An instrument to assess staff time utilization in a community mental health center

The Daily Staff Log is an empirically refined instrument to assess staff hours spent in direct patient and collateral contact, clinical backup time, consultation, education, and administration. Its primary uses as a management tool include description of staff activities, comparisons by discipline or clinic, pre- and postcomparisons following administrative policy change, and cost-effectiveness studies. Conditions for successful use include a firmly committed administrative interest, in-service education on the value of log data for decisionmaking to improve delivery of care, and positive feedback when logs indicate service goals are being met. Following the introduction of logging it was possible to document improvements in clinical and financial efficiency.