Predicting social workers' expenditure of time with hospital patients

Increasing concern about productivity in hospitals led to this study of the amount of time social workers typically spend with and in behalf of hospitalized patients. Among the variables the authors studied, the patient's demographic characteristics had little explanatory power, whereas psychosocial acuity, or need for services, and the types of services delivered were the best predictors of the amount of social work time expended in the patient's behalf.