SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Be "Excel"lent at Scheduling

Pdf Summary

The document describes a new Excel-based scheduling tool developed by the University of Wisconsin Division of Hospital Medicine to manage highly complex faculty clinical schedules. The team needed a system that could simultaneously display available faculty, target and scheduled FTE, and filled versus unfilled shifts, while reducing the time required to build schedules.<br /><br />Before this tool, six-month schedules were created by a non-clinical staff member using commercial software, a process that took about three months because the software could not easily show all needed information at once. Schedules were often released only 2–4 weeks before the start date, causing frustration among faculty.<br /><br />The new scheduling process addressed several challenges: high faculty input through preference surveys, variable clinical FTE across faculty, shift-based pay with different FTE weights, coordination across 72 physicians and 31 service lines, and shared scheduling responsibilities with VA, Med-Peds, and Family Medicine. With help from an Excel-savvy coauthor, the team built a spreadsheet that allowed live FTE tracking, easy identification of unfilled shifts, and simultaneous viewing of multiple schedules.<br /><br />Results were significant. Two authors created the July–December 2023 schedule in about 40 hours and released it three months early. The January–July 2024 schedule took about 25 hours and was published in early October, further improving timeliness. Faculty appreciated receiving schedules much earlier, and the tool made it easier to handle late changes such as unexpected FMLA.<br /><br />Future plans include moving to three-month scheduling blocks, exploring commercialization, assessing scheduling needs across programs, and improving integration with commercial software.

Asset Subtitle

Samantha Murray-Bainer

Meta Tag

Author List Kyle W. Bainer, Rebecca MacAllister, Samantha Murray-Bainer, Sarah Ahrens

Category Innovations

Concept Clinical Scheduling

Concept Scheduling Tool

Concept Faculty FTE

Concept Schedule Creation Time

Concept Schedule Release Timing

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health

Presenting Author Samantha Murray-Bainer

Track Technology in Hospital Medicine

Keywords

Excel scheduling tool

faculty clinical schedules

FTE tracking

hospital medicine

schedule automation

unfilled shifts

clinical scheduling

University of Wisconsin

shift-based pay

scheduling software

Clinical Scheduling

Scheduling Tool

Faculty FTE

Schedule Creation Time

Schedule Release Timing