PTs and PTAs: Tell me about your caseload and setting

[dannibambi]

I'm a new grad PT and I'm curious about caseloads in different settings because I'm finding that my clinical rotation caseloads (particularly, number of evals per day) are not typical.

PTAs: How many follow-up patients do you see in a typical 8-10 hour day and what setting do you work?

PTs: How many evaluations you do on a typical day and how long are your evals? How many follow-up patients do you see per day and what setting di you work?

On my rotations in a SNF I had 2-4 evals/day, (60 minutes) in OP ortho I had 1-2 per day (40 minutes), and OP neuro I had one every few weeks and supplemented with ortho patients so I did approx. 1 eval per week (60 minutes).
Now at my new job in OP ortho I average 5 (30-60 minute) evals per 8-hour day but there are days I have had 8 or more, and our clinic director often sees 8-12 (30 minute) evals per day. I used to do hour evaluations but now the company is cutting the PTs back down to 30 minute evals including treatment.
I was wondering what is typical for other OP clinics, as well as SNF, home health, inpatient, acute rehab, etc. for PTs. Thank you so much in advance for your responses!

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[CherokeeWahine]

I work in home health. On average, I see 4-6 patients per day (6 patients if they are all routine follow-up visits, 4 if it's a mix of evals, start of care, and follow ups). In home health, anything more than 6-7 patients per day is unreasonable unless all of your patients are within 5 minutes of each other with no traffic.

There are many factors to consider for home health. If you want to know more, feel free to message me.

 

[ptbusiness]

OP ortho 1: 30 min evals throughout 8 h day (end up with about 12 evals after cancellations). Obviously, I never saw or treated those patients again since I was just an eval machine. Had to work 1-1.5 h off clock to finish all documentation.
OP ortho 2: 1-5 evals/day, 30 min each. gave me random patient treatments (1-3 patients/h) and d/c and re-evals. Had to work 0-1.5 h off clock to finish all documentation.
SNF: 1 eval/day (eval + tx about 80-90 min). Saw most patients until they were d/c. Had to work 0-15 min off clock to finish all documentation.

 

[dannibambi]

OP ortho 1: 30 min evals throughout 8 h day (end up with about 12 evals after cancellations). Obviously, I never saw or treated those patients again since I was just an eval machine. Had to work 1-1.5 h off clock to finish all documentation.
OP ortho 2: 1-5 evals/day, 30 min each. gave me random patient treatments (1-3 patients/h) and d/c and re-evals. Had to work 0-1.5 h off clock to finish all documentation.
SNF: 1 eval/day (eval + tx about 80-90 min). Saw most patients until they were d/c. Had to work 0-15 min off clock to finish all documentation.

Thanks ptbusiness! What setting did you like the most?

 

[ptbusiness]

What setting did you like the most?[/QUOTE]
I really liked SNF setting. I was very much disgusted with both OP settings since the quality of care for patients was really bad. There are clinics where PT sees 1-2 patients/h, which I believe is reasonable, but anything more than 2 patients/h does not make sense to me.
I also worked in Concentra where patient load was 4 patients/h and PTs were just copying and pasting their documentation without even looking what they were copying. They would see each patient maybe for 5 min. Again, it was just disgusting.

 

[PTtobe11]

I am a PT in a SNF setting, typically see 6-9 patients a day (anywhere from 30-90 min sessions), 1-3 evals/day (75 min evals including time for treatment).

 

[dannibambi]

What setting did you like the most?

I really liked SNF setting. I was very much disgusted with both OP settings since the quality of care for patients was really bad. There are clinics where PT sees 1-2 patients/h, which I believe is reasonable, but anything more than 2 patients/h does not make sense to me.
I also worked in Concentra where patient load was 4 patients/h and PTs were just copying and pasting their documentation without even looking what they were copying. They would see each patient maybe for 5 min. Again, it was just disgusting.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I definitely don't like seeing 4 per hour. Lately I've been double-booked more often (approx. twice per day; it would be more but thankfully I had a few cancel) and let's just say it's not my favorite thing in the world.

I am a PT in a SNF setting, typically see 6-9 patients a day (anywhere from 30-90 min sessions), 1-3 evals/day (75 min evals including time for treatment).

I think that sounds perfect, and thanks for your feedback. I'm honestly happy with an hour for evals but half an hour seems so short to me and I always end up spending approx. 45-50 minutes in the room anyways, but I'm always stressed about how quickly I need to leave the room to see the next evaluation.

 

[Azimuthal]

OP Ortho. 6-9 patients per day. Up to 2-3 evals per day during a 7.5 hour day. 1 hour evals, 45 min tx. Documentation time is built into evals and treatment time. I rotate into IP for sat coverage every 6 weeks or so.

