MICU and ICU doctor scheduling
ICU rosters must guarantee senior coverage on every shift, protect rest after night duty and spread nights evenly across a small team. PlanMyRounds enforces all three as rules, then builds the monthly roster automatically.
PlanMyRounds is used by 600+ doctors across 10+ hospitals in multiple countries and saves 30+ hours per doctor each month.
Free for up to 10 doctors. No credit card.
Why ICU rosters are harder
ICU rosters are harder than ward rosters because the unit never closes, the team is small, and the heaviest shift, the night, has to be shared fairly without ever leaving the unit short of senior cover.
Cover around the clock
Every day and every night needs the right number of doctors, including weekends and holidays. One missed slot is a patient safety problem.Small teams, big impact
An ICU team is often under 15 doctors. One person on leave changes the whole month, and a manual roster rarely absorbs it cleanly.Nights carry the load
Night duty is the heaviest shift. Without a rule, it drifts toward whoever objects least, and fatigue builds on the same few people.
Coverage and seniority rules
In PlanMyRounds you set the number of doctors each ICU shift needs and how many of them must be senior. These are hard constraints: every generated roster and every approved swap meets them.
- Required doctors per day and night shift
- Minimum seniors per shift, and senior and junior composition
- Approved leave and availability respected on every shift
- Gentler ramp-up for newly joined doctors
- Coverage gaps flagged for review, never filled silently
Night duty distribution
PlanMyRounds spreads night shifts evenly across the doctors available for nights, avoids clustering them, and tracks night load across months so the balance holds over time, not just within one roster.
Post-night recovery
After a night duty, PlanMyRounds keeps the doctor off the roster for the recovery window you configure. It also blocks unsafe back-to-back long duties and caps consecutive workdays and total hours if you set those limits.
A worked monthly example
Take an ICU with 8 doctors, a 30-day month and one doctor on nights each night, at least one of them senior. This is an illustrative example; your numbers follow from your own rules.
| Rule | What PlanMyRounds does |
|---|---|
| Nights per doctor | 3 or 4 each (30 nights shared across 8 doctors) |
| Senior cover | Every night has at least one senior doctor |
| After a night duty | A recovery window before the next shift, set by you |
| Back-to-back duties | No unsafe long duties in a row |
| Approved leave | Never scheduled over; the load moves to others evenly |
| Next month | Doctors who did 4 nights are favored for fewer |
Let the roster build itself
With Auto Mode, PlanMyRounds asks the team for leave before each month, builds the ICU roster against your rules, flags any gaps, and publishes it once you approve.
Related
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- Fairness Engine
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- Rules Engine
15+ hard and soft scheduling constraints
- Doctor duty rosters
Replace Excel and WhatsApp rosters in hospital departments
ICU scheduling FAQ
How do you schedule ICU doctors?
How many night shifts should each ICU doctor work?
How does PlanMyRounds guarantee senior cover?
Can ICU doctors swap night shifts?
Is PlanMyRounds free for a small ICU team?
Build your next ICU roster with PlanMyRounds
Free for up to 10 doctors. No credit card, no contract.