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Next Reply: Re:FTE's per number of consults
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Post FTE's per number of consults
Author: CynthiaWagner
Date: Oct 25, 2007 1:52 pm
Can some other hospital with CONSULTING service (not inpatient unit) please answer the question.....

1. How many consults do you receive per month.
2. How many FTE's do you have dedicated to your PC consulting service? (detail if possible: physicians, NP's RN's, SW, etc

Dos anyone out there know of any "benchmarks" for staffing a consulting service?
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
Re:FTE's per number of consults (by lhspragens on 10/25/2007)
Cynthia, I am a consultant working with CAPC and collect a lot of info on this. There is a lot of variation in staffing and consult team model at this point. However, as a rough approximation, programs with adequate staffing are often seeing between 1 new referral per staffed bed and 2 new referrals per staffed bed per year. For example, a 200 bed hospital might have 200-400 new referrals per year. We urge at least one dedicated fte from the beginning, and staffing as consistent with the National Consensus Project as possible. As a rough estimate, programs with 350+ new referrals have or need between 1.5 and 2 provider ftes, plus help from other team members. This includes some leadership time. If you want to discuss this further and participate in a survey on staffing, email me at Lynn@LSpragens.com
Re:FTE's per number of consults (by rmaunder on 10/26/2007)
Cynthia: We have been going since March with our inpatient consult service and are averaging about 60 referrals per month at a 350-bed hospital, with full consults happening in about 2/3 of those (that's right in Lynne's ballpark of between 1 and 2 consults per bed per year). We have 1.6 RN's, 1 SW, and 0.6 physicians dedicated to the service, although the the RN's and SW devote about 5-10% of their time to outpatient follow-up calls and visits. The docs doing this are in fact devoting closer to 100% time during their weeks on service, and we are staffing up to that level in 2008. We are structured administratively and budgetarily through the hospice, not the hospital. -- Dick Maunder (Providence Health & Services, Portland, OR).

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