Re: Acute Care Productivity Benchmarks

March 28, 2012

Hi ,

I would recommend you go online to the CSM website and download the Power point

from that lecture.

I was there in that same afternoon lecture and recall that the last few slides

offered many resources.

The bottom line is that change is coming, and your biggest challenge will be

managing your staff in a sensitive way to adapt.

E. Lynn MS PT

Director of Rehabilitation

Marlton Rehabilitation Hospital

92 Brick Rd.

Marlton, NJ 08055

ext 4204

From: PTManager [mailto:PTManager ] On Behalf Of

Mike Hampton

Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 12:15 PM

To: ptmanager

Subject: Acute Care Productivity Benchmarks

Good day all,

I am in need of some productivity benchmarks for acute care therapy services

(PT and OT). We are having conversations with our executive team as to what is

reasonable as we build our budgets. In our organization, productivity is purely

based on billable units during hours worked. I know that the majority of

patients on acute care are paid via DRG and we are not really " billing " out

services in those cases. However, our reality is that this is how our measure of

volume/productivity is measured. When I attended CSM this past February, there

was a speaker who stated that the benchmark average for acute care productivity

is around 65% meaning that in an 8 hour day, the average is 20 to 21 units

billed. Again, I realize there is a large amount of what I would consider

" productive " time spent in case management, discharge planning etc, but our

system does not capture this time as productive. It only reflects billable CPT

code volume. If anyone has any

data, references etc. that they could point me to I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Mike Hampton PT, MPT

Manager-Rehab Therapies

PeaceHealth St. ph Medical Center

Bellingham, WA

March 29, 2012

Mike,

Our current productivity expectation in inpatient acute is between 60 and 65%

billable time.

Aside from that and from 's email below, the other task for not just us but

almost anyone who provides care in inpatient environments nowadays, is to

identify what VALUE we bring. If you are in an environment where most care is

paid via case rates, such as DRGs (many commercial insurers now pay via DRG in

Kansas City for inpatient acute), then likely the best indicator of value is

what you do to aid and speed up discharge while at the same time reducing

readmission risk. If we as PTs (and OT and SLP) begin speaking in those terms

then we'll be speaking the language of executives who have to be concerned about

the entire institution and its viability.

Just this week I ran across a great research article that I believe helps

establish that value for PT in relation to the acute inpatient management of

total hip and knee patients. The article is titled, " Effect of Immediate

Postoperative Physical Therapy on Length of Stay for Total Joint Arthroplasty

Patients " by Chen, , Heyl and Klatt in The Journal of Arthroplasty, March

5, 2012. The link to the abstract is here ==>

http://www.arthroplastyjournal.org/article/S0883-5403(12)00029-0/abstract. If

your hospital has a medical library I assume they can get you the full text

article (that's what I did).

This quote from their discussion could serve us well, " The main strength of this

study is that it isolates the single factor of rehabilitation in the immediate

postoperative period as a method of decreasing LOS. " That's like red meat to a

hospital executive.

Mark Dwyer, PT, MHA

Director of Rehabilitation Services

Olathe Medical Center

Olathe, Kansas

markdwyer87@...