Web-based Enterprise On-Call Scheduling Vs. a Siloed, Paper Approach

Health system departments tend to silo themselves and make decisions based on what works for their individual departments. Solutions may be home-grown for each and based on tools that are available at arm’s length. A good example of this is generating and maintaining on-call schedules. It may make sense for departments to create and maintain on-call schedules using Excel because it’s the best tool they have on hand.

Now, if hospital staff take that process enterprise-wide, they may end up with hundreds of on-call schedules that are only available to those who have access to the Excel file, or a printed copy that’s circulated or posted in a central area. That solution is okay, but what about other employees who may need access to schedules including, telephone operators, administrators, physicians and RNs in different departments? Not to mention, most on-call schedules change once they are printed so printed copies must be updated and replaced constantly.

When healthcare organizations choose a web-based, on-call solution that’s easy to use and flexible enough for each department, they report significant improvements in workflow efficiency, reduction of errors, and decreased training time for users.

Rather than using a home-grown on-call solution for each department, it makes sense to choose on-call software that is flexible, easy-to-use, and can be implemented enterprise-wide. These digital solutions are:

• Password protected
• Administered by each department
• Available enterprise-wide for those that need access
• Accessible on-line for convenient access from anywhere
• Allow for secure messaging and paging within the on-call scheduling application
• Able to generate analytics and reports

This type of solution is centralized and moves away from the silo approach to developing solutions for the needs of each individual health system department.