Question 1

How much time does EM Scheduling save a chief resident?

Accepted Answer

Chief residents typically spend 10+ hours per month managing a stream of resident requests and creating, managing, and adjusting schedules manually. EM Scheduling reduces this to less than an hour, freeing up time that can be re-allocated to clinical duties or other tasks that further resident education.

Question 2

How does automated scheduling compare to doing it by hand?

Accepted Answer

Manual scheduling is error-prone: wrong locations, incorrect shift times, incorrect coverage model, and constant back-and-forth with residents for swaps and requests. EM Scheduling eliminates transcription errors, enforces program-specific guardrails, and generates ACGME-compliant schedules in minutes instead of hours.

Question 3

Does this help with resident satisfaction and wellness?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The algorithm distributes shifts fairly over the academic year, removing unintentional patterns or biases that erode trust. Residents see an equitable, transparent process—improving satisfaction, wellness survey results, and program recruiting.

Question 4

What about faculty and program coordinator time savings?

Accepted Answer

Faculty who previously spent hours every month reviewing spreadsheets can redirect that time to curriculum development. Program coordinators benefit from a central request hub that replaces scattered emails and texts, reducing transcription mistakes and last-minute schedule fires.

Question 5

How does this reduce ACGME violations?

Accepted Answer

Built-in ACGME scheduling rules are enforced automatically during every schedule generation. This lowers the risk of violations that can trigger costly/time consuming reviews or even probation.

Question 6

Can residents sync their schedules to personal calendars?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Residents can subscribe to an always-up-to-date calendar feed from the Schedule page, eliminating shift uncertainty and missed shifts.

Question 7

What is EM Scheduling?

Accepted Answer

EM Scheduling is a cloud-based scheduling platform purpose-built for emergency medicine residency programs. It automates ACGME-compliant schedule generation, optimizes for circadian rhythms and shift equity, and gives residents self-service tools for requests and swaps.

Question 8

How does schedule generation work?

Accepted Answer

You configure your program's shifts, locations, block rotations, and scheduling rules once. When you're ready, the solver builds an optimized schedule that respects all constraints—ACGME duty hours, senior coverage, PGY-level restrictions, resident requests, and more.

Question 9

What happens after a schedule is published?

Accepted Answer

Residents are notified and can view their assignments immediately. They can request swaps or time off through the app, and privileged users can approve or deny requests from a central inbox. All changes auto-update the published schedule.

Question 10

Is my program's data secure?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. We use AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit, server-verified multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and daily automated backups. Our infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II compliant. Click "Security" on the Pricing page for full details.

Question 11

What personally identifiable information (PII) does EM Scheduling store?

Accepted Answer

We collect only the minimum PII necessary to operate the platform: name, email address, schedule requests, and shift assignments. No Protected Health Information (PHI) is stored at any time. Even this limited data set is fully encrypted—AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit—so your information is protected both in storage and during transmission.

Question 12

Can multiple people manage the schedule?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The platform supports multiple privilege levels so responsibilities can be shared across your team without compromising data security.

Question 13

What are the different account privilege levels?

Accepted Answer

Administrator — full program management including billing, settings, shifts, residents, and schedule building.

Program Coordinator — manages settings, residents, requests, and block configuration but cannot build schedules or edit shifts directly.

Scheduler — builds and edits schedules, manages residents and requests, but cannot modify program settings.

Residents without privileges can view their schedule, submit requests, and sync calendars.

Staff (clinicians who work with residents) can view the up-to-date schedule.

Question 14

Can a resident also have admin privileges?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A resident can be granted any privilege level. For example, a chief resident who manages scheduling might be assigned the Scheduler or Administrator role in addition to their resident status.

Question 15

How do I add new residents or staff to my program?

Accepted Answer

Any user with privileges can add residents or staff from the Residents or Staff pages. New users receive an email invitation to create their account and access the platform.

Question 16

Is there a long-term contract?

Accepted Answer

No. EM Scheduling is a month-to-month subscription with no long-term commitment. You can cancel at any time—there are no cancellation fees or lock-in periods.

Question 17

How is billing calculated?

