Department of Health

Allied Health Staffing Levels For Hospital Inpatients In Victoria

The Allied Health Staffing Analysis project was undertaken in 2016 to better understand inpatient Allied Health staffing ratios in Victorian public hospitals, and to provide resources to Allied Health leaders and other health care managers to be utilised for workforce planning purposes.

Phase 1 of the project (macro staffing analysis) was undertaken by analyzing overall inpatient EFT (Equivalent Full Time) per Allied Health profession per bed, and the profile of Allied Health professions by classification in health services in 2015 (calendar year). The Allied Health staffing ratios and profile data was self-reported by hospitals.

Phase 2 of the project (casemix staffing analysis) examined Allied Health staff ratios by clinical groups (clinical unit for acute and i-SNAC for sub-acute), which was determined via Allied Health activity statistics.

Allied Health Macro Staffing Analysis – Phase 1

The Allied Health Macro Staffing Analysis document includes data for acute hospitals by hospital size and acuity, and for sub-acute hospitals by hospital size:
  • percentage of hospitals with each Allied Health therapy profession
  • proportion of each grade/classification per profession
  • average EFT per 10 beds per profession

Allied Health Casemix Staffing Analysis – Phase 2

The Allied Health Casemix Staffing Analaysis document outlines Allied Health staffing ratios for acute and sub-acute and highlights the Victorian average EFT per bed for each clinical group for the sampled hospitals.Participating hospitals received confidential hospital specific reports that provided data comparison to the averages, and detailed analysis of contributing factors to staffing differences such as hours of clinical work per episode, length of stay, and percentage of patients seen.

All Allied Health Therapy Professions (as defined by DHHS) were considered within scope for the project although benchmarking outputs were not possible for some professions because these services were not provided in the sampled Victorian hospitals. Included professions were: Art Therapy; Dietetics & Nutrition; Exercise Physiology; Music Therapy; Occupational Therapy; Orthotics; Prosthetics; Physiotherapy; Podiatry; Neuro-psychology; Clinical Psychology; Social Work; and Speech Pathology. Allied Health Assistants were also included.

Reviewed 01 February 2017

Health.vic

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