2023 Vacation lottery rules and new information:
The 8-week vacation lottery starts the week of 9/19/22 and should be completed by 11/10/22.
The procedure is the same as in past years with the participants submitting one ballot per round for 8 weeks followed by a week to make trades or move weeks then the part-time lottery. The rules are listed below with new information first.
New information
The lottery will be run with a new program which has been written to replace the Rayplan ballot and my workbook and will automatically run the round based on the rules and quotas for how many specialty or call doctors can be on vacation
There are changes to how the weeks are divided between two groups, the part-time (PT), full-time + contract doctors (FT+C). This is easiest to explain by looking at the vacation table. We have 20 vacations per week x 52 weeks is 1040 vacation weeks. About 20% of the daytime workforce can be on vacation any week while still allowing coverage of the daytime assignments, call, standby, corporate, medical, bereavement and maintaining enough days off each week.
The color-coded yellow cells are for the part-time doctor vacation weeks (PT). They currently have a projected total of 275 vacation weeks with 58 summer weeks and 306 available cells. That means they will use 90% of their available vacation weeks.
The non color-coded white cells are for the full-time and contract doctors. They have 644 vacation weeks and 700 available cells and will also 90% of available cells. That also means they will also use 90% of the available vacation weeks.
The FT+C will only go into the non-color-coded cells and the part-time doctors will only go into the yellow color-coded cells. This provides each group with the same relative availability of vacation weeks (90% of vacation weeks will be occupied).
As usual, the PT doctors are taking less than a prorated share of summer and holiday weeks to allow a greater number for the FT+C docs. The average number of PT doctors on vacation is 5.3 per week. These are reduced in the summer and holiday weeks . To make up for the reduced weeks in the summer and holidays, weeks are added in the fall and winter. Since the available number of vacations in any week is a whole integer, we end up with a jagged distribution of part-time weeks. Some of the part-time available weeks may be moved but the total number will remain the same. I will adjust which weeks are available to the PT doctors after the 8-week lottery to make for a more even distribution of vacation weeks. The weeks with the most PT available slots may be shifted to weeks that were less occupied in the 8-week lottery .
After round 8 and before the PT lottery, anyone can move vacation weeks into unoccupied cells. The proviso is that the PT doctors can only move into PT cells and the FT+C doctors can only move into full-time cells. This will also apply after the PT lottery is completed. The reason for this proviso is to keep the relative number of available vacation weeks the same for FT+C and PT doctors.
The maximum number of vacation weeks available in any calendar week is 20. This will not be increased simply because it is still possible to make a schedule (so don’t ask). The reason being is that when we go over 20 vacation slots, we take away days off from the group. If a week you desperately want has been filled, you will have to find a trade or buy it from one of the doctors who is already in the week. So, pick wisely. Once the maximum number of vacation weeks is filled, and after we assign all the jobs, corporate days, standbys, bereavement, and medical leave assignments , everything else will be a day off.
Vacation weeks and vacation days may still be traded or sold between PT and FT+C doctors provided it does not create a shortage of specialty docs and coverage. If a FT doctor buys a PT doctor’s vacation or day, said person will simply go into that PT vacation week or day. The converse is also true. If a PT doctor buys or trades for a FT vacation week or day said PT doctor will simply go into that full-time week or day. The absolute number of PT vacation weeks and days and the absolute number of full-time vacation weeks and days will not change.
Individual vacation day trades (sprinkling) will be done after the part-time lottery is completed.
You are always free to request any day off. Although there will be agreed upon limits to the number of requests one can make in a quarter. None of these requests will have a priority over anyone else’s request. This won’t be first come first served. The requests will be executed when the complete schedule is made 5-6 weeks in advance. If there are more requests than available days off, the request will go to the person who is most owed days off.
An exception to when requests are executed or confirmed. On occasion people need to make arrangements to be off on a particular day weeks or months in advance in order to buy airline tickets, etc. Each person will have 3 priority days off which they can request to be confirmed in advance during a calendar year. Please note in your comment if you need to know in advance if a request needs to be confirmed Priority requests should not be used for Christmas, New Year’s or holiday weeks.
Weeks 13, 36 and 38 have crosshatched cells to accommodate the Jewish holidays. The cross hatched cells are available as 5- day vacation weeks if you celebrate Passover, Yom Kippur, or Rosh Hashanah holidays. The non cross-hatched cells are available as 5-day vacation weeks to anyone who does not celebrate those holidays. The Jewish doctors will preferentially go into cross hatched cells leaving the non cross-hatched cells available to anyone who does not celebrate the Jewish holidays. Once the non cross-hatched cells are filled, anyone not celebrating the Jewish holidays can take a cross hatched cell but will need to be available to work the holiday. In other words, it becomes a 4-=day vacation week. Please note in any ballot for that week if you only want it if all 5 days are available.
Vacation day sprinkling will not be done until after the general and PT lottery have been completed. Vacation days can only be sprinkled into days with open vacation weeks not to exceed the maximum of 20 people on vacation.
