Any inpatient, shift-based specialty, such as a hospitalist service, needs to have a firm understanding of anticipated staffing. Whether the schedule is completed in 3-month, 6-month, or annual blocks, forecasting staffing for a hospitalist service or other inpatient program is critical to understand where there may be shortcomings. Deficiencies in staffing are not simple. Given different hospitalists may work different types of shifts and be full-time or part-time, understanding a service’s staffing position can be complex. For example, is the service overstaffed for days but understaffed for evenings? What about night shifts? Is there enough staffing to support adding an extra hospitalist during the day, evening, or night? The fact that shift-based specialties are constituted not only by employed physicians, but also by moonlighting physicians as well as by employed and moonlighting Advanced Practice Providers makes the staffing puzzle even more complex.
This is why OnServiceMD implemented staffing insights. By understanding where shift deficits and surpluses may exist for a given schedule block, program leaders and administrators can better predict how their service will be staffed, ensure recruitment focuses on the right roles or determine how to focus moonlighting efforts for a particular scheduling block. Once a program enters their staff into the system, OnServiceMD will help answer these important questions and position the service to manage future schedule blocks more effectively.