scheduling software

[12R34Y]

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Last thread I saw on this was in 2005.

Anybody using/got/heard about scheduling software to schedule residents for shifts that allows requests for vacation/specific days off etc...Basically if you plug in REsident A (needs 18 eight hour shifts with vacation on bla blah blah etc...) and you plug it in an BAM! you've got a schedule.

I know this sounds like fantasy, but are there any decent scheduling software programs out there?

later

 

[docB]

I use Tangier

http://www.peakesoftware.com/peakesoftware/

Well actually my practice manager uses Tangier. I just go where it tells me to go like a soulless automaton. My PM seems to like it. We got to the point where it just couldn’t be done by hand (5 hospitals, 40+ docs). I don’t actually know too much about how it works.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I use Tangier

http://www.peakesoftware.com/peakesoftware/

Well actually my practice manager uses Tangier. I just go where it tells me to go like a soulless automaton. My PM seems to like it. We got to the point where it just couldn’t be done by hand (5 hospitals, 40+ docs). I don’t actually know too much about how it works.

Our attendings use tangier and I have heard that it is "several thousand" dollars per year.

We use amion but making the schedule is a fully manual process.

 

[USCDiver]

Our attendings use tangier and I have heard that it is "several thousand" dollars per year.

We use amion but making the schedule is a fully manual process.

The group I'm with now uses Tangier (I make our schedule) and it is a pain in the A$$ to actually make the schedule because both the schedule viewing and schedule making are web based. Neither is a particularly sophisticated interface. For instance, to add someone to a shift, you select their name and click the shift. That's easy enough. But if you want to switch two people while you're fine tuning, you have to select remove, then click both shifts, then select one of the doc and add him to a shift then select the other and add them to the other shift. Very labor intensive. Where Tangier comes out on top is with calculating hours actually worked vs scheduled. In other words, after each shift you can log on and choose what time you arrived and what time you left, down to the minute. That is obviously more important if you're being paid by the hour than salary (ie residency).

In residency I started making the schedule during my Third year. Prior to that it had been made by hand. When I started making it, we began using Amion. This program is a little bit harder to learn, but it is easier to fine tune a schedule by dragging and dropping workers.

Both systems allow you to request days off. Amion was originally designed for making a call list, so if you enter in everyone's preferences and requests and hit the 'autoscheduler' it spreads everyone out evenly. So the autoscheduler feature wasn't great for ED scheduling where most people want to have their shifts clustered. That may have changed with recent editions of Amion though.

In general I preferred to use Amion to MAKE the schedule, but I prefer Tangier to LOOK at the schedule and for logging your actual hours.

 

[DrQuinn]

We use Tangier where we're at (Attendings-wise). I don't make the schedule, but love Tangier and actually use it as my planner.

When I was chief, I made the schedule by hand using Excel.

I know a lot of other specialties in residency like amion.com

Q

 

[igcgnerd]

Best program I have seen, and because its internet accessible:
http://whentowork.com/

 

[highdesert]

We are also using Tangier. Seems to work well for all of us in a 15 physician group. It allows us to put in requests for time off, request shift switches, etc.

Highdesert

 

[EctopicFetus]

Im about to start working on our schedule here.. anyone have advice to offer? This will be hand done and complex as all gets..

EF

 

[H2O2 Scheduling]

Basically if you plug in REsident A (needs 18 eight hour shifts with vacation on bla blah blah etc...) and you plug it in an BAM! you've got a schedule.

I know this sounds like fantasy, but are there any decent scheduling software programs out there?

It's not fantasy, but it may not be the utopia it seems it should be. If the only requirements for your schedule are that each resident needs to work x shifts and have predefined days off, then it's no problem. Headaches can arise when your requirements get more complicated, such as convoluted staffing requirements. As a developer of scheduling software I hear this a lot from ER depts: "Well for the 4pm we need a pgy-4 and a a pgy-3 and 2 others unless there are no pgy-4s in which case we can deal with 3 pgy-3s but not on Tuesdays because that is our biggest day and only if the noon shift has a pgy-4" etc...

If your residency or practice has evolved complex rules that govern the way schedules are made you will somehow have to tell the program that is going to create your schedule what these rules are if it is to make a schedule that is usable. If you're lucky the program will have all the right inputs and you just have to tell it what the rules are. This is tedious and time consuming and assumes the rules are well defined and easily translatable into the program's system. If not, you are likely going to get automatically generated schedules that are in need of some serious tweaking which partly defeats the purpose of auto-scheduling.

Don't get me wrong automatic scheduling is an awesome thing when it works, but don't underestimate the amount of data-entry you need to do upfront to get good schedules.

Also, you should definitely expect that a program that can automatically generate a good schedule for an ER dept to be in the thousands of dollars. Good automatic scheduling software is very hard to develop.

 

[SolisR]

When I used to make the schedule for our EMS System, we used VSSPro. Not fully automated, but it did make my life easier trying to get the right staffing on each shift.

And it's not THAT expensive. At least it wasn't *a few* years ago.

- R

 

[TysonCook]

Just digging this up from the grave as our group is still doing it by hand. While nice for specific schedules it is getting out late every month due to it being more and more labor intensive (last mo we got the schedule 1wk before August).

Any new programs out there, and fresh ideas. Tangiers, Amion, any others?🙂

 

[docB]

Still using Tangiers (see my previous post). It seems to work but, like any computer program, it can't do anything you don't tell it to and it's hard to make it humane. For example I have some really wacky weeks coming up where I'm day, day, day then night then 1 day off then a swing. Ick. I think humans are better but I understand that in a 5 hospital system it's just too much.

 

[H2O2 Scheduling]

Looks like it's time to update my reply from last year.

While what I wrote above is still true I decided to go ahead and attempt to develop an automated scheduling solution. It's not Utopia yet, but I'm working on it... 🙂

The system can create progressive shift schedules and does a decent job of it as long as your requirements aren't too demanding.

Having said that it got released very recently (this summer) so it's still evolving and getting better.

If you'd like to give it a try let me know, or you could just describe to me your scheduling situation and I'll be able to tell you if it would be worth your time to try it.

Cheers,

Olivier Forget
Developer, H2-O2 / MedRez.net