Six Ways Provider Scheduling Integrations Can Improve Healthcare Workforce Management

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Better physician scheduling can bring dramatic benefits to your organization’s healthcare workforce management, such as improving speed to care, provider wellness, resource utilization, and patient access. A scheduling platform’s ability to integrate with other key systems supports its ability to realize these benefits.

When searching for a provider scheduling solution that meets your organization’s needs, the following integrations will be most impactful:

Patient Appointment Scheduling

It’s crucial that your provider scheduling solution can easily communicate with your patient appointment scheduling tool (e.g., Epic Cadence).

This helps avoid the confusion and frustration of appointments scheduled in error by automatically accounting for physicians’ non-patient events, like vacations and conferences.

If a calendar event is canceled or added, the system automatically updates to either allow patient scheduling or create a queue of appointments that need rescheduling. And you can do it all while still using your existing patient scheduling system.

Your team can decrease scheduling errors because they always know which physicians or advanced practice providers have availability. This improves continuity of care and allows administrators to focus more on patient satisfaction.

Payroll Systems

Integrating provider scheduling with payroll systems like Kronos and ProCare Payroll can vastly improve the accuracy of your payments. It seems obvious to make proper compensation a high priority, but if you can imagine being a provider who gets underpaid for their work because of a payroll error, the importance of accuracy in this workflow takes on a new meaning. These kinds of mistakes—especially if they happen multiple times—can lead to job dissatisfaction and even feelings of burnout among providers.

With the right integration, automated workflows allow administrators to avoid manually entering the data, which helps to prevent mistakes since every shift worked is correctly—and automatically—documented. These workflows also make it easier to adhere to contractual requirements for things like overtime.

Call Centers

The call center is often a patient or provider’s first touch point with a healthcare organization. Managing their calls seamlessly ensures they don’t drop off due to long hold times. That’s why your provider scheduling solution should integrate with call center platforms like Telmediq, Amcom, Amtelco, Spok, and PerfectServe.

When schedules are integrated with your call center software, operators can see current on-call providers and who’s on shift to connect calls immediately. If operators are referencing outdated faxed schedules or an Excel spreadsheet, calls can be incorrectly routed, creating frustration for the inbound caller and the provider who was contacted in error.

Integrated schedules can also support one-click mass notifications for situations like weather warnings, code alerts, or STEMI activations via secure text messaging.

Empower call center operators with integrated schedules to improve efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction.

OR Systems

Look for a solution that integrates your provider scheduling with OR systems like Epic Op-time and AnesthesiaGo. This allows administrators to accurately assign staff to OR cases through automation or drag-and-drop workflows.

By combining surgeon and anesthesiologist availability with their individual preferences, credentials, teaming requests, and other factors, monthly and daily OR assignments are auto-generated to reduce delays and cancellations. This improves resource utilization and boosts provider satisfaction.

GME Management

You’ll also want a provider scheduling solution that integrates with Graduate Medical Education (GME) management tools like My Evaluations, New Innovations, and Illuminate BI.

This will free up administrators to move away from error-prone manual data entry by automating the documentation process. It improves resident and physician satisfaction by ensuring rotation requirements are fulfilled and clinician competencies are met. It’s also easier to adhere to resident graduation requirements.

Secure Messaging Systems

One of the best ways to improve speed to care is by optimizing clinical communication. Integrating your scheduling solution with secure messaging systems like Telmediq, PerfectServe, Voalte, and Vocera helps your team contact the right physician every time.

With shift and on-call schedules maintained in real time, messages are always routed to the correct provider, regardless of any last-minute swaps or shift changes. This accelerates speed to care and increases patient access.

Clinical communication improves, workflows become more efficient, and satisfaction increases for providers and patients.

If you’d like to see how these and other integrations can support your organization’s healthcare workforce management, schedule time with us today.

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