With three general steps, groups can benefit from call-sharing just like bigger practices.
Physicians are feeling the squeeze these days: decreasing numbers of available on-call physicians, increasing mergers, on-call compensation issues, and the need to provide 24/7 on-call coverage is taking its toll on physician morale no matter the size of the group. The increasing use of hospitalists and technology such as EHR has great potential to alleviate stress for physicians in medium and large groups, but what steps can “smaller” practices take? Here are some ideas I have learned while training smaller on-call scheduling groups.