title: Use of a self-selected scheduling method in a large academic emergency medicine group.
abstract: We describe a method for scheduling shifts in a large academic emergency medicine group. The method starts with a survey of the faculty to assign shift equivalent values to each of the 13 different shifts used during the week. A weekday day shift is assigned a value of 1.0, and the shifts range in value up to 2.1 units. Each faculty member is then assigned a shift allocation for the academic year equally divided among the various shift types. Faculty members can request reallocation of shift types on the basis of the individual shift equivalent values. Once the number of the different shifts are allocated as required by the schedule, a lottery is held whereby individual faculty members choose specific shifts in turn for the upcoming year. The lottery selection is done by the faculty members accessing a common server from their office computers during a specified period. The lottery process continues until all shifts are filled. The creation of shift equivalent values facilitates the initial allocation of shifts and subsequent trades between faculty members.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131-5246, USA. Dbinder@salud.unm.edu
authors.forename: Douglas S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.forename: Cameron S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Crandall
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hauswald
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data