Residency block schedule software: build the rotation schedule from your rules

Residency block schedule software generates a residency program’s block schedule: the year-long plan that assigns every resident to a rotation in each block of the academic year, usually four weeks or a month at a time. It also goes by residency rotation scheduling software, or simply a residency schedule maker. The block schedule decides which services are staffed, when each resident is in clinic, and when vacation falls.

The difference from a spreadsheet is that software holds the rules. In a spreadsheet, the chief places every resident by hand, checks staffing and requirements by eye, and re-works the rest of the year whenever something changes (how chiefs build the block schedule). Block schedule software stores the rules, generates a schedule that meets them, and generates it again when the year changes (Chiefly vs Excel).

Here are Chiefly’s residency scheduling software features at a glance:

To see them side by side with Excel, QGenda and Amion, read the comparison on our homepage.

Chiefly builds your block schedule from your program’s own rules and ACGME requirements, which our team loads from last year’s schedule and your requirements. Chiefly then generates the year, and your chiefs review the drafts and stay in control in Chiefly.

Chiefly also builds daily, call and clinic schedules from your program’s rules (which schedules Chiefly builds). These are the clinical schedules residents work; Chiefly doesn’t schedule residency interviews.

Chiefly is used by residency programs across many specialties. Chief residents, program coordinators, program directors and associate program directors use it at more than 20 programs.

Chiefly builds your schedules from your program’s own rules, which our team loads during setup, and builds them to ACGME requirements so problems surface before a schedule goes out. Beyond the standard rules, Chiefly handles hundreds of nuances built up from serving a wide range of programs, so the quirk your program thinks is unique has usually been loaded before.

Block schedules are often built on an X+Y pattern, with X weeks of inpatient rotations alternating with Y weeks of ambulatory clinic, such as 4+1 or 6+2 (JGME). More in what an X+Y schedule is.

Duty-hour limits apply to the shifts and call residents work. Under the ACGME Common Program Requirements effective July 1, 2026, residents work at most 80 hours a week and get at least one day off in seven, both averaged over four weeks, and work periods stop at 24 hours, plus up to 4 for handoffs and education (ACGME). Chiefly keeps daily, call and clinic schedules ACGME-compliant too. Every rule is explained in ACGME duty hour rules for 2026.

Chiefly re-runs the schedule around the change and keeps your rules intact for the rest of the year. It does this for parental leave, residents who start off-cycle, and late starts.

Chiefs keep full control: they can change a rule and re-run the live schedule themselves, or edit it by hand, and every edit is checked against your rules the same way swaps are. Our team also runs a re-run for you whenever you ask.

Every program has to plan for leave. ACGME Institutional Requirements give each resident at least six weeks of approved medical, parental and caregiver leave during training, with full salary for the first six weeks (ACGME). When a resident steps away, their rotations still need staffing and the rest of the year shifts around them; a re-run rebalances it instead of the chief re-working it by hand (parental leave in residency).

Every version is saved, so you can compare the re-run with the previous version and publish only when it’s right. Scenario testing works ahead of time: change a rule, re-generate instantly, and see what the change would do to the year (how Chiefly handles leave and late starts).

Residents can see the published schedule in Chiefly, in a browser on their computer, if your program turns that on; it isn’t required. Either way, you can share the schedule as an Excel file: with residents, and with rotation directors, who need to know well in advance which residents are coming to their rotation.

Swaps can start on either side. Residents go through Chiefly’s Swap Portal:

1. A resident starts a swap request.
2. Chiefly checks it against your program’s rules.
3. A chief approves it.

A swap that would break a rule is caught before anyone signs off (how swaps work in Chiefly).

Chiefs and coordinators can also start a swap themselves from the admin view, while building or tinkering with the schedule, with the same rules check and more controls. At Children’s National, residents settled nearly half of a month’s swap requests among themselves, and the chiefs signed off on the rest in seconds each (the Swap Portal case study).

Chiefly’s resident progress dashboard tracks graduation requirements across every year of training, so program directors and chiefs can see how each resident is doing against what’s required. Chiefs can also leave comments on a resident.

Our team loads your graduation requirements during setup, so there’s nothing for your program to enter. When a leave goes in, each resident’s numbers update on their own. Everyone with access to your program can open the dashboard, which makes it a powerful tool for program directors.

This matters most after a long leave: ACGME requires programs to tell residents how an extended leave affects completing the program and their eligibility for board exams (ACGME). More on graduation tracking in Chiefly.

Your rules, residents and settings roll over into the next academic year, and the rollover brings in your incoming matched residents. New chiefs start from last year’s setup, not a blank spreadsheet.

That’s why we call Chiefly “the TurboTax of residency scheduling”: what you set up last year carries forward, and rolling over takes minutes. Each new chief class gets its own training, and your scheduling advisor stays the same, so someone who already knows your schedule is there from day one (when chiefs graduate).

Our team loads everything, so setup is hands-off for your program, and we work to your program’s timeline: we work back from your internal deadlines. Once your rules are loaded, re-running the schedule takes minutes, and your scheduling advisor stays with you well past setup.

1. You send last year’s schedule and your program’s requirements.
2. Our team loads your rules.
3. Chiefly generates the block schedule, and your chiefs review the drafts with your scheduling advisor.
4. You adjust rules, re-run and compare versions, then publish.
5. We stay on hand all year: for questions, for a re-run whenever you ask, and with quarterly check-ins.

Boston Children’s (the Boston Combined Residency Program), with 188 residents across two hospitals, saved more than 3,600 chief and admin hours in its first eight months (case study). UVA Pediatrics, with 40 residents, saved 513 chief hours (case study).

Every plan includes rule setup by our team, training for chiefs and admins, a dedicated scheduling advisor, quarterly check-ins, and new features as they release. That puts Chiefly between a done-for-you scheduling service and self-serve software: our team sets up the rules, and your chiefs stay in control of the schedule (service or software?).

For your IT review: Chiefly runs in a browser with nothing to install, and it holds workforce scheduling data only, no patient data or PHI, so HIPAA doesn’t apply to that data and no BAA is needed (what Chiefly stores). It has completed security reviews, including HECVAT and CORL assessments, for more than a dozen health systems and academic medical centers (security reviews).

Yes. You can always download the schedule to Excel, and our team formats the file so it can be uploaded into another platform, for example Amion or QGenda.

So if your hospital already publishes schedules in one of those platforms, the schedule Chiefly builds can go there too (exporting to Excel). For how the tools compare, see Chiefly vs Amion and Chiefly vs QGenda.