Accepted Answer

You're billed monthly across three tiers: EM residents, off-service residents (residents from other specialties rotating through the ED), and non-resident users (admins, coordinators, and other staff). Per-person rates for each tier are shown on the Pricing page. Archived members are not counted towards billing. We recommend archiving off-service residents after they have finished their ED rotation and have no further ED shifts, as this will reduce your program's bill for future months.

Question 18

When is my invoice sent and when is it due?

Accepted Answer

Invoices are generated and sent at the beginning of each month. Standard payment terms are Net 30 from the invoice date.

Question 19

What payment methods do you accept?

Accepted Answer

We accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers through Helcim, our PCI-compliant payment processor. ACH bank transfer is fee-free. Credit and debit card payments include a 3% convenience fee charged by Helcim because they are processed as card-not-present transactions.

Question 20

Do you store my payment information?

Accepted Answer

No. All payment processing is handled by our PCI DSS-compliant payment partner. EM Scheduling never stores, processes, or transmits sensitive credit card or bank account data on its own servers.

Question 21

What happens if an invoice isn't paid on time?

Accepted Answer

There is a 15-day grace period after the due date. If payment still isn't received, your program transitions to a view-only status where schedules can be viewed but not created or edited. After 60 days, the account is subject to archival. Courtesy email reminders are sent 10 days before each transition.

Question 22

Does EM Scheduling work for clinician groups, not just residency programs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Alongside our residency product, EM Scheduling fully supports emergency medicine clinician groups — attending physicians, NPs, and PAs. Clinician scheduling is calendar-month based and driven by each clinician's monthly hour goal (with under- and over-tolerances) rather than PGY-level shift counts, and the same automated, equitable, circadian-aware engine generates the schedule.

Question 23

How does pricing work for a clinician group?

Accepted Answer

Clinician groups pay a flat monthly rate per group — not per provider — across small, medium, and large tiers, with no long-term contract. New groups get 6 months free. See the Clinician Group Pricing page for current tiers, and the Cost Comparison page for a savings calculator versus per-clinician competitors.

Question 24

Can it handle nocturnists, locums, PRN, and variable or part-time hours?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The clinician engine supports nocturnists (primarily or exclusively nights), locums, PRN clinicians, variable monthly hours, part-time clinicians, per-clinician rules, and night-shift opt-outs or personal night caps — all factored into a fair, optimized monthly schedule.

Question 25

Do clinicians get self-service requests, shift swaps, and hours tracking?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clinicians submit time-off and shift requests, trade shifts (including a shift-swap marketplace), and sync their schedule to a calendar. Groups also get durable monthly hours tracking with an overtime-request and approval workflow for payroll purposes, plus automatic holiday tracking and trading.

Question 26

How is clinician scheduling different from residency scheduling?

Accepted Answer

Residency scheduling is block-based and built around ACGME duty-hour limits, PGY levels, and didactics — the area we have always specialized in. Clinician-group scheduling is month-based and built around monthly hour goals, nocturnist/locums/PRN handling, and per-clinician rules. Both run on the same optimization engine and share the same equity and circadian-wellness principles.

Question 27

Is there a setup fee?

Accepted Answer

No separate setup fee. Initial custom configuration for your program is included with your subscription. This covers assistance with shift setup, location mapping, PGY-level rules, didactics scheduling, and dedicated onboarding support.

Question 28

How long does onboarding take?

Accepted Answer

Most programs are fully configured and able to generate their first schedule within a week, though we recommend waiting until all residents have created an account and submitted shift requests. We assist with the heavy lifting of initial setup so your team can start using the platform right away.

Question 29

Can I try it before committing?

Accepted Answer

Yes — new programs and clinician groups get 3 months free. Reach out through the contact form on our Pricing page to discuss details and get set up at no cost.

Question 30

What kind of support do you offer?

Accepted Answer

All subscriptions include priority email support. We also provide dedicated onboarding assistance and ongoing help with program configuration changes.

Question 31

Who built this?

Accepted Answer

EM Scheduling was developed by emergency medicine physicians who experienced the pain of manual scheduling firsthand. It's built by ER docs, for ER docs.

Frequently Asked Questions

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