As Chief Resident for a 36 - resident Family Medicine Residency
in 1996, Jacob Reider knew there must be a better way to build a
call schedule .. after weeks of doing the job on paper, he built
a small computer program to make his task easier. No,
the program didn't MAKE the call schedule -- a person still did
that. The program did what computers are very good at: counting
things.
- How many shifts everyone worked - so an accurate count was always
available.
-
When people were away on vacation - so no one was scheduled to work
when they are on the beach.
- How many weekends or special holidays everyone worked - so these
days could be easily distributed
The system did it's job, but it had limitations: it was "custom
made" for THIS residency, and THESE physicians. Two years later,
and 20 miles away, Dr Reider found himself responsible for making
the call schedule for a group of 10 faculty physicians in a Department
of Family Medicine. The issues here were similar, but there were
other problems too:
- Physicians frequently traded calls with each other
- Hospital & Answering Service Operators didn't always have
the most recent call schedule
- Someone had to keep track vacation days, time off, etc.
OnCalls was born. This isn't a dot-com go-crazy, spend money, get-rich-quick
story. OnCalls was built by real people to solve real problems.
After two years of development, OnCalls is now being used daily
by many physicians across the country.
Who is OnCalls for?
OnCalls was built primarily for medium to large physician practice
groups. Small offices will benefit from some of the features, but
are not likley to require the advanced functions of OnCalls. With version 1.5, we now support very large hospital systems and large multispecialty groups.
What does OnCalls do?
For most users, OnCalls is just a schedule. It's a clear,
clean, authoritative schedule. No more wondering if the schedule
you have in your hand is the most recent one. The schedule goes
forward as far as five years. Want to make sure you're not on call
on Thanksgiving 2003? ..go right ahead.
Not at a computer? That's OK. OnCalls will synchronize with
your Palm OS handheld computer so you can always have your schedule
with you.
Don't have a Palm? That's OK too ... you can call OnCalls
on the Phone to hear today's call schedule (or any day).
OnCalls also makes it easy to trade shifts with colleagues,
request time off in advance, and volunteer for empty
shifts that need to be filled. It keeps track of how many
shifts you've worked, how many vacation days you have taken, and
which shifts you have traded.
For folks who have to make the call schedule, OnCalls is
much more.
OnCalls will help you make schedules without errors.
OnCalls will flexibly permit you to create members, keep track
of pagers and contact information.
OnCalls will create reports and true WYSIWYG printable
schedules.
OnCalls uses industry - standard XML for data importing
and exporting. If you currently use Excel or Access for your call
schedules, we can help you import all of your old schedule
information into OnCalls.
There are many more features to OnCalls, and we're adding features
and functions all of the time.
Is my data safe?
We back up our data every day, and all accounts are password-protected.
We can even provide SSL - encrypted logins if necessary.
How Much Does OnCalls cost?
OnCalls will cost roughly $5 per user per month. For Large
groups - it will cost a bit less, and smaller groups will
still have a significant return on their investment: OnCalls saves
valuable physician and administration time. We're not making millions
here -- nor is that our goal -- but we do need to pay our bills
so that we can continue to support and enhance this valuable product.
OnCalls was released in July, 2001. If you are interested
in OnCalls, please send an e-mail to info@oncalls.com
