Re: Speech therapy productivity - inpatient

[Guest guest]

Our expectations for inpatient speech therapy productivity are the same as for

the other disciplines. We expect a minimum of 5.5 billable hours in an 8 hr day

(approx 69% productivity). Some of their treatments are shorter but others are

longer and in all they are asked to meet the same standards as other therapists.

We do look at an average over a week, month, etc. because some days are just

more productive than others. We also understand that if a therapist is

primarily IRF or ortho they may have better productivity than the expected

minimum, when compared to a therapist on the acute medical/neuro units.

RSusick PT

PPMC

Portland, OR

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[Guest guest]

Hi Jodi,

On our inpatient rehab unit and also in our skilled nursing division, our

productivity expectations are the same for all therapy disciplines, 75%

productivity. While productivity is a challenge for all, it is even more so

with SLP as they are service based and we base our productivity on billed units

of service (15 minutes each). Accounting for the treatment session length

rather than units, SLP tends to run closer to 65% productivity. On the

inpatient rehab unit in particular, treatment sessions are usually 1 hour in

length, which has the benefit of helping SLP reach their target.

Kari V. Voll, OTR/L, Rehab Manager

Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk VA

>

> We are a post acute care facility with acute inpatient rehab and skilled

nursing beds. We share speech therapists across these two levels of care. The

documentation is the same in both environments (Cerner based product) and I am

wondering if anyone in either of these two levels of care find that speech

productivity tends to be lower than that of OT and PT due to the nature of the

types of services they provide. We find that the shorter the treatment session

the less efficient the staff is and speech therapy sessions tend to be closer to

30 to 45 min in length. I would like to benchmark with you to find out what the

expectations are in your environment and are they different for speech then they

are for PT/OT.

> Thank you in advance for your response.

> Jodi Weigand

>

[Guest guest]

I'm not currently working in Inpatient, but I know a lot of inpatient facilities

do give SLP a little extra leeway on productivity, vs. PT and OT. As an SLP

myself, I have found that if I have to address both oral feeding/swallowing as

well as communication issues, there is no way to do a " quickie " eval or even a

treatment. Bear in mind that the SLPs caseload is nearly 100% neuro, so they

are dealing with extra family issues, adjustment to disability issues, discharge

planning issues, not to mention the difficulty neuro patients may have with

attention, switching tasks, etc. If we're working on communication, the SLP

can't just walk in the room and get right down to business. She has to set up

the environment for successful communication before she can really get into the

meat of her treatment. Not that PT and OT don't face these same challenges with

these type patients, but presumably their caseload wouldn't be comprised of just

those difficult ones that take extra time.

In my dept. in the Home Health setting, I would expect an eval with a neuro

patient to take 45-55 minutes for PT or OT, and 50-60 min. for ST. But a PT or

OT eval for an uncomplicated total knee could be 35-45 min. Routine visits for

ST are generally 45-60 min., where PT and OT average about 40-50.

Betsy Van Markwyk, M.A., CCC-SLP

Rehab Manager/Speech-Language Pathologist

Parkview Home Health & Hospice

betsy.vanmarkwyk@...

From: PTManager [mailto:PTManager ] On Behalf Of

kvvot70

Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 17:38

To: PTManager

Subject: Re: Speech therapy productivity - inpatient

Hi Jodi,

On our inpatient rehab unit and also in our skilled nursing division, our

productivity expectations are the same for all therapy disciplines, 75%

productivity. While productivity is a challenge for all, it is even more so with

SLP as they are service based and we base our productivity on billed units of

service (15 minutes each). Accounting for the treatment session length rather

than units, SLP tends to run closer to 65% productivity. On the inpatient rehab

unit in particular, treatment sessions are usually 1 hour in length, which has

the benefit of helping SLP reach their target.

Kari V. Voll, OTR/L, Rehab Manager

Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk VA

>

> We are a post acute care facility with acute inpatient rehab and skilled

nursing beds. We share speech therapists across these two levels of care. The

documentation is the same in both environments (Cerner based product) and I am

wondering if anyone in either of these two levels of care find that speech

productivity tends to be lower than that of OT and PT due to the nature of the

types of services they provide. We find that the shorter the treatment session

the less efficient the staff is and speech therapy sessions tend to be closer to

30 to 45 min in length. I would like to benchmark with you to find out what the

expectations are in your environment and are they different for speech then they

are for PT/OT.

> Thank you in advance for your response.

> Jodi Weigand

>