How Brantford General cut physician scheduling admin from 20+ hours to 1-2 hours a month
Brantford General Hospital’s emergency department was managing a complex physician schedule manually. It was taking about 20 hours every month to build the schedule, shift trades were common, and filling every shift was an ongoing challenge.
With MetricAid Advanced + EM, the department handed off the day-to-day scheduling work and used its own historical data to make more informed decisions about physician
Scheduling had become a job of its own
Before MetricAid, two physicians shared responsibility for building the emergency department schedule, each spending more than 10 hours a month on the task.
The challenges went beyond the time involved. Physicians initiated dozens of shift trades each month, some shifts were difficult to fill, and the department was looking for a better way to account for both coverage needs and physician preferences.
At the same time, patients were waiting an average of 2.4 hours to see a physician.
Taking the scheduling work off the department’s plate
Brantford General Hospital moved to MetricAid Advanced + EM, combining MetricAid’s physician scheduling software with the support of our in-house scheduling team, who took responsibility for preparing and maintaining schedules for 45 physicians working approximately 350 shifts each month.
Instead of building the schedule themselves, department leaders could provide the parameters, preferences, and coverage requirements that needed to be accounted for, then leave the ongoing scheduling work to MetricAid.
Using department data to rethink coverage
Advanced + EM also gave the department an opportunity to look beyond simply filling shifts.
Using Brantford General’s historical scheduling and department data, the MetricAid team identified several changes that could better align physician coverage with demand, without increasing the total number of physician hours or shifts per day.
Recommendations included:
Starting two shifts an hour earlier each day
Having each shift include time in both high- and low-acuity zones
Building in an hour of transition time between acuity zones, giving physicians time to finish with patients before moving to another area
These changes were designed around how demand moved through the department throughout the day.
The results
The impact was felt in both the scheduling process and the department itself.
20+ hours to 1-2 hours
Two physician schedulers had previously spent more than 10 hours each, every month, building the schedule. After moving to MetricAid, one scheduler spent approximately 1-2 hours a month on scheduling-related work.
97% of shifts matched availability or preference
Of assigned shifts:
61% were identified as preferred by the physician
36% went to physicians who were available or felt neutral about the shift
3% went to physicians who were available but had indicated they would prefer not to work that shift
0% were assigned when a physician was unavailable
36 minutes shorter average wait
Average patient wait time was reduced by 36 minutes.
49 minutes shorter time to discharge
Average total time to discharge was reduced by 49 minutes.
Fewer shift trades
Shift trades dropped by as many as 10 per month.
A schedule that worked better for the people behind it
The change was not only about reducing administrative work. Physicians reported greater satisfaction with their schedules and were assigned more of the shifts they preferred. The department also moved from struggling to fill shifts to consistently publishing full schedules, with additional physician availability for coverage.
For the leadership team, that meant less time spent thinking about the schedule and more confidence that the work was being handled.
Interested in What Better Scheduling Could Look Like for Your Department?
Every department has its own scheduling realities. Tell us what is taking up your team’s time, where coverage gets difficult, and what you would like to improve. We’ll show you how MetricAid could approach it.