MedScheduler — Help & Reference

MedScheduler builds a monthly on-call rota for a department of physicians. A typical workflow: (1) add or import physicians in the left sidebar, (2) set leave, blocks and rules, (3) press Auto-Schedule, (4) review the Schedule, Summary and Coverage tabs, then (5) export or save to the cloud. Every tab and button is explained below.

Getting started — typical workflow

1. Add physicians

Use the left sidebar (Add Physician) or Import from File to load names in bulk.

2. Set constraints

Add Annual Leave, Block Specialty days, and adjust Rules, Shifts and Combined pairs as needed.

3. Auto-Schedule

Generate the whole month automatically, honouring all leave, blocks and rules.

4. Review & adjust

Check the Schedule grid, Summary totals and Coverage view; fix any cell by clicking it, or use Manual Assign. Watch the ⚠ conflict chip.

5. Save / export

Save to the cloud workspace (☁ Save) and/or export to Excel (Export Rota or Export Summary).

Top bar — row 1 (workspace & account)

☰ Sidebar toggle

Show or hide the physicians sidebar (useful on narrow screens).

◀ ▶ Month nav

Move to the previous or next month. The month name shows between the arrows; each month keeps its own schedule.

Workspace selector

Switch between your own workspace and any shared workspaces you belong to.

🚪 Leave

Leave a shared workspace you were invited to (shown only for shared workspaces).

🌓 Theme

Toggle between light and dark themes.

📜 History

View the audit trail — who changed what, and when.

🔔 Notifications

Pending workspace invites (Accept / Decline) and recent activity; the badge shows unread count.

Sign out

Sign out of your account.

Top bar — row 2 (actions)

⚡ Auto-Schedule

Automatically fills the whole month: duties, morning shifts, post-call rest and days off, honouring leave, blocks and rules.

📅 Annual Leave

Add or remove leave date ranges per physician. Leave days are protected and never overwritten.

🚫 Block Specialty

Mark a team/specialty/clinic as unavailable for a date range (e.g. a clinic closed for a week).

📌 Manual Assign

Manually set a specific code for a physician across a range of days (from–to), with rule validation. Days already taken or that would break a rule are skipped and reported.

⚠ Conflict chip

Shows the current count of scheduling conflicts (e.g. duplicate slots, missing post-call rest, work on a leave day). Click for details.

📥 Export Rota

Export the simplified, colour-coded monthly rota to Excel — the version for distribution.

📥 Export Summary

Export an Excel sheet with the working-hours distribution per physician: morning shifts, on-calls, random off & day off, post-call off, clinic days, and total working hours, plus department totals and averages.

☁ Save / ⬇ Load

Save the current schedule to, or load it from, the active cloud workspace.

👥 Share

Invite people to your workspace by email and manage members (owner only).

↶ Undo / ↷ Redo

Step backward or forward through recent manual changes. Disabled when there is nothing to undo/redo.

🔧 Shifts

Configure Teams, Specialties, Duty Shifts, Clinics and Combined pairs (see 'Shifts panel' below).

⚙ Rules

Edit scheduling rules — see 'Scheduling rules' below.

🗑 Clear Month

Erase all assignments for the current month (asks for confirmation first).

Left sidebar — physicians

Add Physician

Enter a Full name and optional Initials, then click + Add Physician.

⬆ Import from File

Load physician names in bulk from a .txt or .csv file.

Physicians list

Every physician with their initials, specialty and team. Edit or remove physicians here; the count shows at the top.

Tab 1 — Schedule

A colour-coded grid: physicians are rows, days of the month are columns. Each cell shows the assigned code for that physician on that day.

Edit a cell

Click any cell to open the Edit Assignment dialog and pick a new code. Manual edits apply immediately and can be undone.

Colour coding

Each duty/off code has its own colour (see 'Duty codes' below) so the month reads at a glance.

Tab 2 — Summary

One row per physician totalling their month, to check the workload is balanced and the rules are met.

Morning Days

Number of 8-hour morning shifts.

Total Hrs

Total scheduled hours (highlighted if over the max-hours rule).

On-Calls

Number of on-call duties.

Daycare

Number of Daycare Clinic assignments.

Post-Call

Post-call rest days earned after duties.

Random Off / Leave

Random off days and annual leave days.

Weekends Inc in Offs / Total Off Days

Weekend days counted within offs, and total days off for the month.

Tab 3 — Coverage

A read-only inverse view: days are rows and each column is a slot (team, specialty, duty or clinic). Each cell lists the initials of whoever covers that slot that day — quick to confirm nothing is left uncovered. A combined slot shows its physician in both member columns; blocked slots are highlighted; weekend rows are tinted.

🖨 Print / Save PDF

Print the coverage view or save it as a PDF (landscape, colours preserved).

🔧 Shifts panel

Define the shift codes the scheduler uses. Changes apply on the next Auto-Schedule run and are saved with your schedule. Shift codes cannot be changed after creation.

Teams

Morning team shifts (minimum 3). Add a code, label, short name and colour.

Specialties

Specialty morning shifts (e.g. GI, Neurology).

Duty Shifts

On-call duties (e.g. 16-hour male/female side). Minimum 1; the scheduler ensures one slot per duty type per day.

Clinics

Clinic shifts such as Daycare.

Combined

Pair a team/specialty with another so one physician can cover both as a single slot when short-staffed (e.g. NE/NP, or T1/GI). Two separate doctors are used whenever enough are available; a pair cannot be two teams.

Duty codes (defaults)

The codes below are the defaults; teams, specialties, duties and clinics are all editable in the Shifts panel.

T1 / T2 / T3

Team 1–3 morning shifts (8h each).

CAHM

Cardiology / Hematology (8h).

GI

Gastroenterology (8h).

NE / NP

Neurology / Nephrology (8h); NENP = one physician covering both.

PU

Pulmonology (8h).

DC

Daycare Clinic (8h).

DM / DF

16-hour on-call duty — male / female side.

PC

Post-Call Off (mandatory rest after a duty).

O / L / R

Day Off / Annual Leave / Random Off.

Scheduling rules (⚙ Rules)

These limits apply on the next Auto-Schedule run and are saved with the schedule:

Max Consecutive Days

Days in a row before a forced day off.

Min / Max Post-Call Off Days

Mandatory recovery days after each duty, and the upper bound stamped when the schedule allows.

Min / Max Duties / Physician

Minimum on-call shifts per month, and the cap (0 = no cap).

Duty Shift Hours

Hours per on-call duty.

Morning Shift Hours

Hours per morning shift.

Min / Max Hours / Month

The hour floor reached by filling morning shifts, and the hard monthly ceiling that is never exceeded.

Guarantee weekend off

When on, the scheduler tries to give each physician at least one full weekend off.