Statistical analysis of productivity in one physical therapy department

The purposes of this retrospective study were to document productivity-relevant measurements, describe the relationships between these measurements, and discuss the implications of the relationships in one physical therapy department. The department's inputs (clinician and staff hours worked), outputs (patient visits, patient procedures, hours charged, and dollars charged), and productivity (staff utilization, financially productive time, and dollars charged per staff hours worked) were monitored. Pearson product-moment correlations, partial correlations, and linear regression statistics were calculated to determine the relationships between the variables measured. During the 30-month period studied, average daily census of the institution decreased, clinician hours worked decreased, patient procedures and dollars charged increased, and the three productivity measures increased. The relationship between output measures and clinician hours worked was apparent only after the effects of increased productivity were controlled. Departmental outputs and productivity were independent of the institution's census. The findings provided no evidence that decisions regarding staffing should be based on institutional census.