DOING BUSINESS: Is Staff Hours Per Case a Reliable Labor Metric?

DOING BUSINESS

Is Staff Hours Per Case a Reliable Labor Metric?

How to best measure employee productivity in the perioperative environment

BY ARNE BROCK-UTNE, MD   |  MAY 2018



Doing Business

Staff hours per case will always be inconsistent and, as a labor benchmark, is unreliable and potentially dangerous.

DOING BUSINESS

Is Staff Hours Per Case a Reliable Labor Metric?

How to best measure employee productivity in the perioperative environment

BY ARNE BROCK-UTNE, MD   |  MAY 2018

I was driven to write this because managers/administrators get blamed for high and inconsistent staff hours per case (SH/C), when the reason for this outcome might be completely out of their control. When managers are pushed to lower SH/C they might inadvertently lower their staffing assignments to a point below what is acceptable for safe clinical care. When that happens, you will have problems ranging from sub-par patient and physician experiences— resulting in poor online reviews and lost cases—to bad clinical outcomes.

 

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