title: A productivity tool to evaluate NP practice: monitoring clinical time spent in reimbursable, patient-related activities.
abstract: Productivity measurements for nurse practitioners often record only the number of visits or the income generated by patient care. Such measurements provide useful information but do not always reflect the actual amount of time spent with patients. In addition, these numbers may not separate the travel time, administrative tasks or other duties from the actual delivery of primary care. At Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle, the staff of the Senior Health Services department participated in the development of a computerized productivity monitor, which assigns a weight to each patient visit according to time spent and then compares the total weights with actual clinical or "productive" time spent during a designated work period. The weighted visits give nurse practitioners a more accurate picture of how they spend their time and allow them to trace billing patterns. A simple software program, tied into the billing and statistics recording, provides an easy and meaningful measurement of nurse practitioner productivity, both individually and departmentally.
authors.affiliation: Swedish Hospital, Seattle.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Kearnes
mesh_terms: D004526:Efficiency; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D009731:Nursing Audit / Q000379:methods*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000379:methods; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000592:standards*; D012984:Software; D016526:Workload