INTEREST AMONG OCCUPATIONAL-THERAPY MANAGERS IN MEASURING WORKLOAD FOR CASE COSTING

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.