Self-roster rush

We are in the middle of the annual self-roster rush, when private hospitals get ready for filling the shifts in their rosters for the coming year. As usual there are debates about how to calculate and allocate fair quotas and what is reasonable timing. Any time there are even minor changes suggested - by us, or doctors, or roster administrators - there are often strong views about why the current process should remain.One thing that is consistent, however, is our advice on how to prepare for a new self-roster period. Following these steps, in this order, considerable reduces work by everyone and reduces the chance of errors:

1. Review all the doctors on HosPortal doctor scheduling software to confirm that the HosPortal list is the same as the hospital accreditation list. You may need to add and remove doctors to ensure the lists match. (Keeping these two lists aligned during the year is even better.)
2. Remove people from the roster that have exemptions (e.g. due to age or other reasons). This is done under Call > Admin > Settings and click 'Edit' on the staff tab to tick/untick names.
3. Enter the roster quotas.
4. If you prefer to upload quotas using a spreadsheet
   1. Download a list of all the doctors in Excel from the staff export page (Staff > Export), making sure to include the HosPortal 'Shortname' (= user ID).
   2. Add a new column to the Excel to enter either the quota that doctors are allocated, or the number of surgical sessions that will be used to calculate the quota.
   3. Upload the sheet back into the roster.
5. Launch your self-roster!

We stand ready to assist at any step along the way.