 

[starrsgirl]

OP Ortho: 6-9 patients a day as well. Absolute maximum of 4 evals a day (60 mins), but our scheduler has to ask permission to even put on more than 3 evals. Generally we treat for 30 mins, but can extend to 45 mins at our own discretion (we just let the scheduler know when the patient finishes if we need longer treatment times). We have the flexibility to build in documentation time during the day or the next day if day gets busy.

I also work PRN in a SNF/acute rehab setting. It's a small facility, 1 eval per day at most and many days without any new evals. Generally 75 mins for eval and treat.

 

[AP191]

OP Ortho: number of patients can range from 7-13, usually 2 per hour. Patients are there for the hour. It is a slow time during January and February months, so I usually average around 8 pts a day. No max on number evals, but most I have ever gotten was 4 (60 mins each). Documentation time is not built in, so I usually have be efficient with my timing if it gets quite busy.

PRN on a few Saturdays a month at a SNF as well.

 

[Nobi77]

OP ortho, and we see a patient once every 20min (except medicare which is an hour and evals which are 40min). I work 4x10s and some days I can see as many as 20 patients. We have 1 hr doc time built in, but it's no enough most of the time. I come home with 1.5-2hrs worth of notes every night and I'm just so tired by the end of the week.
I've been thinking about sticking it out for 1 more year and then switching to a SNF where I can hopefully have a smaller caseload and have more time with my patients.

Anybody out there have any "need to knows" about working in a SNF?

 

[Azimuthal]

OP ortho, and we see a patient once every 20min (except medicare which is an hour and evals which are 40min). I work 4x10s and some days I can see as many as 20 patients. We have 1 hr doc time built in, but it's no enough most of the time. I come home with 1.5-2hrs worth of notes every night and I'm just so tired by the end of the week.
I've been thinking about sticking it out for 1 more year and then switching to a SNF where I can hopefully have a smaller caseload and have more time with my patients.

Anybody out there have any "need to knows" about working in a SNF?

SNF just experienced a bunch of layoffs as the industry adjusts to PDPM. It should rebalance itself soon. I would be mindful of working for a SNF that laid off their staff before their first reimbursement under PDPM with the justification of “lower reimbursements.” They were most likely mismanaging RUG for increased returns and demanding questionable productivity of their staff.

 

[ya1]

OP ortho, and we see a patient once every 20min (except medicare which is an hour and evals which are 40min). I work 4x10s and some days I can see as many as 20 patients. We have 1 hr doc time built in, but it's no enough most of the time. I come home with 1.5-2hrs worth of notes every night and I'm just so tired by the end of the week.
I've been thinking about sticking it out for 1 more year and then switching to a SNF where I can hopefully have a smaller caseload and have more time with my patients.

Anybody out there have any "need to knows" about working in a SNF?

That's what I did: switched from outpatient to SNF 1 year ago and have been stress-free and happy ever since. No one has been laid off and nothing unethical has been done since PDPM started. Sometimes I stay off clock maybe for 10-15 min to finish my notes, but not every day.
I am not sure why you want to continue slaving in outpatient for another year? It's clearly draining you.

 

[Nobi77]

That's what I did: switched from outpatient to SNF 1 year ago and have been stress-free and happy ever since. No one has been laid off and nothing unethical has been done since PDPM started. Sometimes I stay off clock maybe for 10-15 min to finish my notes, but not every day.
I am not sure why you want to continue slaving in outpatient for another year? It's clearly draining you.

I am a new grad, and I feel like it will look really bad if I am only at my first job for a few months. I don't mind working hard, I just feel like I can't keep good track/take good care of that many people at once.

 

[Nobi77]

SNF just experienced a bunch of layoffs as the industry adjusts to PDPM. It should rebalance itself soon. I would be mindful of working for a SNF that laid off their staff before their first reimbursement under PDPM with the justification of “lower reimbursements.” They were most likely mismanaging RUG for increased returns and demanding questionable productivity of their staff.

Thank you, that is good to know. How would I go about finding out if the company had a huge layoff before their first reimbursement?

 

[ya1]

I am a new grad, and I feel like it will look really bad if I am only at my first job for a few months. I don't mind working hard, I just feel like I can't keep good track/take good care of that many people at once.

I quit OP in 3 months. I had maybe 10-ish interviews while still working in OP, and none of them asked me why I was looking for another job.

 

[Azimuthal]

Thank you, that is good to know. How would I go about finding out if the company had a huge layoff before their first reimbursement?

Asking during interviews is your best bet.