I currently am working full time in a home health agency and they are going nuts about productivity. they started out by saying that they wanted us to meet national standards and then said that it was not national standards, just what we need to do financially.  Most of us are feeling that the expectations are unrealistic.  They want us seeing 5 pts in an 8 hour day.  A lot of us are traveling for nearly 2 hours, it doesn't allow for much time to document (we use Palmwyse), make calls to doctors and case conference with other staff.  I'd love to know what other agencies are doing.

 

Kristen

Hi Kristen

I am also working full time in Home care in Delaware.  I've been in home care for 31 yrs. now.  20 yrs. in MA. I've seen alot of changes in those yrs. but find that working in home care now is harder than ever. Productivity is a huge issure here as well. They would like us to see 6 patients a day but after alot of complaining, have agreed to 28 visits a week. I used to comfortably see 6 to 7 patients a day and get all my paperwork done before the laptop. Since the laptop, I can hardly see 5 patients a day. To top it off, I have a PTA working with me that has made my day longer at times due to the discussions and supervisory visits needed. I usually travel about 90 min. a day.  It is city driving with alot of stop signs, lights and traffic. Our annual raise is based on productivity as well as other professional standards. Right now we have no Rehab. Supervisor so our pleas are going nowhere. I do believe the national standards are important to agencies for reimbursement , but if they don't take care of the people who are caring for the patients , they will lose us all.

Rosalind

Hi Kristen,

      I have worked as a PT for 16 years.  Always on the side in home health PRN.  Currently fulltime the past 4 years.  The average caseload in HH for a PT is 4 to 6 pts a day.  It depends upon how far one travels and if have an eval  to perform.  Always productivity requests are demeaning and WRONG.  A non therapist upper management personel has absolutely no idea what we do. I agree, since we have gone to the laptop, I spend hours inputting data.  I am not a typist.  In hospitals and outpt places I have worked, we used dictation which significantly speeded up the paper trail.  Until HH figures out that is the quickest way we can be more productive, they just will have to pay me to hunt and peck.  I feel ultimately it is up to us to set our schedule.  I am a productive employee, but also a reasonable commen sense man.  I do a good days work, for a fair days pay.  Some days I am busier than others, have meetings etc.  But my company has never pushed us therapists to increase productivity.  They realize we are professionals. I also realize I work for a great place!  Never underestimate your worth! Russ

My office is finally starting to think about weighting visits based on evals, SOC, discharges.  They keep asking for more out of us, and then are telling us to do it faster!!!  There are very few therapists in our agency who are reaching productivity (5 per day regardless of type of visit). Unfortunately they do not consider that we have meetings and this is figured right in to our productivity.  So if I work an 8 hour day and have a 3 hour meeting and only see 3 pts, I am way behind in my productivity.  I'm happy to have found this place to discuss home health issues.

 

Kristen 

I work as a home health PTA in west virginia.  i am a full-time, per diem employee.  so, the more productivity, the more $$ i make.  my quota is 6 per day, or average of 30 per week.  i get fussed at some when i don't meet the quota, but i can only do so much with the driving i do.  the company is not too bad at complaining about my work.  i drive anyplace they want with no complaint, and i guess they appreciate that.  i usually see an average of 28 per week.  the PT's i work with usually do the same.  we still do paperwork and have not started the electronic style yet.  the PT's stop at 30 per week max normally.  i guess i am not aware what the national standard is?

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becs, bs, pta

That is a lot of pressure. You should try an online documentation system like WebPT.com. That will allow you to visit more patients since you will be documenting less. It's web-based so you can take your laptop with you and breeze through the documentation. Perfect for traveling PTs.