An Innovative Approach to Resident Scheduling: Use of a Point-Based System to Account for Resident Preferences

Chow, Robert T.; Tamhane, Shrikant; Zhang, Manling; Fisher, Lori‐Ann; Yoon, Jenni; Sehgal, Sameep; Lumbres, Madel; Han, Mingda; Win, Tiffany

doi:10.4300/jgme-d-14-00530.1

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Accommodation of rotation and vacation preferences has used as a criteria for multiple other scheduling endeavors [ 3 , 19 , 20 ], and cited as a limitation when not included [ 14 ]. The difficulty in satisfying vacation and rotation preferences has led to other, non-automated approaches to scheduling [ 21 ], highlighting that optimization of these metrics is of high priority and a reasonable markers of schedule quality. Prior to scheduling, Qualtrics surveys of preferred vacation timeframes as well as rotation preferences were collected during the 2017–2018 and the 2018–2019 academic years.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of an automated scheduling tool improves schedule quality and resident satisfaction

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rotation schedules for residents must balance individual preferences, compliance with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education guidelines, and institutional staffing requirements. Automation has the potential to improve the consistency and quality of schedules. We designed a novel rotation scheduling tool, the Automated Internal Medicine Scheduler (AIMS), and evaluated schedule quality and resident satisfaction and perceptions of fairness after implementation. We compared schedule uniformity, fulfillment of resident preferences, and conflicting shift assignments for the hand-made 2017–2018 schedule, and the AIMS-generated 2018–2019 schedule. Residents were surveyed in September 2018 to assess perception of schedule quality and fairness. With AIMS, 71/74 (96.0%) interns and 66/82 (80.5%) residents were assigned to their first-choice rotation, a significant increase from the 50/72 (69.4%) interns and 25/82 (30.5%) residents assigned their first-choice in the 2017–2018 academic year. AIMS also yielded significant improvements in the number of night shift/day shift conflicts at the time of rotation switches for interns, with a significant decrease to 0.3 conflicts per intern compared to 0.7 with the prior manual schedule. Twenty-two of 82 residents (27%) completed the survey, and average satisfaction and perception of fairness were 0.7 and 0.9 points higher on a 5-point Likert scale for the AIMS-generated schedule when compared to the non-AIMS schedule. There was no significant difference in the preference for assigned vacation blocks, or in variance for night or ICU rotations. Automated scheduling improved several metrics of schedule quality, as well as resident satisfaction. Future directions include evaluation of the tool in other residency programs and comparison with alternative scheduling algorithms.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of an automated scheduling tool improves schedule quality and resident satisfaction

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are three main principles that must be balanced when designing a residency program schedule: (1) education and curriculum requirements for training; (2) adequate service coverage of rotations reliant on trainees; and (3) allowing residents to take allotted paid time off (PTO) 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Once the schedule is constructed, it is often strained by absences that can come from many sources: PTO, sick days, family/medical leave, jury duty, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

This is Jeopardy! A flexible coverage-based schedule model to address wellness for pathology training programs

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The difficulty of accounting for various scheduling conflicts, such as clinics obligations, duty hour violations, or personal requests, can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among residents. 1 Similarly, creating an equitable distribution of calls has also become a challenge in recent years as the complexity of the residencies increases. These routine challenges in manual scheduling, common in graduate medical education, might be mitigated by implementing strategies that other sectors have successfully used for years.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated and Optimized Neurosurgery Scheduling System Improves Resident Satisfaction

Porche,

Mohan,

Dow

et al. 2024

Neurosurgery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neurosurgery residency involves a complex structure with multiple hospitals, services, and clinic days, leading to challenges in creating equitable call schedules. Manually prepared scheduling systems are prone to biases, error, and perceived unfairness. To address these issues, we developed an automated scheduling system (Automated Optimization of Neurosurgery Scheduling System [AONSS]) to reduce biases, accommodate resident requests, and optimize call variation, ultimately enhancing the educational experience by promoting diverse junior-senior-attending relationships. METHODS: AONSS was developed and tailored to the University of Florida program, with inaugural use in 2021–2022 and mandatory implementation in the 2022–2023 academic year. 2019–2021 academic years were used as control. Residents were surveyed using Google Forms before and after implementation to assess its impact. Outcome measures included call and pairing variations, duty hours, as well as subjective factors such as satisfaction, fairness, and perceived biases. RESULTS: Twenty-six residents (28%-39% female/year) were included in the study. AONSS was used for 6/13 blocks during the 2021–2022 academic year and 13/13 blocks for the 2022–2023 academic year. Overall call variation reduced by 70%. All other objective secondary measures have improved with AONSS. Weekly and monthly duty hours were reduced and less varied. Satisfaction scores improved from 21% reporting being somewhat satisfied or very satisfied to 90%. Fairness scores improved from 43% reporting being somewhat fair or very fair to 95%. Perception of gender bias decreased from 29% to 0%. No resident felt there was racial bias in either system. CONCLUSION: Our newly developed automated scheduling system effectively reduces variation among calls in a complex neurosurgery residency, which, in return, was found to increase residents' satisfaction with their schedule, improve their perception of fairness with the schedule, and has completely removed the perception of sexual bias in a program that has a large percentage of females. In addition, it was found to be associated with decreased duty hours.

show abstract

An Innovative Approach to Resident Scheduling: Use of a Point-Based System to Account for Resident Preferences

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Implementation of an automated scheduling tool improves schedule quality and resident satisfaction

Implementation of an automated scheduling tool improves schedule quality and resident satisfaction

This is Jeopardy! A flexible coverage-based schedule model to address wellness for pathology training programs

Automated and Optimized Neurosurgery Scheduling System Improves Resident Satisfaction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About