The ROI of ED scheduling: start with scheduler hours
Most scheduling ROI models open with retention math that takes two years to prove. The claim you can defend in month one is simpler: hours your scheduler gets back.
Your numbers
Hours recaptured
10.8/mo
Value of that time
$1,296/mo
Net of plan cost
$897/mo
Assumes 70% of build time and 60% of swap administration is recaptured — deliberately conservative. At $120/hr, the plan pays for itself at 3.3 hours saved per month. Annualized: $10,764 net.
Why time is the defensible claim
Scheduler hours are observable, attributable, and confirmable inside one billing cycle. Your scheduler knows what building the month costs them. After the first import, they know what it costs with software. That difference is the number a finance reviewer will accept without a study.
Everything else is upside
Locums and premium coverage avoided
Better distribution and earlier visibility into gaps reduce last-minute buy-ups. Real, but it depends on your market and your gap rate — measure it from your own data after two or three months.
Retention
Fatigue-driven attrition is expensive, and circadian-aware scheduling is the intervention with the best evidence behind it. It is also the slowest to prove. Treat any retention number as a hypothesis until your own CAI trend supports it.
Error and medicolegal exposure
The literature links fatigue to error rates. We do not put a dollar figure on it, and you should be skeptical of vendors who do.
Fairness disputes
Distribution transparency reduces the recurring argument about who got the nights. Hard to price, easy to feel.
How to run the measurement yourself
- Have your scheduler log hours for one full month on the current process.
- Upload that same month's file. Record the Circadian Alignment Index as your baseline.
- Build the next month in AIER and log hours again.
- Compare hours and CAI. Both numbers are yours, from your own schedule.