The Real Cost of On-Call Scheduling

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The impact of call schedules is more widespread than you might expect. Whether it’s a paper calendar pinned to the bulletin in the nurse’s station or a centralized file on the hospital intranet, an on-call schedule can help accelerate—or immobilize—critical patient care.

“I was used to paper scheduling, but now I see real-time updates in the schedule and how beneficial those are.

If a patient in room 264 needs pain medicine but a patient in 271 needs a bolus because they are tanking, I can reach into my pocket, look at a device, and see which provider is on call. That is how I sell a lot of naysayers on the system.

If I look at a Rolodex or paper to find the phone number of who is on call, that could take 25–35 minutes, and that is if no interruptions happen. If I can pull something out, find the schedule, and text the provider that a patient needs a bolus all in under 55 seconds, that is so much easier.

This product is incredible for bedside workers. In today’s age where bedside providers are underneath a microscope for every single decision they make, Lightning Bolt Scheduling is imperative.”

– Analyst/Coordinator
Collected by KLAS Research, April 2023

How On-Call Schedules Actually Impact Your Hospital

Let’s take the emergency department (ED) as an example. Do you know where call schedules are located in the ED? Chances are, you can find them in more than one place. Most likely, they all reflect different information.

The result? Care delays and miscommunication—which are tied to 80% of all medical errors.¹

For example:

A patient arrives in the ED in need of emergent care from a specialist. A nurse, provider, or other care team member walks to the nurse’s station, looks at the schedule, and contacts a provider who says, “I’m not on call. I swapped shifts with Dr. Green last week!” Or—even worse—the care team member can’t get in touch with any provider and is left trying to decipher who is on call while the patient is left waiting.

What’s worse is when the inefficient process is repeated, department by department, throughout your entire hospital. And the problem is not limited to hospitals still using pen and paper to manage call schedules.

On-call schedules are foundational to clinical communication, and delayed or inadequate communication can directly increase patient risk, decrease provider satisfaction, and lead to detrimental patient outcomes.

Let’s Quantify It: On-Call Scheduling by the Numbers

How are on-call schedules impacting my hospital?

Inefficient on-call schedule management and communication processes can have significant consequences across your organization. The scheduling and communication challenges that some hospitals face are linked to outdated methods, which should be replaced with the right technology to best manage on-call schedules.

Rather than hiring additional personnel to handle time-consuming manual tasks associated with managing call schedules and keeping them up to date, leading hospitals and health systems implement a single on-call scheduling solution across their enterprise to reap significant benefits.

The Benefits of a Single Enterprise-Wide On-Call Scheduling Platform

A Better Approach to On-Call Management

An enterprise-wide on-call scheduling solution offers a more efficient way for your hospital to manage on-call schedules to help accelerate speed to care, improve the patient experience, and drive care team satisfaction. Learn how your organization can get started with an enterprise-wide scheduling solution that drives real results for organizations like yours.