FT +C doctors can only sprinkle into open non color-coded cells. PT doctors can only sprinkle into open PT color-coded days not to exceed the maximum of 20 people on vacation. Any sprinkling of days must involve like exchanges. In other words, a Monday or Friday can only be exchanged for a Monday or Friday, and a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday can only be exchanged for a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
2023 Vacation table (click link to one drive)
Vacation Lottery rules (dates adjusted for 2023)
The 2023 vacation lottery will run for eight weeks with the first ballot due Thursday 9/22/22 and the 8th round ballot due Thursday 11/17/22. The results will be published before the Monday following the due date of each ballot. This gives you at least 3-4 days to submit your choices. If we don’t have your ballot by Thursday of each week, someone will be calling. If we don’t get a response by the end of the week, we may have to progress to the next round. So please, plan on having Internet access or having a trusted associate submit your choices. In most cases, your cell phone can be used to submit your ballot and view the results of each round. If need be, you can send me an email. If you are going somewhere remote with no cell phone or internet access, plan someway to have someone else submit your ballot or tell us what you want it in advance.
For each round you will be using the new online ballot to submit your choices in order of preference. Each of your vacation preferences may be for a single week or for a block of 2 contiguous weeks. Your preferences for a single vs. double week may be in any order (e.g. your first choice could be for a double week, your second choice for a single week and your third choice again for a double week). Both weeks of a block choice must be open for you to receive that choice. We cannot decide for you that you would be happy with just one of the two weeks. If you are really interested in a particular week you may want to include it in both single and double picks or bracket the week with the one before or after. If you do get a double week, you give up your pick in the following round. You cannot make a double pick if you do not have a pick the following round. Provided your choice doesn’t create a shortage of doctors for a particular assignment or specialty, you will get your first choice that is available.
The web ballot requires you to enter at least four preferences (single or double weeks). If you think there is any risk that you won’t get one of your first four choices please enter more. It only takes a few seconds. It wastes more time if none of your choices are available and we have to track you down. If you make a mistake, you may resubmit a new ballot. Just indicate in the comments section that the new ballot supersedes the previous one. (You can’t do this after the results of each round have been published.)
The lottery numbers for 2023 are listed below. They lottery number is in the column for round one. Each group is color coded This year the group order is d,a,b,c. The order of pick for rounds 2 through 8 is indicated in the column for each round.
Lottery numbers all 8 rounds (link to onedrive)
The groups have rotated turns as always and the order within each group has been randomized so people are not always at the beginning, middle or end of their group. New people have been added randomly to the groups with a specific number added to each group to bring the group sizes into balance.
* All full-time part-time, contract doctors are included in the lottery
Restrictions for summer weeks #22 to 34 (dates 6/5/23 to 09/03/23)
There is an average of about 3 summer weeks per full-time or contract doctor in the vacation lottery. Summer is 13 weeks from 6/5/23 to 9/3/23. In order to provide for an equitable distribution of summer weeks, the following restrictions are placed on the summer weeks:
In the first two rounds, you may pick up to two single summer weeks or one block of two summer weeks.
In the third round, you may acquire a third summer week either by picking a single week, if you already have two summer weeks, or a block of two weeks if you only have one.
– You cannot accumulate more than 3 summer weeks by the end of round 3
What you cannot do is take one summer week in the first round and then a block of two summer weeks in the second round giving you three summer weeks in the first two rounds. You can also not take two summer weeks in the first two rounds and then take a block of two more weeks in the third round giving you 4 summer weeks in the first 3 rounds. After the third round there are no restrictions on the number of summer weeks.
Restriction on the weeks before Christmas, Christmas week and New Year’s week numbers 50, 51, 52 (12/18/22 to 1/7/22).
You may not pick weeks 50+ 51 or 51+52 as a block. You may pick them individually in separate rounds, but not as a single pick of two contiguous weeks. This allows more people to have a shot at the weeks that immediately precede or include Christmas and New Year’s.
Restrictions for week #13, 36 and #38 (weeks containing Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur )
In past years, we have been short of bodies for certain holidays. For 2023, Passover starts Wed eve 4/5/23, Rosh Hashanah starts Fri eve 9/15/23. Yom Kippur starts Sun eve 9/24/23. You will see some of the vacation slots crosshatched for weeks #13, 36 and 38.
If you decide to take one of the crosshatched vacation slots in these weeks and do not celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur as a religious holiday, you may be expected to work the holidays. Therefore, you may have four vacation days those weeks. If you get one of the slots that is not crosshatched or if you celebrate the Jewish holidays, you can have all five days. If you do bid on any of these weeks and do not celebrate those holidays, please confirm in the comment that you are available to 4/6/23, 9/15/23 or 9/25/23. There will be open vacation days during these weeks and you can trade into individual days or ask for individual days off.
Questions or comments: Contact Darren Timberlake or myself by email or at 443 436 1556 . You can email me with questions.