Practice Management

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  • 1.  Physician Scheduling

    Posted 01-10-2023 08:43
    We are a private practice hospital based group with 40 radiologsts staffing 5 hospitals and 6+ OP clinics.  We have a staff member whose main job is to do the physician scheduling.  Over the years, we have found that we can only prepare the schedule one week in advance.  When we tried to schedule out farther (ex. 2 weekks or more), we found there were too many scheduling changes that had to be made so we went back to just scheduling one week in advance.  We do have the radiologists vacation schedule done one year out but scheduling weekly work rotations more than one week out has proven cumbersome and requires our scheduler to spend alot more time with just changes.

    I am curious what other groups do and if you schedule more than one week out, how do you deal with the inevitable scheduling conflicts and changes?

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    Andrew Farah
    Director of Operations
    Drs. Harris, Birkhill, Wang, Songe & Associates
    Dearborn MI
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    Spectrum Management Services Company: We guarantee radiology practices improved profitability, increased efficiency, and trusted expertise.


  • 2.  RE: Physician Scheduling

    Posted 01-10-2023 09:00

    We are similar size, and we do the time off and after hours schedule in six month segments.  The full work schedule is typically published 1-2 months out.

     

    We may have 2-3 schedule changes per week, but most of the time they involve trades, so they really only impact the physicians involved, and it isn't a big deal to update the published schedule on Qgenda.  I think our doctors would strongly prefer to know when and where they are working a few weeks out so they can plan their personal lives.

     

    I think the question to ask would be whether the number of changes are excessive, are the types of changes problematic, and if so is there anything systemic that can be done to make them less so.  One thing that may help tamp down the number of changes is to require doctors who want to make convenience changes after the schedule is published to find their own replacement.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Dave

     

     

           David Smith, FACMPE  |  Executive Director  |  785.393.8387

    5800 Foxridge Dr.  Ste 240  |  Mission, KS  66202  |  www.uickc.com

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    Spectrum Management Services Company: We guarantee radiology practices improved profitability, increased efficiency, and trusted expertise.


  • 3.  RE: Physician Scheduling

    Posted 01-10-2023 09:11

    I agree with David. We would ask for requested days off for the next month two weeks ahead of the schedule publish date and would post one month at a time. 

     

    Also if using Qgenda, the doctors can make their own swaps/trades in the system once they have found their replacement.  Definitely frees up your schedulers time.

     

    _____________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­________­­­­­__

    Shannon N. Wilson, FRBMA

    she/her/hers

    Associate Director of Professional Billing

    Radiology and Radiation Oncology, CPBO

    Mass General Brigham

    M (925) 407-6667

    massgeneralbrigham.org

     

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    Spectrum Management Services Company: We guarantee radiology practices improved profitability, increased efficiency, and trusted expertise.


  • 4.  RE: Physician Scheduling

    Posted 01-10-2023 09:28
    I am a Radiologist Practice Operations expert with a subspecialization in radiologist scheduling, so this topic is very near and dear to my heart. I whole-heartedly agree with David and Shannon. 

    Are you using software for your physician schedule such as Qgenda or LightingBolt Solutions? The trick with scheduling software is to set it up so that radiologists can trade between themselves without staff intervention, which requires programming rules that will disallow "illegal" trades.  It can be a complex set-up process that pays big dividends in the long-run.

    I would also question why there are so many trades. Is it due to radiologist preferences, or are they flexing based on volume, or is your radiologist scheduling algorithm not staffing radiologists in the correct assignments?

    My gut says that most radiologists would be unhappy with a schedule publication cadence less than a month at a time.  My schedule goal is to be published 90 days ahead. Holidays and weekends are out a year in advance.  At the moment I am out only 60 days with 2 of my groups which is not optimal. But the farther out you schedule, the more changes you have to be prepared to field.

    I'm happy to PM you to discuss further.

    Janet






    Spectrum Management Services Company: We guarantee radiology practices improved profitability, increased efficiency, and trusted expertise.