If you prefer an automatic call scheduler, this scheduler is just
what you need. You simply list your doctors, their call qualifications,
their vacation schedules, and push a button to create a year's schedule,
one month at a time.
Before you press the button to automatically assign calls, you can
manually assign any calls and the automatic scheduling logic will not
disturb those assignments. Likewise, after the automatic call assignments,
you can edit any assignments in order to have the schedule exactly fit
your needs. You can even specify if any of the calls should not be
automatically scheduled but only be available for manual assignments.
The unique combination of manual and automatic scheduling assures that
those special scheduling rules that you have can be implemented.
Calls are evenly and fairly distributed among all of the doctors who
are qualified for the call and nobody is assigned to any call more
frequently than necessary which evenly distributes the calls throughout
the month and the year.
The program tracks up to 10 daily calls and 8 days (7 weekdays and
holidays) and tries to assign everyone to a call/day combination before
assigning it to someone another time. For example, if there are 25 doctors
qualified for a specific call, every doctor will be assigned to that call
about every 25 Mondays, every 25 Tuesdays, etc. throughout the year.
The scheduler can be set to assign the same doctor to a
Friday/Saturday/Sunday call or to a Saturday/Sunday call if you use a
consecutive-day call strategy to cover your weekends.
The call assignment logic also tries to evenly distribute the number of
times each doctor is assigned to a specific call. For example, someone
will not be assigned to a Monday Call #1 and another Call #1 until it is
absolutely necessary.
Call history is carried forward form one month to the next for as long
as you use the scheduler, so month-to-month and year-to-year call counts
and fairness are maintained forever.
You can specify up to 40 "holidays" per year including actual holidays
and any other days (say those before and after an actual holiday) that you
would like to treat as a holiday in the call distribution.
Several calendars and schedules are produced to show which doctors are on
call each day. You can also transfer the call schedules into your MS
Office Calendar, your PDA and your Smart Phone so it will always be
available for handy reference.
