Re: Staffing Needs

[Guest guest]

Dear Almas,

20 O/P a week averages 5 new referrals everyday, and 40 I/P is 8 new

referrals.

I work as a contract therapist at a rehab center, and I am required to see at

least 13 patients everyday for an 8 hour period. usually I see 3 new patients

everyday, and days that I see 13 patients, I usually put in more than 8 hours

to finish paper work; I do not have help of any kind.

I would think that with 5 new referrals and routine tx, a therapist with help

should be able to do a good job, and still see up to 13 patients or more a

day.

Kizzita RPT, land.

[Guest guest]

Supply and demand...

>I'm trying to work on a demand/supply proposal.

> .......If a department gets about 20 OP referrals a week, how many

PT's would it take to do quality patient care?

> .......If a department gets 40 IP referrals/week, how many PT's would

it take to do

> quality patient care?

A few questions:

....How many OP follow-up visits PER OP ADMISSION are forecast? For

example, If you're getting referrals for 4 weeks of 3 x / wk. then

that's 12 visits, including the Eval, I think.

So:

20 referrals per week results in 240 visits, doesn't it.

52 weeks per year is 12,480 visits per year, right?

12480 / 12 yields 1040 visits per month.

IF (and this is wildly variable) the quality staff at YOUR quality

facility can see one quality OP every 30 minutes per quality clinician,

....then that's 16 quality visits per day per clinician ...or 80 per

week...on average.

240 visits at 80 per person requires 3 staff.

Add quality pepper and salt to taste... but the arithmetic of your

supply curve is rather straightforward.

For your Inpatients, ask the same questions of a disinterested, reliable

source:

40 referrals a week at [what's your average number of visits per

inpatient at your facility?] say, an Ortho floor where total hips and

knees are up on day 2, and headed out the door on day 3 or 4... So you

have maybe 6 to 7 visits? But your IP neuro load yields you some mix of

patients with 5-7 day stays? Of Q.D or B.I.D.?

Let's say that " 40 " is made up of 20 who have 6 visits (total:120) and

20 who have 11 visits (total: 220) and that your IP total visits is

(120+220) 340 per week.

And let's say that the Ortho visits take on average, 30 minutes (.5 hr x

120 visits = 60 manhours)

.... and the neuro group takes on average, 45 minutes (.75 hr x 220

visits = 165 manhours)

The 60 Ortho + 165 Neuro manhours add to 225 manhours, just to produce

the visits. Divide that by 40 hours per week (is that what your staff

works?) and you find that you need 5.625 quality clinicians who do

nothing but treat patients.

The Aggregate:

The 3 outpatient quality folks and the 5.625 inpatient quality folks,

given THIS particular set of parameters, add up to 8.625 WORKING quality

clinicians. You'll need to season to taste again.

If you ask yourself these questions and follow the same arithmetic,

you'll have a rational answer to your question. Consider varying

average OP or IP total visits, diagnosis mix, some no-shows... and your

own particular staff's unique predilections, and you can get somewhere

....without actually calculating the formulae for graphing the marginal

supply or demand curves or determing their intersection, which would

yield an equilibruim price point...

Dick Hillyer, TLK