation, this might work. In a hospital setting, however, emails aren’t the best way to handle leaves and days off.

Think of the number of emails you send or receive on a regular basis. Businesses rely on professional emails to communicate with clients. Due to the continuous back and forth involved in emailing, it’s likely that your employee’s message will get lost in the sea of other more important emails you need to tend to urgently. You may read their request and even save it for later scheduling, but it may slip your mind when you come across another email from your pharmaceutical partners or a board member. In such a scenario, it’s likely that your employees’ leave applications go unaddressed for days till they remind you once again, and you finally have to schedule it manually.

In a vast hospital network, employee emails related to days off or other similar scheduling concerns are more likely to be neglected. Relying on email for these types of requests is going to be rather ineffective for you and your employees.

Absence Management Systems Are Too Much of a Hassle

Quite the opposite, actually. Not only are they easy to set up, but they also serve as a more efficient and effective way to manage staff scheduling at hospitals.

Unlike paper schedules that aren’t always accessible to everyone, this isn’t the case with absence management systems. Employees can keep track of their schedules, leaves, and work hours on their own without having to pester their supervisors and vice versa. This boosts both efficiency and workflow productivity. 

Andgo offers smart absence management systems to healthcare organizations and hospitals to help them efficiently fill shifts as required. The hospital management software has several different features that help organizations streamline scheduling processes and boost workplace productivity.

Reach out for more details on remote healthcare management!