3 Simple Ways to Make Your Urgent Care Staff Scheduling Manageable

September 19, 2019

For anyone in charge of staff scheduling, they understand the struggles involved with trying to create a schedule that will work for everyone. While scheduling may seem like a fairly straightforward process at first glance, in reality, there is a tremendous amount of pressure placed on the scheduler. They must decipher what will make up the perfect balance of regularly scheduled employees, as well as being able to fill in the void when the demand for urgent care becomes overwhelmingly busy.

Employers run the risk of having too many staff members on shift with plenty of idle time on their hands, or being short staffed, resulting in the burden of taking on a patient load that is greater than they can handle.

However difficult it may sound, managing these types of scheduling issues is a common part of many workplaces, and with a little planning and organization, it can easily become a manageable task.

Here are 3 easy ways to help organize and simplify your urgent care staff scheduling process:

1. Determine Availability

The first step to simplifying the scheduling process is to gather everyone’s availability and then create a list. Some helpful information to include on the list is the employee’s credentials and roles, and whether they are part time or full time.

By collecting this data, the scheduler has a much clearer picture of their available resources, before attempting to draw out a schedule that would most likely need to be modified anyways.

Ideally, scheduling should include a 4-6 week time period, so staff can better plan for any shortcomings and make additional arrangements if needed. It may also be helpful to know which employees work a set schedule, or a varied one, and keep this information easily accessible in a calendar or form.

2. Make it Easily Accessible

The days of answering phone calls and giving out schedules to employees over the phone should be long gone. Not only is this time consuming, but also it’s also unprofessional. Staff members should not have to stop what they are doing to dig through piles of papers trying to locate such information, when there is a much easier and more organized method, such as online access.

3. Define the Rules

Establishing a clear set of guidelines when it comes to the urgent care staff scheduling process is an absolute must. While it’s always good to offer your staff some amount of flexibility and independence when it comes to scheduling, rules must be in place to avoid complications.

Provide transparency and clarity if you allow shift trading, such as when shift trading is allowed. This avoids major conflicts later, such as he said, she said type of scenarios, which often escalate into bigger problems. There should also be a process in place for picking up extra shifts, as well as a definition of your overtime rules.

While it may have been difficult to remain organized in the past, fortunately things have improved. Consider implementing urgent care staff scheduling software, which keeps all of your valuable data in one place and is accessible online 24/7. Scheduling software also keeps track of employee availability without any back and forth phone calls, creating rules, and allowing shift trades using time stamp messaging.

Get control over your urgent care staff scheduling with Schedule360, and focus on other important matters, like giving your hard working scheduler a much deserved break. Contact us today to schedule a customized demo!