The scheduling tool is used to plan schedules; one period at a time. Before a period is published, work done on the schedule doesn't impact the members' calendars. When you are satisfied with the schedule, publish the results to the members of your group.
Page Overview
Left pane
This is the date range of the period.
Top pane
You can select different tabs from the top part of the planning tool page. This is also where the filters and the action buttons are located to erase assignments, print and publish the schedule.
The Period List at the top left links you back the period list page. Important and useful information can be found in the legend and reports, to the right.
The name given to the period is at the center of this top pane.
Center pane
This is the work plan. Each cell is the cross of a task-date: assignment. The number displayed in each cell represents the required number of physicians that must be assigned.
The requirements were established during the validation call between PetalMD's Service Consultant and group's planner. A one-time change can easily be made through the TASKS tab.
Right pane
In this section, different tables provide information and diagnostics to support the decision-making process. The default information depends on the tab that is selected at the top of the page and whether an assignment cell is selected or not.
Arrows
The arrows let you collapse and open the panes. This is useful when working with smaller screens.
A- Dates
Dates of the period can be filtered through the calendar in the left column. This can be particularly useful if you work one week at a time or if you have many tasks and want to avoid scrolling.
Selected dates are highlighted in blue. Dates that are outside of the planning period can't be selected.
The date range you select in this section will appear in the work plan, in the center column.
- Whole period: click on the Select all months link
- By month: click on the name of the month
- By week: click on any day of the desired week
B- Tabs
By default, in the planning tool, you will see these four tabs:
This is where the tasks are manually assigned to the members of your group. The scheduling results are visible in this tab.
Contains information concerning the number of members available to perform a task at any given time in the period.
Planning tool - Availability tab
In this section, you can see and edit the task configurations: open or delete a task, edit hours or the required amount of members that can be assigned to a task at a specific moment.
This tab contains the equity counters and information concerning the equity table that appears in the plan tab.
C- Filters
Filters are located at the top of the page and can be used to display specific information to help with the planning of the schedule.
Changing how the information is displayed or filtered does not change the assignments you have made. These filters are meant to help you focus on specific information and validate your schedule planning.
Reset filters
When a filter is applied, a red "X" will appear next to the filter. Clicking on the red "X" will remove the filter and unveil all the information.
When the filter pane is collapsed, if a filter is applied there will be red "X" indicating it next to the filter collapse arrow. The filter can easily be deactivated by clicking on the "X" without having to open the pane.
Planning Axis
You can choose to have the list of tasks or the list of physicians to the left in the work plan. This choice of this filter will have a influence on the other filters to the right which offer different filtering options.
For example, the criteria can be narrowed down to see a certain task for a specific physician and then go back to the full view of all physicians and all tasks.
This is the default view, where all the tasks are listed on the left side of the work plan. Here, physicians are assigned to the tasks.
Task Rows
Clicking on either the All tasks or the All the team links will open up selection windows where you can Check all, Uncheck all or simply select one or few tasks or physicians.
Once you have selected the information you wish to view, simply click on the Filter button to see the results.
You can use the filters together to pinpoint specific tasks and physicians or teams.
Availability Rows
This will add availability rows below the task rows for a specific task.
For this exemple, the availability is shown for all the physicians for the OnCall task:
Teams and task subsets
If teams are configured in your group, with this filter you can select to only see members from the specified team. It may be easier to assign resources if you can filter the team members from a large group.
This view lets you see the work plan by physician; listed by their initials in the left column. Tasks are assigned to the physicians.
You can quickly see a physician's assignments, other work assignments or if they are absent.
Physician Rows
You can isolate a physician and/or select a task to quickly validate if and when a task is assigned to a physician.
In this exemple, all the physicians are selected but only two tasks are specified:
D- Print and Wizard
Print exports the schedule to a PDF file. You can then print or save and share the document.
Wizard (only available in an unpublished period) can be used to erase all assignments made to the period.
E- Legend and reports
Legend
You can view the legend at any time by clicking on the Legend button which is located at the right of the screen. The Legend gives you access to the definition of each symbol and color found in the planning tool.
There are five different tabs in the Legend describing the different colours and icons:
Reports
To access the reports, click on the Report button at the right of the screen. Three types of reports are available :
- Problems: assignment conflicts that arise from group member constraints.
- Distribution: task distribution by physician and week.
- Equity: exports to spreadsheet the equity values and also absences.
Configuration: The roll-down menus will display various configuration information.
F- Publish
Clicking Publish sends a notification that a new schedule is available and publishes the assignments into group members' calendars and to the group schedule. As this action is irreversible, it should only be done when the planning is over.
A Published period indicates that the schedule information has been shared to the group's members.
Apply Changes
Always click on Apply Changes to save the assignments you have made. If you do not save your work, it will be lost. As with any software, it is recommended to save on a regular basis.
Applying changes also updates resource requirements, availability and equity information for planning the next assignments.
As indicated in the "?"
Modifications to the period will only be saved by clicking on the button Apply changes.
Show modifications
Clicking on this link will give you the details of the assignments you have just made or edited.
Apply changes
Before a period is published, only one button is available: Apply Changes. During the planning, in an unpublished period, no assignments are shared.
Apply WITH or WITHOUT notification buttons are available when changes are made in a published period.