R. Cockerill et al., INTEREST AMONG OCCUPATIONAL-THERAPY MANAGERS IN MEASURING WORKLOAD FOR CASE COSTING, The American journal of occupational therapy, 50(6), 1996, pp. 447-451
Objectives. Interest in costing health rare delivery on an individual
ease basis has increased in recent years as concern with overall healt
h rare costs has heightened Costing exercises have been largely orient
ed around medical classification systems. Measures to incorporate the
contributions of allied health activities such as occupational therapy
are relatively recent. The objective of this study was to examine the
attitudes and opinions of senior occupational therapy managers toward
workload measurement on the basis of case mix. Method. A survey was s
ent to all 198 senior occupational therapy managers in accredited Cana
dian facilities, which was completed by 182 respondents for a response
rate of 92%. The questionnaire asked about workload measurement syste
m(s) currently used satisfaction with the system(s), and needs and exp
ectations of workload load systems in general. Results. The majority o
f respondents were using a time recording workload measurement system
and expressed relatively low levels of satisfaction with it. Current s
ystems were unable to provide costing data, which respondents ranked a
s very important for themselves as managers. The majority of responden
ts believed that it would be useful or very useful to be able to cost
occupational therapy services by a diagnostic grouping system and to e
stablish standard protocols per diagnosis, standard times per procedur
e per institution, and standard times per procedure for the profession
. Conclusion. There is support for developing or expanding current met
hods of measuring workload Senior occupational therapy managers would
like to be able to predict their workload prospectively, a step that w
ill accommodate the move toward case costing and program management.