SEVERAL HOSPITALIST GROUPS have moved to create flexible scheduling for their staff given the heightened need to reduce physician burnout and improve retention.
These changes reflect studies including a literature review posted this year by Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health that looked at the prevalence of burnout among women clinicians.
In 22% of the studies included, reduced burnout was linked to working in a supportive environment, identified in part as one that offers flexible scheduling. But according to 2023 Society of Hospital Medicine survey data, only one-quarter (24.2%) of hospitalist groups that treat adults maintain a variable schedule vs. 60.2% that still rely on seven-on/seven-off.
We talked to several hospitalist groups that have moved to create scheduling or staffing flexibility.
“Flexibility requires creativity, hard work and openness to change,” says Jeremy Jaskunas, MD, a hospitalist with UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital, a community teaching hospital in Madison, Wis. “Rigidity often reflects a lack of imagination, laziness and fear. We have so much capability to innovate, so why keep doing things the same way when our world is always changing?”
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health: Matching shift-start times to work
A group figures out how to best deploy their float physicians. Read more here.
UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital: Different strengths, skills, personalities
Flexible scheduling works to retain different demographics. Read more here.
University of New Mexico Hospital: Making the most of scheduling software
Flexible schedules evolve as hospitalists take on new roles. Read more here.
Williamson Medical Center: Seasonal staffing
Learning how to manage low-census days. Read more here.
Phyllis Maguire is Executive Editor of Today’s Hospitalist.
